Monthly Archives: March 2017

Auditions for THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Monday and Tuesday, March 13 & 14, at 6:30pm
Callbacks by invitation only Thursday – March 16, at 6:30 PM

Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Director, Heidi Schiller
Music Director, Darin Art

Prepare an excerpt of a song, not from the show. Bring sheet music or music-only accompaniment. No a cappella auditions. Acting auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Please come prepared to list all conflicts.

Performance dates are May 19-28, 2017

ABOUT THE SHOW:
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is a hilarious tale of overachievers’ angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show’s Tony Award­winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time. Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown­ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser

THE SPELLERS:

• Chip Tolentino, (tenor) is the reigning spelling champion, relatively athletic and social.
• Logainne Schwartzandgrubennier, (soprano) younger than most bee participants, is driven by internal and external pressure – but above all by a desire to win to make her two fathers proud.
• Leaf Coneybear, (bari-tenor) as a 2nd alternate, never expected to compete. Home-schooled, everything about this public bee is an adventure to him. Leaf doesn’t expect to win, but he finds absolutely everything incredibly amusing. His mother made him wear his protective helmet.
• William Barfee, (tenor) has a host of health problem and a lot to prove. He is the fat kid who became a bully to avoid being picked on, so friendship takes him by surprise.
• Marcy Park, (soprano/mezzo-soprano) is the ultimate over-achiever because she has never been given another option. A parochial school student, she knows she can beat the local competition..
• Olive Ostrovsky, (soprano) is a word lover. An only child with often-absent parents, Olive fills her rime reading the dictionary because the words bring her comfort. She starts enormously shy, and shyly blossoms over the course of the bee.

THE ADULTS:

• Rona Lisa Perretti, (soprano) Putnam’s long-time spelling bee hostess, a local realtor, and Champion of the 3rd annual Putman bee.
• Vice Principal Douglas Panch, (non-singing role) is stuck in his current job, endlessly awaiting a promotion that isn’t coming.
• Mitch Mahoney, (tenor) appears to be an odd choice as the bee’s “comfort counselor,” but it’s part of his community service assignment.