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The 10-member cast of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” which opens at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Greenwood Community Theatre, is ready to give mature audiences L-A-U-G-H-S with this PG-13 opener for the 2023 theater season. From left are: Kate Harris, Chaz Giles, Joey Plyler, Olivia Weeks, Claire Hudson, Jonah Maze, Joey McClain, Lisa Smith, Keith Jameson and Luke Christie.
An eclectic group of six middle school spellers are vying for a win, and sharing hilarious and poignant stories from their home lives, in GCT’s 2023 season opener, the PG-13 musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Clockwise, from center, are: Lisa Smith, Kate Harris, Chaz Giles, Jonah Maze, Olivia Weeks, Claire Hudson and Joey Plyler.
The 10-member cast of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” which opens at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Greenwood Community Theatre, is ready to give mature audiences L-A-U-G-H-S with this PG-13 opener for the 2023 theater season. From left are: Kate Harris, Chaz Giles, Joey Plyler, Olivia Weeks, Claire Hudson, Jonah Maze, Joey McClain, Lisa Smith, Keith Jameson and Luke Christie.
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An eclectic group of six middle school spellers are vying for a win, and sharing hilarious and poignant stories from their home lives, in GCT’s 2023 season opener, the PG-13 musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Clockwise, from center, are: Lisa Smith, Kate Harris, Chaz Giles, Jonah Maze, Olivia Weeks, Claire Hudson and Joey Plyler.
“Hilarious. Can you repeat the word, please? Can you give me its origin?”
“Hilarious. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. Its origin? Greenwood Community Theatre’s stage.”
The setting is a middle school spelling bee. This musical comedy is full of PG-13 laughs and audience participation.
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is not a real-life spelling bee, although GCT’s box office has fielded recent calls from people asking how they could compete.
The play opens at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 and is the first show of the theater’s 2023 season.
By composer and lyricist William Finn and librettist Rachel Sheinkin, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” opened on Broadway in 2005.
The GCT production runs for two consecutive weekends.
Ryan Hewitt, GCT’s artistic director and youth outreach coordinator, is directing. For this show, Hewitt is also choreographer and scenic, costume and props designer.
In the production, sixth graders are eager to win the bee for different reasons. They are coping with adolescent struggles, too.
Hewitt said an enjoyable aspect to this musical comedy is that actors bring their own twists to the characters’ idiosyncrasies and the show has improvisation.
Luke Christie joining the cast of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” gave GCT a challenge well beyond spelling.
Luke Christie’s character as a pronouncer in the bee requires sharp comedic timing and adapting to move the show along during improv bits.
“With each production, each show, it’s so different,” Hewitt said. “Each show, we will have one ‘celebrity’ speller. So far, we have confirmations from Jim Medford, Lisa Sanders and Greenwood Mayor Brandon Smith, and I’m working on three more. Plus, spellers will be picked from the audience to be in the bee.”
Christie said there “are all kinds of plans” in place for whether spellers get words right or wrong.
Chaz Giles, 28, of Greenwood, plays the role of a Boy Scout and athlete, Chip Tolentino.
“When I was in middle school, I was, to put it lightly, the complete opposite,” Giles, now a real-life middle school teacher said. “... Chip won the spelling bee the previous year, so the expectation placed on him is to win again.”
Giles said working with middle schoolers as a teacher and having this role as a middle schooler in the bee has made him “much more forgiving of my awkward, blundering self” in his adolescent years.
Giles said he loves this show and played the role of Chip in a production seven years ago. Giles also worked in improvisational dinner theater. Not breaking character on stage, Giles said, is his “theater superpower.”
Hewitt said even though this show is musical comedy, the musical numbers in it are far from easy.
“For those who are singing, some of it is a little poppy, there’s some rock ‘n’ roll-y moments to it, and a little R&B, and traditional Broadway,” Hewitt said. “... Plus, some of the vocal ranges are so, so high, and with a lot of harmony.”
While this musical doesn’t have a huge cast and splashy special effects, it is flat-out funny and endearing.
With all scenes taking place in a school gym, Hewitt said it lends itself to community theaters seeking affordable options to produce.
“It’s important we support a show like this, because we cannot feasibly do eight ‘Cinderella’s or ‘Elf’ or ‘Beauty and the Beast’ per year,” Hewitt said. “This show is just as fun and entertaining, but it costs much less to produce. This is a good step towards doing a show with a little adult humor. If you are not necessarily a musical theater person, but you enjoy comedy, you will enjoy this.”
