Stage Door Presents “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”
The Stage Door is pleased to present its final show of the 2022 theater season. The closing production is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The spelling bee will take place on stage at The Electric Theater Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from September 22 to October 16.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was written by Rachel Sheinkin with music and lyrics by William Finn. It was conceived by Rebecca Feldman, and contains additional material by Jay Reiss. This show was originally directed on Broadway by James Lipine. The musical earned six Tony award nominations including Best Score and Best Book. We couldn’t be more excited to bring this musical creation to you.
Our production is directed by Grace Wells. Grace has been active in the theater community for over a decade. She has brought many iconic roles to the stage including Paulette in Legally Blonde, Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and Tracy in Hairspray. Joining Grace’s team are McKenzie Morgan as Choreographer, Celeste Dixon as Music Director, and Kristen McPhie as Stage Manager. This quartet of talented women have been hard at work creating a beautiful show.
This show boasts an impressive cast, including alumni of The Stage Door and newcomers alike. Returning performers include Tony Piersanti, Coy Andrew Shinn, Jr., Clif Oram, Gwendolyn Scott, Jamie Cook and Madison David. We welcome to our stage the lovely and talented Anna Beck, Christhian Roa, and James David. They have all been hard at work, singing and dancing their hearts out for the past month to bring us something we can all delight in.
The premise of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is that numerous students from across Putnam County, of various ages, are competing to win first place and a chance to go to the national spelling bee. The audience gets to see the internal monologues of these performers and the different things that lead them to the bee. Laughter abounds as the tweens candidly disclose hilarious and touching stories from their home lives. Music Theatre International gives this riotous ride a rating of PG-13. It should definitely be on your list of shows not to miss this season. Comedic and heartwarming, there is something in this show for everyone. Join us as we watch six adorably awkward spelling champions discover that winning (or not) isn’t everything.
Spelling Bee is the final production of a season that was designed to remind us not to forget that there’s more to someone than meets the eye. Hopefully, as people watch this show, they are able to see beyond the outward appearance of the characters and realize that within each of us there is more than meets the eye.
The Stage Door recently announced its 2023 season on September 1st. The 2023 Season is going to be nothing but a good time. It will open with the rock epic, Rock of Ages, which will be
directed by our board member, Venny Carranza. When paired with the musical talents of Alice Ericksen, and the light design of Joshua Scott, you get a team that wants to rock. This show will run in March, instead of our usual February time slot.
We will follow it with the magical production of The Wizard of Oz. This will be directed by our fabulous Brianna Rosia. This show will be similar to Suessical was, in that it will have a cast of both children leads and their mentor leads of the same role. It was a great learning experience to pioneer this process this summer. We are excited to take all that we learned and implement it into our second child/mentor show.
The summer comedy play is written by the great Steve Martin. It is called Picasso at the Lapine Agile. This will be directed by Kelly Thomas, a theatre teacher at Pine View High School. Kelly chose this play to go in line with our mission of exposing Southern Utah audiences to art they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to see.
Joshua Scott will direct our final musical of the season. The Monty Python’s Spamalot is another PG-13 musical comedy meant to entertain and enlighten. Having previously directed it at the former Dixie State University, Josh is excited to bring this back to another local stage. It was our most requested play of the season, and we anticipate it will bring out a lot of your favorite male performers to audition.
The Stage Door will have a fifth show in the 2023 Season. This will be another comedic play called A Tuna Christmas. Tuna is a fictional town in Texas and the authors Ed Howard, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears have designed it to be full of comedic characters. This two man show contains 22 different characters, both male and female. It is hilarity on stage, and we can’t wait for you to be a part of it.
Whether you join us this season or next, we hope you get the chance to see something you haven’t seen before, to laugh with your whole being, and to be inspired in your heart.
Visit www.thestagedoortheater.com for tickets and more!
