Friday 'Spelling Bee' Premiere Drawing on Districtwide Talents

Spelling bees may normally represent an area-wide conest for academics, but beginning Friday night, Parkway students will team up for a bee-themed foray into live musical comedy.

Teens from Parkway West, South, Central and North high schools open their version of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a Tony award winning musical that premiered on Broadway in 2005.

"Spelling Bee"—with music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss—pits six oddball students in competition at the fictional Putnam Valley Middle School, while three oddball adults supervise it all.

The idea for Parkway's combined production came from all four theater department heads at the high schools during a trip to a state conference.

“All four teachers always go to state conferences together, and we talked about how interesting it would be to do a combined school production,” said Parkway West Theater Department head Amie Gossett. “We thought it was a good way to highlight kids from each school.”

Certainly, the students are having a good time. “It's been really great,” said Matthew Greenbaum, a Parkway Central sophomore who plays Leaf Coneybear. “I've gotten to meet so many people I might not have met otherwise. It's great to see how other schools do it.”

“It's been really different,” Yvette Lu, a Parkway West junior, said. Lu portrays Marcy Parks. “When you're doing it at your school, everyone knows what you're going to do. It's cool to see how different schools work.” 

The actors seemed to be thrilled to be part of a show in which every character is the star of the show. The fast-paced, humorous production presents each actor with a role that is a potential tour de force, and the actors live up to the challenge.

“The show is different from normal musicals,” said Parkway South senior Matt Redmond. He plays on the adults, Douglas Panch, who gives hilarious examples of the words used in a sentence.

“As an audience member, you're always paying attention. There are no boring moments,” Redmond said.

Greenbaum concurred. “I just think that it's really, really well written. The characters are such interesting personalities. You won't have trouble knowing who is who,” he said. "There's a spot for everyone who's in the show."

All of the performers agreed that working with unfamiliar actors from their sister schools has been positive and inspiring, and rather than feel like they were all strangers, they instead came together quickly into a cohesive cast.

“The way we started off the bat working together impressed me," said Parkway North senior Kaitlyn Mayse—who plays sibilantly challenged Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre.

“To see all the unity—for all of us to just go out there and start off high. Everyone was immediately comfortable,” Mayse said. 

The remainder of the cast is filled out with Danielle Feinstien, Drew Derstein, Jake Blonstein, Courtney Fortner, Josh Byun, Jack Hogan and Sarah Vlodek.

In addition, Mariel Porcelli and Emma Stewart will step into roles on Sat., Aug. 13. Mariel Porcelli will also perform in the musical Sat., Aug. 20. 

The 25th Annual Spelling Bee of Putnam County opens tonight, Fri., Aug. 12-13 at Parkway South. Performances continue the following week beginning on Fri., Aug. 19 - 20 at Parkway North. All performances begin at 7:30pm. Tickets on sale at the door.