ksbee

Kai Shen Putnam County Spelling Bee  The production of the //Putnam County Spelling Bee// is an award winning musical comedy written by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn. The play is about six young students who compete in their regional spelling bee in the hopes of winning the contest and attaining fame and recognition. These students are all very unique in their own way, bringing quirkiness and comedy in the way they appeared, acted, and spoke. Through the character’s experiences in the spelling bee, they each learn that winning is not everything and losing can be a good thing.  Each character in the play has their unique characteristics, and their own individual way of spelling. The main host is called Rona Lisa Peretti, who won the spelling bee when she competed. She has a flashback in the beginning of the play, going back to when she won the bee. The character of Rona seems on the outside like a teenager trapped inside an adult body who longs to be her old self again. The main word reader is named Douglas Panch, who is apparently coming back from a hiatus of some sort. In the beginning, he says that, “he is in a better place,” which makes the audience think that he is almost unfit for the position. Another character is the intimidating Mitch Mahoney, who is acting as the comfort counselor as a part of his court mandated community service. The actor playing Mitch gave a good impression of a “thug.” He appeared intimidating and seemed perfect for the part. These are the organizers who run the show. Other characters are the six contestants. Leaf Coneybear is a reject that is unloved by his family, who thinks of him as a failure. Leaf did not advance by winning his local spelling bee, but rather got lucky when the first and second place finishers had to attend the same bat mitzvah. Whenever Leaf spells, he does the robot dance, with each move as one letter. In his first turn, he claims that he does not know how to spell his word, but successfully does so when in his robotic trance. Throughout the production, he carries a pet robot that he often hugs and shows off to other people. Leaf speaks in almost a squeaky voice, which became slightly irritating as the play went on. However, his character was played very well, and he gave off the impression of a shy, unconfident dork. Chip Tolentino is a baseball player who tries to charm leaf’s attractive sister, who is sitting in the audience. The first time that he is called upon to spell a word, he is embarrassed to do so because he has an erection. The actor hilariously walks up to the stage covering his erection with his hat, and spells his word using the baseball bat technique. Every time he spells a word, he pretends to be hitting a baseball. Chip seems almost unlikely to be at the spelling bee at first. He appears to be a jock interested in sports and girls, but his personality quickly reveals that he is nervous and does not know how to impress girls. William Barfee is a pompous, slightly chubby kid who is extremely confident in his abilities. He has a special way of spelling, in that he uses his foot to write the letters on the ground. His character is very outgoing, but his mannerisms make him slightly annoying. However, towards the end Will develops feelings towards Olive. He shows compassion when he is deciding whether to win it himself or let his crush win, but with Olive’s encouragement, he spells the word correctly and wins. Other characters include Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre, who has two overbearing homosexual fathers. This can be the writer’s commentary on homosexuality. The two men raise their child as if they were coaches, and give no mercy to Logainne. They expect her to win, and she very much wants to. Marcy Park, a butch transfer student who speaks six languages, always wants to win. She came in the top ten at the national spelling bee, and is full of herself. Marcy believes that winning means everything, and is pushed to succeed. However, it is revealed that she actually does not enjoy her life, and Jesus convinces her that she is in control of her own life. In a stroke of inspiration, Marcy purposely misspells the word and throws the competition. Olive Ostrovsky, a shy, quiet girl, continuously asks if her father has arrived to the bee. She represents children who are neglected by their parents and who want to be loved. These are the primary characters that are played by individual actors. However, throughout the play there are minor characters, such as Logainne’s fathers and Jesus, who are doubled by the existing cast. On interesting feature of this musical is that it brings four audience members to participate in the musical. Also, at one point Chip throws actual candy into the audience, which makes for an interactive show.  The costumes and set helped affirm each character’s personality as well as the tone for the play. The set was made to look almost like a school gymnasium, with stands and a basketball hoop in the background. The set was also very versatile, and each prop was used for a variety of things. For example, the stand used to hold the trophy was turned around half way through and used as a podium where “Jesus” stood. During the first introductory song, a banner was lowered into the set that has Putnam County Spelling Bee written on it. The props were all interactive, and the actors moved them around to represent different scenes. The costumes matched each character’s persona perfectly and reflected the modern time period that they lived in. For example, Will Barfee wore a large brown suit with golden shoes. The suit portrayed a sense of formality and projected Barfee’s ego. Also, the golden shoes highlighted his magic foot technique that he used to spell.  The lighting was used to convey mood as well as introduce changes in scenes. Whenever there was a flashback or a story was told about an individual character, the lights would dim and center on the singular character. Also, the lights changed according to the mood. They would dim when a contestant was out of the competition, and was bright and cheery when they spelled correctly. The lighting definitely helped make the production better and the messages easier conveyed.  The music in this production seemed to detract from the play. Most of the funny moments came when the actors were speaking, not singing. The songs did not help bring the messages across any easier than if the actors spoke their lines. Also, the actress who played Rona had a beautiful, but high pitched voice that tended to drown out everyone else’s. The ensemble was poor, as their pitches were slightly off the whole time. It seems as if the production could have been more enjoyable if the actors could sing better, or if there was no singing at all. Although the signing generally detracted from the musical, which is ironic, there were times when it did add comedy and set the mood. The audience cannot be disappointed as this was a low budget college level production. However, the fact that the singing in the musical was no great says a lot.  The directing in the play was very good. The actors moved around seamlessly and could be at the right times without rushing. There was movement around the stage, as well as different areas to focus attention on. On bad thing was the tempo of the play. Some parts of it felt dragged out and boring, mainly during the singing parts. The play could have been better if there was less of the spelling and more plot development.  Overall, the //Putnam County Spelling Bee// was a wonderful production that was very enjoyable. Although there are areas that could be better, it still was performed, produced, and directed wonderfully. 