Closing the Show

Closing shows never used to be difficult for me. Usually by the time the final bows happen I'm exhausted and in desperate need to get back into some semblance of a normal routine. I would be willing to bet I posted a year ago about how hard it was for me to put Motherhood Out Loud to bed. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is also difficult for me. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and more sentimental, or if I have just had the undeniable pleasure of directing 2 great ensembles in a row. I think at the end of the day what's difficult for me is the realization that no matter how hard I try I will not get these exact same people in the exact same spot at the exact same time again. And that's what is bittersweet about theatre. The beautiful creation that happens between a cast and crew with exemplary chemistry and when the curtain falls on closing night it's time to move on. It's done. My sincere thanks to my collaborators Amy Wilkinson and Autumn Robinson. Gratitude also to my cast. I was not the easiest director to work with, I know, but know that I truly appreciate your hard work and dedication. No thanks would be complete without acknowledging my technical crew. Jud Harmon, Aly O'dell, Taia Stevens and Taylor Twitchell all worked tirelessly to bring me the exact look and sound I wanted. We all crafted something special and beautiful together. Finally thank you to our loyal patrons. Without you we would just be a group of weirdos acting like other people for 2 hours. You make what we do worth every minute. You give us your applause and we want you to know that we glean incredible amounts of pleasure and personal satisfaction from entertaining you. We hope you come see what else we can accomplish. 

Our favorite moments of the bee

Because we have a relatively small cast we have found we have an easy platform for collaboration. In working together and rehearsing different scenes we work together to come up with little nuances. As we draw to the end of our rehearsal process and eagerly wait for an audience its good time to share with one another some of our favorite moments of rehearsing. I would like to share that list with you.

Brendan Rowlands – Finding fun ways to use word sin sentences/ Watching the Coneybear dance and the Pas de Deux for the first time.

Daniel Gardner – Sexual puns/Waving my foot in people’s faces

Amy Wilkinson – The love and laughs from this thespian “family”

Peter Stone – Laughing around the piano, making new friends and dancing my butt off

Rachael Wilkinson – Speaking six languages, singing really high notes, and fake flirting with Bryson

Taia Stevens – Phil Collins and Ukuleles

Devin Blackburn – Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens… no really, being Rachael’s fan girl crush

Rebecca Warwick – Watching Jen Miller in Slo-mo

Jennifer Miller – My uncle and boyfriend being gay lovers

Megan Johnson – School girl skirts, flipping, after rehearsal food runs and being called “other Megan”

Tamara Harmon – Bouncy balls

Whether this list intrigues or confuses you the only way to fully understand all these moments will be coming to see for yourself this weekend. The show will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 pm and a Saturday Matinee at 2:30 pm at the CSI Fine Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased at the CSI box office or online www.ratplayers.com. Tickets are $10 each (online tickets have a tiny convenience fee).

The subtle undertones

After a brief hiatus from rehearsals my first full week back was a roller coaster of emotions. At first glance this musical is pretty straight forward and extremely silly. The true beauty of the script lies in the undertones. Some of the songs are meant to shock or to cause theatre goers to chuckle and guffaw. But many of the songs embody things that are not perfect in the world and in the lives of our characters. There is a depth and subtlety to the dialogue and the song lyrics that make me reflect. One of these songs tackles the issue of parents who put too much pressure on their child to succeed at everything and be perfect all the time. One is about a family dynamic in which one child, from a large family, believes he's not smart enough. Not good enough. And then there are songs that show the inside of a 12 year old mind (scary!!). The more we work through the numbers and add choreography and inflection the more I realize this script is not just to make people laugh or to poke fun at a mundane activity (sorry spelling bee champions). This show is also reflective of society, parents, and the "tween" stages. Otherwise known as puberty.

Meet the Characters

As this show is not as well-known as some other musicals I thought I would take a moment to share with our readers some of the lovable characters in the show. Our actors have provided this brief description of their character. Remember this is a very SMALL example of the awesomeness that is The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Chip Tolentino – The hardened champion

Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere – The eager to prove herself spaz

Leaf Coneybear – The home-schooled enthusiast

William Barfee – The confident introvert

Marcy Park – The misunderstood perfectionist

Olive Ostrovsky – The lonely and extremely driven optimist

Rona Perretti – The perkiest, dissatisfied-with-life realtor

Douglas Panch – The passionless administrator

Trish Mahoney – The gansta with a heart of gold

Carl Grubenierre – The hard-ass gay dad

Dan Schwartz – The supportive but pushy parent

Olive’s mom – The fruitful traveler

Jesus Christ – The Messiah

August 1, 2014 – TODAY ONLY!!! If you are reading this blog and you go to www.ratplayers.com you can get your tickets $1.00 OFF and we will WAIVE the convenience fee.

First Meeting!

One of the hardest parts after casting is waiting for the first rehearsal to begin. I personally don’t like to start rehearsals until the actors have spent a little time with their scripts. It is much more efficient to run rehearsals without a script in hand. So for the next week my wonderful cast will start to learn their lines. 

We spent some time last night singing through some songs and listening to the reference recording. One of my favorite parts in the beginning is the creative juices...the possibilities. Bouncing ideas back and forth with my direction team and actors about wigs, choreography (big lifts!!??), difficult harmonies.

I love it. Every minute of it. I cannot wait to start our first rehearsal next week.

On that note: While you are patiently waiting for the Putnam spellers to get their act together check out some great theatre this weekend!

You can see “How I Learned to Drive” By Paula Vogel directed by Jennifer Miller. The show runs July 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30pm at the Sligar Auditorium (Next to Elevation 486). Tickets are $10 and all proceeds will benefit the Crisis Center. 

Cast List

This week Amy Wilkinson, Autumn Robinson and I sat in auditions for the show. We were pleasantly surprised with the large number of talented actors who came down. Auditions can be terrifying and we felt everyone did an great job.

Then we had to figure out who to cast. I don't stress as much about casting as Tony Mannen does, but many of the actors auditioning are my friends and I care about them and their feelings so when I don't have a role for them it hurts my heart to have to tell them. This show, like others I've directed, necessitated a couple of those notifications. In a way I prefer producing large cast shows where it's easier to use everyone who auditions. But not every show has a large cast and we turned away 4 talented ladies.

I always tell kids in my classes that casting is like a big puzzle. As a director you look at who you've got auditioning and you move them around until the pieces fit into the picture you have in your mind. Sometimes it's easy to eliminate pieces because they are not quite at the level they need to be, but in this show it was not easy. That being said the direction team would like to sincerely thank everyone who auditioned and are proud to announce our cast and crew for

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tamara Harmon - Director
Amy Wilkinson - Musical Director/Olive's mom
Autumn Robinson - Choreographer
Taia Stevens - Assistant Director
Bryson Hatfield - Chip Tolentino/Olive's dad
Megan Johnson - Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere
Peter Stone - Leaf Coneybear
Daniel Gardner - William Barfee
Rachael Wilkinson - Marcy Park
Meghan Burnham - Olive Ostrovsky
Rebecca Warwick - Rona Lisa Perretti
Brendan Rowlands - Vice Principal Douglas Panch
Jennifer Miller - Ms. Mahoney
Brandon Lee - Carl Grubenierre
David Jay - Dan Schwartz
Devin Blackburn - Jesus Christ

Remember show dates are September 11, 12 and 13. at 7:30pm We will have a SATURDAY Matinee at 2:30pm. Tickets will be available online August 1, 2014.

Auditions!

We have hit the middle of the summer which means it is time again to begin preparing for our fall show. Due to scheduling conflicts Jud Harmon will not be able to direct this fall as planned. I will be filling in for him and I am very excited to see auditions tonight. 

We have decided to do The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. And I am well aware that I am eating the words I spoke shortly after Spamalot that it would be YEARS before we would do another musical. There is a bit of a back story to this decision.

We were slated to produce God of Carnage. A wonderfully smart script by Yasmina Reza. With Jud handing the project over to me I wasn't sure that the timing was right for this production and my heart wasn't really in it. I spent a month or so reading through scripts to see what spoke to me. It was a fruitless search. I read script after script and nothing fired my interest. Not because they weren't wonderful or potential scripts, more because I was looking for the same kind of feeling I had when I began preparing for Motherhood out Loud. If you are familiar with my blogging during that show you know that was a tall order as I was so passionately connected to that show. After a heart to heart with Tony Mannen he asked me to listen to the soundtrack for Putnam. I got to the song "I'm not that smart" before I went to YouTube and watched a video of the show. I loved it.  LOVED IT. I felt like the show had RAT Players written all over it. 

So what I wanted to be years between musicals became months as I announced auditions. In all honesty this is not a well known show and I wasn't sure what kind of response I would get to the audition announcement. It's a small cast, but as a director I'm always anxious about whether or not I'll be able to find actors to be in my shows. Needing actors that have to be able to sing VERY well on top of our other high standards was a little nerve wracking. However, the response I got from people who heard about auditions was incredibly encouraging. Also, right away Amy Wilkinson offered to be my Musical Director which was HUGE for me as I knew I wanted someone fantastic to collaborate with. 

There is the story. 2014 will just have to go down in our company history as the year of cheeky musicals. No, we do NOT intend to produce musicals from now on. In fact in January we will be back to our roots with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. 

In the meantime Amy and I will see auditioning hopefuls tonight and tomorrow. Casting will be done by Friday and we will tumble headlong into our fall production. Sharing our experiences as we go. :) Mark your calendars now as seating will be very limited.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

September 11, 12, & 13, 2014 (matinee will be announced after auditions)

CSI Fine Arts Center

Tam