The theater department will perform “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at 7 p.m. on Oct 24-27 and 2 p.m. Oct. 27 in the black box theater. Students can purchase the first theater-exclusive musical tickets for $5-10 in the cafeteria or online.
“Everybody loves musicals,” head director Chelsey Thornburg said. “They’re big, bold and wacky — this show exemplifies that in every way.”
Set in Putnam County, the musical follows middle school students competing in a spelling bee for a chance at going to Washington. The musical is humor-driven, and includes audience engagement to spell words. This will be the first time the cast is limited to just one class — theater’s Black Company.
“It’s a lot,” stage manager Grant Koch said. “There are a thousand different hoops to jump through because of how new some of this is. Everyone — actors and technicians — have to figure it out on the fly.”
This will also be the first time the department performs a musical in the black box theater instead of the auditorium. Sophomore lead Violet Caver said the close proximity makes the show more stressful.
“More eyes are on you specifically,” Caver said. “People will notice when you do something right or wrong. There’s no huge ensemble to hide behind; it’s you and the audience side by side.”
Caver said her character, Logan, has unique quirks that gave the cast a fun challenge, such as the lisp her character has.
“I used to do [the lisp] for small comedy stuff as a kid,” Caver said. “Being able to put that into the musical is challenging to do [for the whole] show, but rewarding. It’s something that I never thought I could use, but now I can.”
Two of the three past shows in the black box theater sold out, meaning over 400 people attended each play; Thornburg said that is the goal for these performances as well.
“You put a lot of work into something that really only exists in a vacuum,” Thornburg said. “There’s only so much time; if you don’t see a performance, then it’s gone. No show will ever exist the exact same again.”
