Story By John Mann
The Whole Backstage Theater in Guntersville wrapped up auditions for their next upcoming play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, on Sunday and has officially released the cast list for the opener of their 52nd season.
“We had an absolutely amazing turnout,” Director Kory Duquette said. “In total we had just shy of around fifty that came out to audition and we had a lot of new faces because this is such a cult favorite musical for a lot of people. Everyone tells you that casting decisions are hard but the raw talent that we had turn up this week was absolutely amazing and is a directors dream, it was definitely tough but I believe we made the correct decisions.”
Debuting on Broadway in 2005 The Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy about six contestants in a county spelling bee whose backstories and personal troubles are slowly revealed to the audience. Most prominent of the six is Olive Ostrovsky who feels neglected by her parents and was able to enter the contest without paying the entrance fee.
Taking the lead as Olive is Whole Backstage regular Josie Duquette who was most recently in the cast of the theaters production of Fiddler on the Roof as Hodel, one of main character Tevye’s seven daughters. Joining Duquette as the other five main spellers Kyven Conley also acting as the show’s choreographer, Aija Jones, Kris Hamlin, John Everett Brewer and Abbey Ware.
“I wanted to keep the cast of spellers as young as possible and I think we found the perfect group when it comes to aesthetic and the kind of voices I wanted,” Duquette said. “This is my first time directing and it happens to be one of my favorite shows. I already knew what Josie could bring to the table and the vocals from everyone were stunning to where several roles came down to just the acting side of things, there wasn’t a weak link at all.”
Unique to the Whole Backstage production of the show is the addition of a group of featured spellers not part of the original cast that were added to enhance the vocals. The four featured spellers, which includes Abbie Taylor, Cayla Allen, Ben Watts and Noah Lueker were each allowed to come up with their own character names and personality quirks.
Rounding out the cast are the adult characters led by Amanda Hollingworth as spelling bee moderator Rona Perretti, joined by Christoper K. Carter, Aidan Rhoden, Bryan White and Noah Lueker, one of the featured spellers.
The show will feature plenty of musical numbers including the titular opening number “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and two numbers by Olive about her strained relationship with her parents called “My Friend, the Dictionary” and “The I Love You Song” the latter of which Duquette is particularly fond of.
“I’ve loved this show since the beginning and one of my favorite songs from any musical is ‘The I Love You Song.” He said. ‘It’s such a powerful song and there’s no reason you won’t shed a tear; this is a funny show but it has some very emotional and heartbreaking moments. Olive’s mom left the family and her dad doesn’t really pay much attention to her but she wants their love and approval so bad. It’s unique to have such a funny and lighthearted show with so much emotion.”
Duquette will be joined by Assistant director AJ Pollard for the show, while his wife April Duquette serves as music director. Rehearsals are set to begin in early August with opening night set for October 10. More information about The Whole Backstage can be found on their website at wholebackstage.com.
