The San Luis Obispo High School Theater Company reveals their fall production: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Photo courtesy of KeyboardTEK.
Every year, the San Luis Obispo High School Theater Company starts off the year with their fall show, but this year, there’s something a bit different. Aside from the fact that the show is typically a play and this year instead a musical, it also allows the audience members to come up onto the stage and interact with the show.
“It seemed quirky and unconventional at first, but the show is actually super funny and gets into deep topics while keeping the childhood innocence,” said junior Orion Slaughter.
The plot of the show centers around a literal spelling bee, meaning that audience members are randomly selected from a list of volunteers to come up and spell a word. If they get it right, they get to stay up on stage for longer, but if they get it wrong, they will get eliminated and sung off stage. The show truly takes the immersion of the show to the next level and allows for a surreal and fantastic experience for lucky audience members.
“My personal favorite moment in the show would definitely have to be the song ‘Pandemonium’, because we get to let the audience spellers join in on the song and choreo and lead them through it!” said sophomore Scout Robles.
However, the show isn’t just a gimmicky bit, it’s still a really entertaining performance with enticing musical numbers and hilarious lines. There’s also a significant amount of improv and ad-libbing, so the show will be changing every night!
“[Ad-libbing] is definitely a challenge, but I know it’s gonna be super fun,” said senior Bailey Morgan, “It makes every show unique!”
Some members of the theater company were slightly taken aback when the show was announced. After all, the musical usually didn’t take place until the winter and spring, letting the fall show be a non-lyrical play.
“I am happy that it is a musical, but I do also miss the fall play,” said senior Jude Biggers, “I have really been wanting to do a smaller cast musical, and it’ll be fun doing two musicals because I am going into Musical Theatre in the future, but the fall play was really wonderful each year.”
This choice has an explanation though, as smaller musicals such as Spelling Bee have a very different feel to larger-scale musicals that are put on, such as last year’s “Guys and Dolls”, or “The Little Mermaid”, the year before that.
“A lot of our musicals have had around thirty to fifty people in them, and it can be hard to do something musically challenging and to do it really, really well [with that amount of people],” said theater director Noelle Eben, “So that was definitely an aspect of [our choice], to do a smaller musical where everybody can shine in it with their singing skills.”
Even with the change from the norm, the cast is quite jubilant about the production, and many hold it very dear to their hearts.
“This show is the perfect combination of multiple different kinds of humor, sincere moments, and truly heartbreaking concepts. Every single character has a purpose, and they are what make this beautiful story what it is,” said junior Sadie Badger. “There is absolutely no reason anyone should not go see this show unless they have something against catchy music, lovable characters, and hilarious comedy! Everyone in our cast is so talented, and I can’t wait to see the show we create together!”
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opens in the SLOHS theater on September 25 and will run until October 4, giving plenty of time for people to come see the unique show, and maybe even participate in it themselves.
