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WESTSIDE MEDIA GROUP: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee hits the stage Thursday
Musical makes audience part of the show
September 24, 2014
Thursday, Sept. 25, the Westside student play opens. The play is called “The 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and runs from Thursday through Sunday.
“It’s a spelling bee where six kids, probably middle school level, compete to become the Putnam County spelling bee champion and move on to nationals,” actor senior Connor O’Doherty said. “And essentially everyone has their own quirky personalities; they’re all freaks.”
However, the Putnam County Spelling Bee isn’t your average musical. A large part of the play is the audience participation.
“Each night we take four people and bring them on stage to spell the words,” O’Doherty said. “Then we sing at them, and interact with them.”
The audience participation can change the play dramatically. The actors have to react to how the audience spells, whether they get the word right or not.
“We talk to them in our character, and can never break character,” O’Doherty said. “If they get the word wrong, we sing them a song, called goodbye, and if they get it right we celebrate with them. Well, some characters don’t celebrate because they are very ambitious.”
The play is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Sunday showing is a matinee at 2 p.m. The play is at Westside High School. Adult tickets will be $10, and student tickets will be $6. For more information go to warriortheatre.org.