Lael Woods
Class of 2024 alumnus Spencer Wilson (right) acts onstage alongside sophomore Cathryn Cooper (bottom center), eighth grader Finnegan Darby Bennett (top center) and junior Michael Dempsey (left) on July 20. “I played the character Golden Freddy, which was the exposition dump character of the first half of the show,” Wilson said. “But in the actual production in its entirety, I helped with getting the actors in order, I directed a little bit, and helped some of the new actors get into character. I also assisted with the choreography. I just did a bit of everything, helping out where I can.”
When Class of 2024 alumnus Spencer Wilson played Golden Freddy in an independent production of “Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF): the Musical,” he didn’t expect any substantial technical difficulties during the show. However, he was wrong.
“There were a number of technical mishaps that happened,” Wilson said. “For a good half of the musical, [the microphones] just weren’t working, so I was scrambling to fix them from breaking. But the biggest issue was the background of the show falling apart. We had massive walls made of thin plywood that bent all over the place. And during Act One, they just all started falling over. Both me and the other actors did our best to try and keep the show going through improv, but we had to take a quick break to put everything back in order. So much tape.”
However, this did not stop the show during its one-night performance on July 20 at the Oasis Ballroom in Palm Shores. Written and directed by alumna Catalina Pelli, the production involved participants of the West Shore theater program. Throughout the two-month duration of the production, students and alumni alike collaborated to make the FNAF musical a reality.
“I was so shocked that they had planned all of this on their own,” theater teacher Caroline Miller said. “They don’t always see what it takes to put on a show from the bigger picture, and they definitely pulled it off really, really well with the resources they had and the funding that they were able to get from donations and things like that. I loved the costumes. I thought the music was cool, really cool, and the story. It’s a really great story, and it’s a great way to reach audiences outside of theater. A lot of people don’t know a lot about theater, but they know a lot about gaming and FNAF, so it kind of forged those worlds together.”
The FNAF musical is based on developer Scott Cawthon’s hit game franchise, “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” Released on Aug. 8, 2014, the game revolves around a fictional pizza restaurant chain known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, owned by the Afton family. Despite its surface-level demographic towards kids, the pizzeria hides a dark secret, with a history of deaths caused by unknown circumstances. However, the game reveals what’s behind the curtain — homicidal animatronics threatening the survival of Michael Afton, the player character, from midnight to 6 a.m.
Sophomore Addie Smith, who played animatronics Ballora and Chica the Chicken, said she was involved in the production because of her “love for the video game franchise.”
“In all honesty, “FNAF: the Musical” was, and is, for the fans,” Smith said. “The fan songs were chosen for the numbers. With that in mind, some of the lore was changed for the sake of cohesiveness. Other than that, the musical was pretty accurate to the lore, and the themes of the Afton family were quite prevalent throughout the show.”
Miller said Pelli and other students involved “had a playwriting group” that met during Power Hour, which was where “they started working on the FNAF musical at that time.”
“I definitely wanted to make sure they had a space where they could practice,” Miller said. “I didn’t know a lot about “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” other than that it was like a weird game that was kind of scary. So I thought it was great that they like being creative, and it’s like it was self-motivating for them. It wasn’t something they were being forced to do or anything like that.”
Wilson said his involvement with the project began in the fall of 2023, before the official start of the production of the FNAF musical.
“During West Shore’s production of “The Little Mermaid,” one of my good friends, Catalina Pelli, had approached me to ask if I wanted to be in a little show she had written,” Wilson said. “I’ve had a long background with the series, so I was down. In between the two shows, I got casted as Golden Freddy. It was super fun, and I made a lot of good memories. After that, some time passed, and during the fall of 2024, Cat asked me again if I wanted to be in a full production. I agreed once again, and the rest was history. There wasn’t much thought put into joining; I wanted to do it because I knew it was going to be an amazing time.”
Even when the project was in production, issues with funding and rehearsal caused difficulties for both cast and crew members.
“[Catalina] was the one to write the script, direct the show, raise over $1,000 [to fund the project] and spend it out of her own pocket, as well as graciously giving up her home for rehearsals,” Smith said. “She made the whole thing happen, and if it wasn’t for her, this past summer wouldn’t have been as memorable, as joyous, as spectacular, and as FNAF as it was. Those two months were the best time I’d had in a while, all thanks to the Cat.”
Wilson said he enjoyed working with fellow graduates Juliana Johnson, Sofia Palermo and Pelli, who contributed their leadership skills and individual talents to the FNAF musical.
“Juliana was our lead painter and set designer,” Wilson said. “She did an incredible job making the stage come to life in a way that made it all too realistic. Catalina was our director, producer, and writer. She was the bones of this production. She told us what we needed to do, and she did so in a way that made it really fun as well as extremely productive. And finally, Sophia, who was our lead choreographer and assistant director. She helped in so many ways when Catalina was busy dealing with other things. Without her, there would’ve been too many stale songs and unproductive days.”
Smith said she loved “being able to spend time with the graduated seniors” and other students who shared her passion for the FNAF games and franchise.
“The cast had a whole range of people, from seventh graders to those in college,” Smith said. “Many of our graduates indulged in the musical, and it truly made it a core memory for me. Because of FNAF, I have a whole circle [of friends] that are united under the very thing that dominated our childhood, and we’ve built a community that is still active to this day.”
Wilson said the ending of the FNAF musical production was difficult, since he “didn’t want [their] little community [made possible by the project] to go away”.
“Genuinely my favorite part was getting to see people I haven’t seen in a long time,” Wilson said. “There was a part of me that was really sad that after leaving West Shore, I wouldn’t get to see many of them, but the production of this musical gave me the opportunity to see them again as well as be in an awesome production with them.”