by Courtney Winterberger
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be held this weekend in Mees Hall.
Well, not an actual spelling bee, but rather a hilarious contemporary musical which features conservatory students portraying 12-year-olds in a spelling competition.
The premise of the show is a spelling bee for middle school students. The performances will confront different aspects of teenage life including issues that come up in middle school and beyond.
“Each student brings their own talents, spelling techniques and insecurities. Twelve years old is an awkward age for anyone, and these children bring out real issues in a comical manner, making it easy and enjoyable for the audience to identify with them,” Emily Turner, a senior vocal performance major playing the part of Marcy Park, said.
“Spelling Bee is the earliest show Capital has given,” Dr. Mark Baker, director, said.
With the performance opening so early in the academic semester, Baker decided on the contemporary musical to showcase the talents of an intimate cast.
“Spelling Bee requires nearly everyone to be on stage throughout the entirety of the performance, which requires an extra level of focus from the actors, since you don’t get a chance to go off stage and reboot,” Turner said.
In addition to the actors, audience participation will be integrated in the form of guest spellers who may stay in the bee as long as they continue to spell words correctly.
“There will be six spellers and four volunteers every night, and there will be surprises for the participants,” Baker said.
“This has added an interesting twist to how we as performers prepared for the show,” Turner said. “The audience participants have no prior knowledge of what words they have to spell, or what they have to do, so we as cast members have to be ready for anything. We, on the other hand, have no idea what the audience members will say either, so the spontaneity really keeps us on our toes.”
Along with preparing for the unexpected, each actor develops his or her own character. For some the preparations weren’t a far stretch, but for others new talents had to be grasped.
“This is no stretch for me,” Emily Slider, a junior vocal performance major playing the part of Logianne Scwartzengrubeneire, said.“I’m very hyper all the time so when people who know the show found out I was in it they would immediately and correctly guess which character I was. It’s a ton of fun.”
“My character has a very demanding home life, and so has mastered a broad spectrum of skills including karate, baton twirling, piano, and several languages,” Turner said.
“I’ve had to practice these skills throughout the rehearsal process. This role has given me a great opportunity to learn things that it had never even occurred to me to attempt–now I can add juggling to my resume!”
Besides a great cast and the chance to show off one’s spelling skills, all are welcomed to the show, which will be unlike most performances.
“I think what makes this show so great is that it isn’t your typical musical,” Trent Smith, a sophomore vocal performance major who plays Doug Panch, said. “The level of humor and the plot both make this show very unique. If this is your first musical you’re going to see or your 50th I think anyone would enjoy this show.”
“Even if you haven’t been exposed to many musicals or theatrical productions, Spelling Bee is a more contemporary musical and easy to keep up with,” Turner said.
The show will be this Friday, Sept. 21 and Saturday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. in Mees Hall. Capital University students and faculty receive one free ticket with their Capital I.D. Tickets are available in the ticket office of the conservatory.
cwinterbe@capital.edu
