Conceptualized by Rachel Sheinkin and written by William Finn, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy featuring six quirky pubescents with unique backstories.
“Not all business” Marcy Park (Jessie Smith) is your typical overachiever; she has skipped both fourth and fifth grade, and, as noted in her song “I Speak Six Languages,” she is a champion rugby player, is all-American in Hockey, plays piano, and can dance, among other talents. Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre (Isa Vazquez-Janik) is the youngest competitor in the bee and a political activist on the rise. She is the head of the Gay-Straight Alliance at her elementary school and has proposed a constitutional amendment lowering the voting age to ten. William Barfée (Max Keating) is notable for his spelling technique called the “Magic Foot,” in which he writes out the words on the ground before spelling them out loud. He also suffers from various health issues, including a rare mucus membrane disorder and a deadly peanut allergy.
Olive Ostrovsky (Annie Thompson) is a timid newcomer to the bee whose best friend is a dictionary. Her parents are often absent from her life (this spelling bee is no different) as her mom is pursuing her spiritual journey in India and her dad is seemingly always at work trying to support their family. Homeschooled with his many siblings, Leaf Coneybear (Henry Bambrick) has enough ADHD that he’s practically bouncing off the walls, so much so that his mom made him wear a protective helmet to the bee. As the second runner-up from his district, Leaf doesn’t expect to spell a single word correctly, and he finds everything about himself, and the bee, amusing. Chip Tolentino (Eli Shandler) is a boy scout, baseball player, and the winner of last year’s spelling bee. He suffers from an intense superiority complex and consistently tries to impress girls in the bee.
In charge of the bee are Rona Lisa Peretti and Vice Principal Douglas Panch. Peretti (Ava Miller) is the top realtor in the state and won the 3rd Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She is now the moderator of the bee and offers witty remarks about each speller as they come up to the microphone. Panch (Riley Younger-Walker) has just returned from a five-year hiatus resulting from an incident that occurred at the 20th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He resents that they won’t let him be the principal and offers the definition and use in a sentence of each word at the bee.
Also featured in the show, besides the extraordinarily talented ensemble, are Midge Mahoney (Lydia Stavrakos), who is on probation as the comfort counselor for disqualified spellers, and three randomly selected audience members who are chosen just before each show to participate in the bee. If you would like to be one of these spellers, make sure to arrive early to increase your chances!
Watch the spellers compete for the chance to move on to the national spelling bee on Thursday 11/2 at 7pm, Friday 11/3 at 7pm, or Saturday 11/3 at 2pm and 7pm. Excitingly, this year marks the start of what Haverford Drama Club hopes to be a lasting tradition of performing a free sensory-friendly show. This is an adapted performance for people who find themselves avoiding theater because of overstimulation caused by conditions such as autism or epilepsy. Read more about this performance, which will be happening on Monday 10/30 at 7pm, from NBC10 news.
Who will win it all? Buy tickets here or in the cafeteria during lunch (for a discounted price) to find out!
