Almost exactly two years ago, the Department of Theatre and Music Studies at SUNY Brockport was getting ready to mount a production of the Tony Award®-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee when the production was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When a season was being planned for 2020-21 – all of which was scuttled in favor of virtual programming – the idea was to open the season with Spelling Bee. Well, that didn’t happen, either. Therefore, the department is pleased to offer the musical as its final production for the current season, opening on Friday, April 22, 7:30 p.m., in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage Theatre, 180 Holley Street, Brockport.
As the six participants in the spelling bee vie for the title, the audience is given a peek – sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching – into each of the contestants’ lives through song and dance. Do they each have their quirks? Sure. But do they all have their eye on the prize? You bet. What becomes apparent is that, for these overachievers, the bee is the one place they can both stand out and fit in at the same time. For director Ruth Childs, the heart of the show is precisely that: “taking that look back at high school, when many of us found our ‘tribe,’ found our strengths and weaknesses, experienced all our emotions, and took risks, win or lose.”
Childs is grateful for this production, which was a long time coming. One night in March 2020, the original Spelling Bee cast did a full run-though, and then dispersed for the evening, many in tears, not knowing when – or if – they would get to perform the show. Some of that cast returned for this production, but some of them have moved on post-college. “I find myself directing the show a little differently,” Childs admits. “There are different actors, with slightly different strengths, and I am directing to those strengths. But every so often – watching a bit of choreography or such – I am overcome with a strong feeling of déjà vu. And after all that we have all gone through over the past two years, the show feels more necessary than ever: more necessary to have a communal, silly, joyful, tuneful, funny night in the theatre.”
If musicals are about anything, they are about collaboration, whether it’s the cast, the production team, or the cast and the production team all working together. “The key to collaboration is finding people to work with who are just a little bit better than you are,” Childs said. “Liz [Banner, musical director] and Kristin [Dowdy, choreographer] are very talented and a delight to work with. They are creative, and come into the process not only prepared, but with a sense of curiosity, and a sense of humor.”
Summing up what she wants the audience to get out of the show, Childs confides that she “hopes that people will go home, open their dictionaries, and revel in the words contained therein.”
Performances of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will take place on April 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30, at 7:30 p.m. There is also a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, April 24, which will be ASL interpreted.
Tickets are $17/general, $12/seniors, alumni, faculty and staff, and $9/students. They are available at fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at 395-2787, or at the Tower box office. SUNY Brockport’s up-to-date COVID-19 prevention guidelines can be found at the ticketing website, the Fine Arts Series Facebook page, and at brockport.edu/coronavirus. Compliance with campus protocols is required in order to attend any performances or events.
More information about the Fine Arts Series at SUNY Brockport can be found at www.brockport.edu/academics/fine_arts or on Facebook.
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