Like Birkenstocks, fanny packs, Justin Bieber, and the Backstreet Boys, the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” made an excellent comeback, on Apr. 14 and 15. It is easy to see why fanny packs and Justin Bieber made a comeback, but Putnam’s revival has a more complicated backstory.
Sophomore actress Emily Woodward-Shaw said, “We are honored to be presenting the show again at the National Thespian Society in… Lincoln, Nebraska over summer. We’re doing it as sort-of a fundraiser.” Woodward-Shaw played the part of speller Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre.
From performing the musical again at school, the theatre company hopes to raise the money needed to compete at nationals. It costs approximately $1300 to send just one person to nationals and they are planning on sending 15 people to Nebraska.
“We’re coming back from a competition season where we swept the other schools with this musical and we want[ed] to showcase that,” shared sophomore Lizzy Jensen, who starred in the musical as Olive Ostrovsky.
“Doing the show again, and doing all the rehearsal schedules and stuff like that, it has really helped us bond even more which makes stronger relationships on and off stage which makes the audience feel more involved,” shared Woodward-Shaw. Performing the play again is a good way to practice for nationals and make sure they are ready to compete and hopefully win.
“We also have a couple people…at nationals who are switching roles and this gives them the opportunity to play that position in full as opposed to the one-act version,” explained Shana Marquis the Theatre Arts, Perry Theatre Company, and the CTE-Technical Theatre teacher.
“It’s been a little hard trying to put this full show back together again. For competition, we needed it to cut it down into a one-act, so we’re trying to relearn all the songs and lines that were eliminated from the competition piece,” Jensen shared. “It’s hard but we’re getting there.”
The cast hopes the audience will make a better showing this time around. “The first time we performed it here, there was a lot of confusion around school because people thought it was an actual spelling bee and didn’t want to go,” explained Woodward-Shaw. “But [this time around] we’re trying to promote it as an actual musical-comedy.”
If anything, the cast is more excited for round two than they were for the first time it was debuted. “We hope that with all the extra practice that this will revival will be better than the original!” Jensen exclaimed.