Several Boston College students star in the upcoming musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

The Contemporary Theatre group of Boston College is currently rehearsing for the musical entitled The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which will be performed October 29-31.

Directed by senior Juergen Kloo, the musical’s cast includes nine Boston College students, ranging from freshman to seniors. The show is completely student directed and produced, and features music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachael Sheinkin, wonderful choreography, and hilarious comedy.

“There’s no department help at all, it’s all students-from the actors to the stage managers to the design team,” Kloo said.

The show focuses on a spelling bee at Putnam Valley Middle School. Six fifth graders, all equally nerdy and quirky, show off their spelling talents and compete to win the bee.

Vice Principal Doug Panch is played by senior Joe Mahar. Sophomore Cynthia Beckwith and senior Dan Fabrizio play spelling bee contestants Olive Ostrousky and William Barfée, respectively.

However, the show also begs for audience participation. Unlike most musicals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee selects several audience members to come up on stage and compete in the bee. Therefore, this calls for quite a deal of improvisation from the actors.

“So much of the comedy is improv,” says sophomore Allison Russel. Russel plays the role of Rona Lisa Peretti, a middle-aged woman from Putnam County, and previous winner of the bee, who acts as moderator for the contest.

Joining Russel is BC theatrical veteran Pat Conally. Conally plays the role of Mitch Mahoney, a security guard in charge of escorting spelling bee losers off stage. The junior has already starred in five productions here at BC, and is anticipating another great success.

“The music in this show is just unbelievable. (William) Finn is a great composer,” Conally stated. “But I think the audience will also get a kick out of their participation in the production. Our performance feeds off them in a really direct way.”

About four audience members are called on stage and are thrown into the world of Putnam County. They become fifth graders vying for the same trophy as the actors, and are asked to spell words, some easy and some absolutely impossible. However, at many times, the cast distracts the audience members through hysterical songs and dances.

This unique aspect of the musical requires a great deal of concentration and quickness from the actors.

“It is so hard to not laugh when some of the improvisation lines are said,” added Allison.

According to the director, Boston College is the first school in Massachusetts to perform the musical, and also the first school to perform it in a thrust theater.

“The rights to perform the show just became available in August, so I jumped on the opportunity” Juergen explained. “I really wanted Contemporary Theater to do something funny this year.”

Although Kloo has been involved with the Boston College theater department in the past, this is his first production that he is directing here at BC.

The show will be presented with a full orchestra accompaniment on October 29-31 in the Bonn Studio, the black-box stage located within the Robsham Theater Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased through the Robsham Theater ticket office.

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