Brought to life from the College of Visual and Performing Arts: spelling, singing, and self-discovery take center stage with comedic relief sprinkled throughout the musical.
By Caroline Smith
Staff Writer
From the stage to our in-house theater, the Tony Award-winning musical comedy, created by Rebecca Feldman, with the music and lyrics by William Finn, and a book written by Rachel Sheinkin is brought to life through the actors and actresses right here in our school community.
The musical follows six misfit pre-teenagers contestants for the championship title in a spelling bee and shares their backstories along the way and five adults in the gym of Putnam Valley Middle School.
The tone of the musical is fast-paced, witty, and includes heartfelt themes through the portrayal of adolescence and coming-of-age, competition, and self-discovery. It combines comical humor and emotional depth that creatively shifts from moments of laughter and giggling to scenes where the tenderness is surprising.
Taylor Morgan, who plays Vice Principal Douglas Panch, said he’s proud of the work the actors, stage managers and designers have put into the play.
“I would like to share that everyone in this production has put a lot of work into it and nothing could have been done without every piece working together,” Morgan said. “From our stage manager to their Assistant stage managers, the actors to the director, the designers to the box office. Each of these pieces have and will allow for us to put on an absolutely phenomenal show.”
Morgan’s vice principal character is a dry and deadpan word announcer who holds a past of mystery and a specialty for weird example sentences. His past experience consists of performing in “Beauty and the Beast,” “Matilda” and “Frozen Jr.”
“At Winthrop I have performed in the One Act Festival multiple years and was a part of ‘Constellations’ and ‘Antigone.’ I have also directed ‘Almost Maine,’ my senior year of high school,” Morgan said.
Charlito “Chip” Tolentino, played by Landon Watts, is last year’s bee winner, a Boy Scout whose confidence is rattled by an unforeseen hormonal distraction. Watts has been involved in musical theatre for the past about seven years and has played lead roles in ‘Annie,’ ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast.’
Watts said he first watched this play in 7th grade and found its humor hilarious and unique.
“I remember going home and thinking this show was purely comedy, ” Watts said. “Dig deeper. Comedy in this show is surface level. Think deeper into the message and the plot behind every character. I didn’t realize that until I started working on the show and now I feel like a fool for it. So dig deeper and find the true message behind the show.”
Other characters in the play are played by student actors and actresses like Mason Hall, Lily Moore, Grayson Skidmore, Noelle Wheeler, Mattie Washburn, Connor Rothberg, Devontaye Merril, Caro Richardson, Daniel Shrank, Samuel Tillman and Patrick Fleming, among others.
The assorted members of the cast and tech crew are excited for opening day.
“I am extremely passionate about the audience participation in the show. When people come to see it they are allowed to add their name to a list outside of the theater and can be pulled on stage from that to participate in the first act of the show. I believe this is an awesome part that makes Putnam a crazy show every night and molds it into a completely unique theatre experience,” said Morgan.
Tech crew member Kya Sullivan said she is looking forward to helping with her first college theater production.
“The thing that I am most excited about this production is experiencing how Winthrop productions are different from my high school productions,” Sullivan said.
Watts said the cast members are still laughing and having a good time rehearsing all of the jokes they’ll be making on stage.
“It’s truly hilarious, the cast still isn’t getting over all the funny jokes made, but behind all that it’s a message of heart and soul,” Watts said.
Winthrop’s rendition of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be running from October 22-26, 2025. For students tickets are $10 with a Winthrop ID and counts for Cultural Event credit, and the general admission is $15.
