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KINGSTON — A veteran of at least one real-life spelling bee, 12-year-old Rhianna Lewis, of Scranton, has this advice for would-be champs: “Don’t let the other spellers freak you out.”
Hearing that remark, her cast mates in the Tony Award-winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” dissolved into giggles — acknowledging they portray a quirky bunch, some of them quite determined to win.
Consider William Barfée, for example. He’s not above trying to intimidate the competition with his “magic foot,” which he uses to tap dance a word the way less-ostentatious spellers might trace it on their hand before spelling aloud.
“I’ve got a little dance move going on,” said Ian Wettlaufer, 19, of Ephrata, who plays Barfée in a production staged by the Performing Arts Institute at Wyoming Seminary. The show is set for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Wyoming Seminary’s Kirby Center for Creative Arts, where audience members will meet Barfée and learn about all of his afflictions.
“He has a mucous membrane disorder; he hates contact with people; he’s a big germophobe; and he’s allergic to nuts,” Wettlaufer said.
Speller Olive Ostrovsky seems more well-adjusted, but she has her own set of challenges.
“Her parents aren’t there for her,” said Maggie Dishong, 19, of Plains Township, who plays Olive and believes the character might have a little crush on the competition. “I think she sees herself in William. They’re both outcasts.”
“We all are,” chimed in several other young actors, whose characters range from an over-achiever who speaks six languages to a child who refers to herself as “not smart” — though she can successfully spell the name of just about any South American rodent the announcer throws at her.
One youth wears a Scout uniform to the bee; another brings a stuffed animal collection; a third speaks with a lisp and, well, of course she’s going to have to spell a lot of “s” words.
The lisping competitor has two moms — a change from the original script, in which she has two dads — and watches in horror as one of her parents tries to trip up Barfée’s magic foot.
The show uses humor to get the audience’s attention, artistic director Steve Pacek said. Once you’ve started to care about the characters, you see how vulnerable they all are.
The script also calls for bringing a handful of audience members onto the stage to participate in the bee, and the cast recently practiced with friends to see how that would go.
“We don’t know if they’ll spell the words right or wrong,” said cast member Tommy Walkowiak, 17, of West Wyoming, explaining that during rehearsal, a guest was asked to spell “cow,” a word everyone expected the visitor to spell correctly.
Only, he didn’t.
“He started out ‘C-A …’ Walkowiak said, and the cast had to figure out what to do on the spot.
How did they react?
Well, it is a musical, after all.
“We jumped right into a song,” Walkowiak said.
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