How do you spell “bottled joy”?

BACK IN 2005, I couldn’t find a ticket for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” – the hottest Broadway show at that time – for love or money. My only chance was to arrive at the Circle in the Square two hours early and try my luck in its ticket lottery, which would provide 20 front row seats at US$20 (Bt700). It was my lucky day and my joy at landing a ticket added to the insight and entertainment I got from watching this ingenious work. And so when I heard that Bangkok Community Theatre (BCT) was planning a production, I was delighted.
“I too saw the show at Circle in the Square, my favourite Broadway theatre, and really loved it,” veteran director Michael Allman tells me.
“I chose to stage this show here because of its great characters, wonderful songs and the fact that I thought it’d fit well into the space at Creative Industries.
“I think it’s good for people who are not native speakers to know that even native speakers struggle with English,” he adds.
“We English speakers have picked up words from so many different languages and each one of those languages has its own spelling rules, so English is terribly confusing. 
“And we’ll have a lovely Thai lady Chaichan “Kathy” Kamkom, who won the Nation Junior Spelling contest in 2016, as one of our guest spellers on the opening night. After that, we’ll recruit four audience members to join the actor spellers onstage and compete with them. Perhaps her example will help other students see that they can succeed in their English studies.” 

Backstage of the contest, social and athletic boy scout Chip Tolentino and politically charged Logainne Shwartzandgrubenierre tease home schooler from a hippie family Leaf Coneybear. Photo/Sohtra Salman 

BCT’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is recommended for audiences 15 years of age and older. 
“I feel that it’s a show about kids, but not really for kids. These students are trying to learn what it takes to be a success in life; that is, what it takes to be an independent, functioning adult. They all believe that winning the spelling bee will help them achieve that ambition but they haven’t figured out quite how it will help. Even the adults in the show haven’t quite figured out how to be ‘fully-functioning’ and they still have some growing to do,” Allman explains. 
Taking advantage of the fully flexible black box space, the show will put the audience on three sides of the stage in the thrust stage configuration. 
“The contests are mostly inner battles that are resolved at the microphone. The contestants find their strengths and weaknesses at the mic and either go on to another round or are eliminated. Then there is a space for the judges, who have their own inner battles and another space for the contestants to wait, where they learn more about themselves and one another. The audience is seated on risers so it really focuses all the attention on the stage. When contestants lose they are cast out of the arena but audience members who join the contest can return to their seats of course.” 

Which kid is the best speller? No, not that one on the left. Photo/Sohtra Salman 

The book for this musical won a Tony Award and for this Bangkok production, Allman says, “We did tone down a bit of the language. You can say almost anything in New York without offending people but in others cities it’s best to be a bit more careful. We didn’t want to destroy any of the meaning of the show and I believe we’ve been true to the spirit. 
We didn’t change anything besides that.”
The cast comprises American, Filipino, British expats and Thai nationals. “Because this is a musical and the ranges for the characters are very specific, our musical director Preeyakit ‘Fox’ Buranasin and I had to cast within those parameters,” Allman explains.
“Truly I can’t imagine a cast more appropriate to the roles in this show. Between their natural abilities and what they have brought to the roles, they are all giving excellent performances.”
And as for the fact that many of them are portraying characters much younger than they are, Allman says, “I haven’t really had to focus on directing the actors to act younger than their actual ages because they’re are doing very well at that by themselves. One of my acting teachers did give us some excellent advice on the subject though. She said that to act younger what you needed to do was to ‘take away experience’.” 
“For this show Fox and I decided to use backing tracks. I’ve had experience of directing a musical using backing tracks and was a little leery of the idea but the tracks we have are excellent and we have a program that is allowing us to modify the tracks so that we can do anything that we could do with a live orchestra. 
The technology is now very advanced.”
Allman says this show is “like ‘bottled joy’. 
It’s so funny, energetic, perceptive and joyful. Yes, it’s about |these anxiety ridden-kids, but |the amount of pure fun that |the authors got out of writing about these characters is truly infectious. And like the best of musicals the fun just keeps building—the whole is definitely more than the sum of the parts.”

Don't bring your dictionary
BCT’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is at Creative Industries, on second floor of M Theatre on New Phetchaburi Road between Thonglor and Ekamai on September 29 and 30 and October 6 and 7 at 7.30pm. There’s also 2pm show on October 7. 
Tickets are Bt 850 at Bangkok.OnePlace.events/theatre. 
Find out more at www.BangkokCommunity Theatre.com or email Info@ Bangkok CommunityTheatre.com.