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Summary Of The Play 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'

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The play that I will be writing about is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The play was written by Rachel Skeinkin with music and lyrics by William Finn, conceived by Rebecaal Feldman and additional material by Jay Reiss. The original play premiered on Broadway under the direction of James Lapine and was produced by the Barrington Stage Company. The play that I attended was directed by Robert Frankenberry and was shown in the Henry Heymann Theater at the University of Pittsburgh on February 17th. They play is about multiple students in elementary school entering into a district spelling bee that, if won, would qualify them for nationals. The play uses these students to deal with deeper social issues that many children face, including …show more content…

There are many moments of discovery for the audience members to go through during the play. For example, many plot points and extra things are revealed through songs and the revelation of the inner monologues of the characters. The show seems to be commenting on many issues that young children are often have exposure to in the lives. For example, the only reason that Lauren Thomas’s character Marcy cared about winning the spelling bee is because she thought it was expected of her to be perfect. Her character was actually struggling internally with wanting to be free and less structured as opposed to studious. Jenn’s character, Logainne, was struggling to impress her high demanding parents by winning the spelling bee. One of her fathers was even willing to cheat just for her to win. Her fathers also reveal through a song that they do not accept losers in their lives. She is being forced to strive for perfection for her parents. Olive, played by Chloe Torrence, is trying to impress her father and get him to finally pay some attention to her by competing in this spelling bee. She is hurting for parental affection since her mother left them and her father became cold after that. So, after more thought, the characters all have different internal struggles that are driving their need to win the spelling …show more content…

The set design was absolutely amazing. The Heymann’s thrust stage was completely transformed into a gymnasium that a person would see in a typical elementary school. It was complete with bleachers, a basketball court, and various other things. This made the setting so realistic to the audience. It also made the audience feel that they were involved in the play. The show broke the fourth wall many times by also including audience members in the spelling bee and treating them as if they were the audience of an actual spelling bee. It was an excellent idea for Rob to have the parents all come through the audience as if they were really watching the spelling bee with everyone else there. It added to the experience to hear Logainne’s parents cheering behind me at some points. The show also made excellent use of costumes. All of the characters actually looked like elementary school children. I also liked that Mitch, played by Finesse Thompson, contrasted the bright colors of the children with her all black attire. It showed a wonderful idea that as children we are all colorful, happy, and expressive, but as we become adults our imagination and creativity dwindles. The overall style and mood of the show was quite light and a little immature at times. Even when the show was dealing with hard topics, it still found its way back to a light-hearted approach. I also appreciated the fact that the show made some social commentary on current

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