Can you spell “musical”?

This year’s musical is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It follows six students and three adults at a spelling bee in Putnam Valley Middle School. As the musical progresses, the characters gradually reveal more about themselves and learn to come out of their shells and become friends. The musical was first performed on Broadway in 2005.

Unlike previous years, this musical will be a collaboration between middle and high schoolers. Selina Y., one of the cast members in the musical, says that the middle schoolers “definitely bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm”, and the 6th grader in the cast “has an absolutely incredible voice”. However, she continues, the middle schoolers are “still at an age where they don’t quite understand collaboration and constructive criticism,” which causes a barrier in communication.

Jessalyn Y., an eighth-grader involved in the musical, is extremely excited to be included in the musical this year, saying that she has “lived [her] middle school years with no musicals” and in her final year she gets “to do some acting”. Though she is a bit nervous about doing the musical for the first time, she enjoys acting and is “very glad to have this opportunity.” Jessalyn is playing the part of Chip Tolentino, albeit a female version. According to Jessalyn, “the girl version of Chip is a jerky fangirl who is very social”.

Jenny L., who is playing Olive Ostrovsky in the musical, is very excited, saying that “this year’s musical is different from the others” that she has done previously, and that “this will be an unprecedented and very exciting musical”.

Maya T., who plays Rona Lisa Peretti, says that her “favorite part is when we get on stage without scripts and start to piece the singing, acting, dancing, and blocking together”. She also loves “how close you get with the other people in the cast” due to the hours spent rehearsing together. She believes that the most challenging part of the musical is “making sure that the whole show runs smoothly, which definitely involves studying the lines of other characters or knowing the other parts in a harmony line”. She says that everyone this year (herself included) struggled with “moving on when someone missed a line or cue, which does take some work and experience.”

The rest of the cast is as follows (all names are from the Original Broadway Production):

Christal Chen – Chorus
Julia Kim – Marcy Park
Jenny Liang – Olive Ostrovsky
Cheka McCarthy – Vice Principal Douglas Panch
Isaac Nie – William Barfée
Jami Robertson – Mitch Mahoney
Lihn Taylor – Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre
Maya Taylor – Rona Lisa Peretti
Sydney Taylor – Chorus
Jessalyn Yang – Chip Tolentino
Selina Yang – Leaf Coneybear

The musical will take place on December 5 and 6, and tickets will be free this year. Make sure to pick up your tickets at the high school office and support everyone in the musical!