The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a comedy that centres around six teens who must battle each other in a spelling competition while struggling to find their place in the world, and it brings the audience into the performance in a very unique way. Jaques Lamay is directing and choreographing the play at Phoenix Theatre in an effort with other creatives to bring a collaborative play to life here in Victoria.
Chiara Power, who plays Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, says that being part of the play itself was as community-based and collaborative as the performance is for the audience.
“Well, it’s not just a community event for the audience and the show,” says Power, who is also the music captain for the performance. “Because the show has so many improv aspects… the playwright and the collaborators who masterminded this production have given the actors more freedom to play around and add their own takes and make their own jokes.”
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee engages the audience by having them volunteer to participate in the spelling bee. The uniqueness inherent to every crowd ensures that the audience, as well as the actors, have an opportunity to engage with each other, while the audience is guaranteed to see something nobody but those who are present get to experience.
“Different people, different spelling abilities,” says Power. “Actors and designers and technicians have to be on the balls of our feet the whole show because we kind of take what is thrown at us. It makes a kind of fun community event because there’s a point on stage where nobody knows what is going to happen.”
While being quirky and whimsical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also navigates emotions that we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives. This poignant subtext allows the play to discuss what is normally serious in a way that we can all engage with and laugh about.
“I think it’s a real look at the necessity, as humans, to not take surface-level interaction at face value. Kids have such rich emotional lives, and adults tend to discredit the intensity of the lives kids sometimes have to live, because bad things happen to kids, too,” says Power. “So here are all these kids striving to be accepted and find their place in this world.”
The theatrical play may not be the mainstream mode of entertainment that it enjoyed prior to film or computers, but the format remains relevant. Some may see the play as being fully within the exclusive domain of fine art, however, it does remain accessible to a general audience.
“I don’t think any audience member will walk out after and not see a glimpse of themselves in at least one character, if not all of them,” says Power. “It serves as a mirror to reflect the situations and emotions that all of us navigate through our whole lives. Not only is it holding up a mirror in that sense, but also to gather together as humans face-to-face.”
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Various times and days, until Saturday, November 23
Various prices, student rush tickets $20 30 minutes before each show
Phoenix Theatre, UVic
finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/mainstage