CGLSpellingBee

Pros: 1. The costumes were well done. Because I am the costume designer in our group projects, I took particular note in the costumes of the play and I was very impressed. They did a great job in reflecting many of the character's personalities/roles in their outfits. The girl dressed in the school girl outfit was reflecting that she was a smart and ideal student and Ms. Peretti's clean polished dress gave her the appearance of being strict and following the rules. Costume changes also took place very quickly and smoothly which allowed for smooth transitions. The costumes also allowed the older aged actors to pull off portraying younger characters. 2. The comedy in the play was great. They did a good job of incorporating the audience in the show which made the humor more intimate. It was funny how they added in comments such as Lil' Wayne's recent release from jail, Sarah Palin, and Ellen Degeneres. The dialog was witty and very humorous as well. 3. I loved the fact that there was live music during the play. In the past productions that we have seen all the music was digital, but in // The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee //the addition of a live band was great. The band was on a platform so that they could easily be seen and heard by the audience. ...also The singing and dancing of black Jesus was awesome. 4. The efficiency of the play. The play was not as long and dragged out as the past two plays were. There was no intermission which kept the play brief. Although the play was much more concise, I felt that it made the play better in that the audience did not get bored. The ending was short as well but very satisfying. 5. The set of the play was also wonderful. There were plenty of banners on stage that were witty and clever. The set was easy to transform to make into new scenes such as the Taj Mahal scene where the bleachers were turned around. The special effects were good. For example the lightning. Cons: 1. I did not really like the character of Ms. Peretti. Everything about her seemed to be over exaggerated and overacted. In the scene where she pretends to accept the trophy, it seemed as though she was trying too hard to play her role. 2. There was supposed to be character development in the play but Spelling Bee lacked this. There was not enough background information on the characters to show this. The flashbacks that were seen were hard to understand in the way that they were sung. Overall I felt like they could have done a better job in showing the character growth. 3. Even though I did like how the actors engaged in the audience, I did not like how they brought random people on stage. When it was these peoples turn to speak into the microphone they just muttered and said things that really took away from the play. I felt like the absence of these characters would have allowed the play to be much more concise and focused on the actual plot. 4. I felt that it was sometimes hard to hear what the actors were saying. I often missed a line or two from the play which was very distracting in my understanding of what was going on in the action. I could hear some of the actors but with others they need to work on projecting their voices better. During much of the singing I also missed what was being said. 5. I did not like when the baseball player through candy into the audience. I saw several people ducking for cover. It was very distracting and took away from the play. I did not understand the point of throwing the candy.