LFPUTNAMCOUNTY



Lee Frye

The Good
 * 1) In my opinion, the thing that made this play a good one was the talented actors behind it. Every last individual had an impressive amount of talent singing, portraying emotion, dancing, and understanding their position in relation to others. I was particularly impressed with the young lady that faked a speech impediment for the entire play and the person on parole dressed as a bee and in charge of taking care of the eliminated spellers. He in particular brought an element of humor to the production that would not be achievable without him. From a dangerous bee armed with juice boxes to black Jesus to an amazing singer and dancer, he was a separate, necessary force that lesser talent could not have pulled off.
 * 2) It was plain to see that this production had much more money behind it than the productions I had seen in the cellar theater, namely __The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild__ and __Arabian Nights__, which is not to say these were bad plays. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee had its own “Bee Band,” candy to throw into the audience, more elaborate costumes, a larger, much more complex set, and the advantage of the lighting and sound systems of the main theater. The lighting was used to great effect to separate individuals from the group during songs and interactions with parents.
 * 3) The interaction with the audience was a certain plus to the performance. How the young baseball star “infiltrates” the audience with a box of candy that serves as a handy phallic symbol was quite unexpected. Elements of a play that are unexpected are very important to keep the audience interested. An individual who has seen many productions is most likely disinterested in a formulaic, repetitive production.
 * 4) I found the humor in the production to be a pleasant surprise. I had heard that this play was dry, long, monotonous, and boring, however the humor brought it to life. Had it not, however, the play would have been entirely lost on me. It ran throughout the production in the form of unfortunately timed arousal, dancing spelling feet, an individual on parole in charge of giving the losers a juice box and a tissue, and hilariously clever use of words. It drew to a stop when it was necessary, such as for the young girl’s issues with her father and the girl with the speech impediment’s two highly-competitve, not-easily-impressed fathers
 * 5) The costume design was quite clever and effectively made older students look enough like spelling-bee participants to pass and be believable enough so as not to interfere with the play. The young dancing speller’s costume in particular was a surprise. His outward appearance was perfect for a young one with just a little extra baby fat but his sparkling red vest underneath caught me by surprise. The outfits also effectively reflected the characters personalities and backgrounds. Most were dingy and all reflected their expectations for themselves and their parents’ expectations for them.

The Bad


 * 1) One problem with the production was the crudity of certain parts and the involuntary involvement of the audience in a negative and sexual manner was quite awkward and made much of the audience pity the poor girl in the first row who was the target of so many breast, arousal, and sexual jokes. I heard whispers around me throughout the play reflecting the same idea.
 * 2) Some of the characters were slightly awkward and their interactions were more distracting than humorous, such as the vice principal who flips out repeatedly and ends up stalking his female co-host. The female co-host’s obsession with the trophy and her former spelling-bee glory is perhaps a little juvenile in comparison with the serious backstories of the other characters.
 * 3) Although I did not have a problem with this myself, I heard much talk about how long the play was and without an intermission. In fact, during the play they talked about taking a break from the spelling bee. Some of the audience thought it was an intermission and stood up from their seats and began shuffling about. Confusion is one of the lasts things a production such as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee can afford.
 * 4) The play had a hard time maintaining momentum because of the additions of audience members who slowed the action down and added a jerky, unstable quality to the mechanics of the play. I was unsure whether the individuals were plants or not, and even that made the play a bit more of a quandary than a performance at times. One possible audience member in particular spelled a word correctly when he supposedly was not intended to, at which point the vice principal improvised and used a word intended for backup in case that happened. The use of “can I have a definition” and “can you use it in a sentence please” even on simple words was slightly frustrating and stopped the play dead in its tracks.
 * 5) Finally, the end of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was a little abrupt, although the follow-up of the characters involved was a good touch. It was a little odd to talk about such disparate people all together and some of the allusions were entirely out of left field, such as that of Ellen Degeneres’s speech lessons. All of a sudden all of their insecurities had worked to their advantages and everything was fantastic.

Overall: I enjoyed the play much more than I expected to.