Turners Falls High School Theater will stage the edgy musical comedy “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” on Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23. The three-show run opens Friday at 7 p.m., followed by Saturday performances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The award-winning musical is known for its PG-13 humor and audience involvement. This musical features an all-high-school cast playing a group of six tween spellers with unique and competitive personalities, all vying to be the best of them all.
The story takes place on the spelling bee stage inside the Putnam Valley Middle School gym, with the main cast of characters being the spellers, Chip Tolentino (Khalifa Seck), Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Noah Shipley-Aja), Leaf Coneybear (Lynx Petraccia), William Barfee (Michael Waite), Marcy Park (Markie Vachula-Curtis) and Olive Ostrovsky (Ella Argy), who each come to the competition to win. While the goal is to hoist the trophy at the end of the spelling bee, the competitors learn more than just what it’s like to win or lose, learning life lessons in between letters.
This is the second show presented by Turners Falls High School Theater this year, following the more somber “The Sound of Music” in February. Director Alyssa Comeau said this show comes at a good time with a group of “mature” and “dedicated” students who happened to fit the casting requirements of the show, and are able to handle the content of the musical as well.
Comeau, who has personal experience performing in this musical, noted that the production was financed using the theater club’s remaining funds. Since the auditions in March, the students have invested time into the show, and have come to love it, Comeau said.
“When we announced we were doing the show, they ran home, they listened to the audio that’s online, they looked up a different bunch of schools’ recordings of it, and they fell in love with it,” she said. “They loved how funny it was, how goofy it was, and they each picked a character that they fell into, and have really dove head-first into character development.”
Part of this character development, Comeau explained, is having the students connect with a young part of themselves, as the characters are elementary-aged, and some of the cast playing adults also worked in some of the character development.
Having done this show before, Comeau said she took one method from a performance she did, which was having a luncheon with students in character. She made the lunches for each of the students based on what each student likes for lunch, and she had them answer questions about their characters to help them develop their roles further.
“It’s been cool to see them rise to that challenge and go for it,” Comeau said.
Licensed as a PG-13 production, the theater group is utilizing an available alternate script to make the performance more family-friendly, keeping the humor punchy but tame.
This character development is something Shipley-Aja, a junior, said he’s been working on, saying that since his character, the youngest speller and most politically savvy Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, is one of the final spellers of the show, he’s on stage nearly the entire show. This means reacting to the other characters and situations, and showing emotion through expression and language more.
Senior Clara Guidaboni also spent some time thinking about how to portray her character, Mitch Mahoney, who is on probation and required to do volunteer work as a “comfort counselor” for the spelling bee contestants. This character, who is normally a male, is being played up as a “jersey girl,” Guidaboni explained.
“We kept a lot of the same vibes, but just kind of played around with it,” she said.
Seniors Waite and Seck say that for their two characters, they’ve played up the competitive energy between the two. Seck plays the Chip, the Boy Scout and the previous year’s arrogant spelling bee champion, who’s back for the top prize that he’ll win, “just by being locked in, quite frankly.”
Waite plays William, who goes by Barfee, and he’s the isolated, allergy-ridden speller with a trick not up his sleeve, but in his shoes, as he spells by tracing the word set before him on the floor, astonishing the other spellers. This ability to make up his own path as Barfee is something Waite said has been fun for him.
Although the show doesn’t come with the same name recognition as the February show, the students hope their audiences enjoy the humor and group participation encouraged during the show.
“It’s a very funny show, so if you find something funny, you should definitely laugh,” Shipley-Aja said, “It’s good feedback for people on stage, and it makes us feel like we’re doing a good job.”
Tickets are $5 for students, seniors and staff, and $10 for adults. They can be purchased at the door or in advance at bit.ly/4uaiv6P.
