M-A Drama’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened on Thursday, May 15, and ran for one weekend. The musical focuses on six contestants who grow and connect with each other throughout the course of the competition.
The show was entirely student led and produced. “We just had us,” sophomore Joseph Tompkins, who played Barfee, said. “We directed ourselves. We got to actually build every single part of the show. We had to put a lot of work into everything, the props and songs, but also building the set and coordinating with other people.”
The musical is set in the fictional Putnam Middle School, where students compete in a regional spelling bee. Each contestant takes turns spelling the words given by the word pronouncer, sophomore Hudson Brazeal, until they misspell and are eliminated.
Contestants are also allowed to ask for the definition and the word in a sentence. Brazeal keeps this otherwise slightly monotonous routine entertaining, giving wacky sentences when asked with a deadpan face. For example, when prompted for a sentence for “cow,” his acerbic response was: “Please spell cow.”
The moderator, senior Maddie Blunt, presides over the proceedings, and Mitch, the comfort counselor, played by freshman Saachi Kaur Dhillon, consoles eliminated contestants.
At the start of the play, four audience members are also invited onstage to participate as contestants. Although they begin with easy words, they are quickly eliminated as the spelling bee intensifies and the real competition begins.
Unlike in M-A’s larger productions, the students practiced open casting in this musical, where the cast decides together who is most suited for each role.
“I really like my character,” Tompkins said. “In Hadestown, I had this very big, very serious, very evil character.” Tompkins played the antagonist, Hades, in M-A’s spring production. Barfee, on the other hand, although sometimes rude and generally withdrawn, proves to be a likable protagonist. “He’s a lot more tame. He’s also a big bully, but he’s shy and more sympathetic,” Tompkins said.
In addition to hours of rehearsal every week during class time, the cast spent their spring break assembling the set, doing everything from painting the room to crafting detailed “Putnam Middle School” decorations. Though Spelling Bee took an entire semester of work to produce, the drama students enjoyed the process.
“The class is really close,” choreographer and student director Naomi Wolosin said. “I have so much creative liberty, and we can talk about anything.”
With this production, the class has provided a creative and artistic outlet for many students. “This is what I look forward to every day,” freshman Talia Hairston said.
