CEspellingbee

//25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee//

Pros


 * 1) I found the script very witty. It kept me engaged and laughing the whole time. While it I would have liked to have seen more action take place, the mere wordplay was enough to keep me interested. A spelling bee is already such an absurd thing from an objective point of view and is perfect fodder for a good playwright. The author of this show wonderfully satirized the strange world of competitive spelling with both quirky characters and quick one-liners.
 * 2) All of the actors had great comedic timing. The show had a great pace and flow to it. There were not too many dull moments (except for the parts including audience participation) The whole cast had very unique and outrageous characters that fit well with the overall mood and tone of the show. Sometimes they bordered on overly silly, but they were always fun to watch.
 * 3) I really enjoyed the message of the play and how it was portrayed. I felt that at many times the play was making a comment on how much is expected from kids these days. All of these kids are either in elementary or middle school, and they already seem to have the stress of a high-powered CEO. Characters like Marcy Park who speaks six languages and only sleeps three hours a night seem very poignant in a society that is getting vastly more competitive, especially for children. Parents want their kids to get into good colleges, so they push them to the academic limit instead of just allowing kids to be kids and have fun, which is what they need every now and then.
 * 4) I liked all of the technical elements in the show. All of it was pretty basic, nothing dazzling or spectacular, but I thought it did its job well. The set was functional with representational. The costumes fit (stylistically) the characters well. I wish that more had been done to William Barfee to make him appear obese, but other than that, I have no complaints. I really liked the fact that a mascot was chosen for the school at which the spelling bee was taking place. I do not believe this was written into the script, but I thought it was a great addition. The platypus is a perfectly strange and awkward choice and fits into the show quite well. It was also really cool that someone made an original design for the mascot, and that design was stitched into Chip’s jersey.
 * 5) On a more serious note, I really enjoyed the dramatic scene between Olive Ostrovsky and her parents. Because most of the show was kept very light with a few jokes peppered in with even the more serious stuff, I thought that Olive’s song with her parents struck the audience particularly hard and was very effective. It was the most poignant part of the whole play and was the a section that had a real statement to make.

Cons
 * 1)  As I exited the theater, I felt that show ran kind of long, but when I looked at my watch, it had only been about an hour and a half. Then I realized why I felt this way: there was no intermission. This is no fault of the people at UGA because I believe the show is written to not have an intermission. I do not like that idea. I think that the intermission is very important for audiences to take a quick break, use the restroom, and refocus on the show.
 * 2) I did not like the fact that the script calls for pulling audience members onto stage to take part in the show. Again, this is no fault of the university but of the script itself. If I pay to see actors who have rehearsed perform a show (whether amateur or professional) I expect to see that very thing, not random audience members who do not know what they are doing. My thoughts on the subject may be stemming from the fact that the people who were called on stage the night that I attended happened to be very shy and quiet. Try as they might, the cast members could not get these people to get enthusiastic and involved in the show. The end result was a resounding feeling of awkward tension when they were called upon to participate
 * 3) While it was nice to see the location change from the gym, in a sense (just with lighting cues), the way in which the cut scenes were done was kind of awkward. Sometimes I feel like the lighting did not change drastically enough to signify a new location and a new time. Also, it was difficult to hear some characters during these for some reason. The characters in these scenes were far too over the top in these scenes for some reason, in my opinion.
 * 4) The final thing I will say about the script is that although I did find the show very funny, I felt like nothing much happened in the script as far as character development goes. The characters were not very dynamic. William Barfee did gather the courage (and social grace) to talk to and befriend Olive Ostrovsky, but other than that, I feel like most of the other characters were kind of static. Their overall role in the show seemed to be as conduits for the humor. I suppose that this was not that type of play that is supposed to go that deep, but I personally much prefer the type of show that is not all about pure fun.
 * 5) I feel like in this show there was a strong reliance on stereotypes for a lot of the humor. That can be very funny, but it can also get old very quickly, especially since the very thing that is creating the humor works because it is something that everyone has seen before. Mitch Mahoney was very funny, but he did at times come across as the “stereotypical thug.” I thought that the portrayal of Logain’s gay parents was very funny at times, and I thought Elliot did a great job of staying away from a lot of the gay stereotypes. However, Nathan sometimes stepped into that category with his postures and gait. Perhaps I am being far too picky, as this as an absurd comedy, and these actors did in that sense have a lot of leeway in making outrageous (and sometimes stereotypical) characters.