Story by Gabe Carlin
Photos courtesy of the Actors Cabaret of Eugene
Putnam County’s 25th Annual Spelling Bee began with a number of audience members participating in a spelling competition. Some were eliminated within the first round, and some stayed in until nearly intermission.
Audience participation was a great addition to the musical at the Actors Cabaret of Eugene, a dinner theater in downtown Eugene. Hilarity was added when the actual cast members would break out into a song and dance number, and the audience members were either forcibly incorporated into the dance or left idle in their seats to awkwardly watch the actors perform.
The cast is comprised of community members from Lane Community College, the University of Oregon, and from the greater community. The cast chosen fit the characters precisely. The singing wasn’t perfect at every moment, but for a good purpose: the characters of Putnam County were elementary school students. One of the characters, William Barfée (Eric Blanchard) had a strange mucus disorder. This led to a congested voice throughout the entire play, even in the musical numbers. This was a comical effect, especially when Vice Principle Doug Panch (Cameron Walker), the “Word Pronouncer,” would pronounce William’s last name “Barfee.” He was repeatedly corrected that it was supposed to be pronounced “Barfée.”
Doug Panch is a Vice Principle who was disappointed about not being elected principle. He had various outbreaks throughout the show where he would take out some of his frustration out on the spellers. When one of the spellers received the word “cow” to spell, and asked for it in a sentence, he responded with “Please, spell the word cow!”
Each speller had his or her own way to see the word before they spelled it out loud. William Barfée would use what he called his “magic foot,” and would spell out each word on the floor with his foot first, and then say it aloud. Logainne Schwatzandgrubenierre (Carly Walker) would spell each word on her forearm, and other spellers had other tricks that would help them visualize the word before they said it aloud.
The costuming was realistic and each character was outfitted to reflect their personality. Leaf Coneybear (Alexander Holmes) was very eccentric in both his personality and dress— He wore a red cape, a plain long sleeve t-shirt, and pants that were made of different colored squares of fabric. Chip Tolentino (Joe Whipple), was dressed in a Boy Scout uniform with an impressive amount of patches on his sachet. Olive Ostrovsky (Zoe Muellner) wore red overalls, yellow boots, and a red jacket with zebra stripes.
The set was simple and effective. It contained two rows of chairs on the stage, a microphone at the front of the room, and a table on the side, where Doug Panch and Rona Lisa Peretti (Laura Fries) sat and regulated the Spelling Bee. At another side table Mitch Mahoney (Miriam Major), a woman doing community service, sat and escorted the fallen spellers off the stage.
Putnam County’s 25th Annual Spelling Bee is a great production. It begins with an entertaining script, adds in great musical numbers, and is topped off with a talented cast and crew. Some moments invoked sadness in the audience, such as when the spellers are eliminated. Other moments had the audience laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the songs or the situations on the stage. This show is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good comedy.
