At the Putnam County spelling bee, you never know when it’ll be your turn at the microphone.
The high school fall spring musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” opened last night on the main stage, full of audience interaction, flying fistfulls of candy and subplots much too crazy for elementary students.
Throughout the night, many audience members met the unique personas of the show’s characters as they ran through aisles during musical numbers and came to their seats in-character during intermission. A few lucky audience members—picked at random every night—even got to participate on stage as spellers in the show.
The plot of the show follows a cast of children, each with different personalities, that compete in their elementary school spelling bee for a spot in the state competition. They’re joined by two unstable judges—including a resentful vice-principal, and a school “comfort counselor”-turned-DJ supporting the spelling bee on house arrest.
After months of hard work, the minds behind the scenes also brought all-new tech and light design to the musical. The musical is still running tonight and tomorrow Saturday, Nov. 22 in the main theater at 7:00 p.m.—and if you come see it, know the show is much more chaotic than you expect.
Lead actors, left to right standing: senior Nandu Kuttyil as Mitch Mahoney, freshman Sebastian Ramirez as Chip Tolentino, senior Valerie Younes as Rona Lisa Peretti, freshman Robert Curtis as William Barfée, sophomore Sofia Lopez as Olive Ostrovsky, Luke Rodriguez Vice Principal Douglas Panch. Left to right sitting: sophomore Andrea Gonzalez Peres as Logainne ShwartzandGrubenierre and juniors Luca Damiano as Leaf Coneybear and Rafaella Chuman as Marcy Park take their snapshot. (Photo/Adiya Mukhitdinov)
