Act-1

CASTING NOTE:

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At ACT-1, we strive for “color-blind” or “gender-neutral” casting. 

We strive to be inviting and welcoming, to actively and radically make space for all the different ways that actors exist in this world.

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However, as you get to know the show and the music, please pay attention to the characters' vocal ranges and required skill sets. We want you to audition for whatever roles you are attracted to, but please choose roles that best reflect your skill set and your natural vocal range. 

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Note: Sometimes we can slightly adjust the key of a character's solo song, but we do prefer to keep accompaniment close to the original key, as much as possible.  Please read the character descriptions and requirements below!​

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ROLES/CHARACTER BREAKDOWNS​

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RONA LISA PERETTI 

Vocal range: B3-F5

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Putnam's long-time spelling bee hostess, the county's top realtor, and 3rd annual Putnam County spelling champion.  This is Rona's day to be queen. She is incredibly kind to the spellers, having been in their shoes many years earlier.  From her perspective she keeps the bee running smoothly, upholds protocol, and conveys crucial information to the audience. Her interest in the competition is unflagging and drives it forward. She thinks of this as a complex cerebral sporting event, and she wants the audience to understand every twist and turn. If anything, in her life in general, she has to minimize the importance of this event to her, embarrassed that her own championship moment remains such a highlight of her life.  She is a sweet woman who loves children, but she can be very stern when it comes to dealing with Vice Principal Panch and his feelings for her.

SKILLS: Should have both a high belt and improv skills. Along with Panch, she guides the comedy of the show and the audience volunteers. 

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DOUGLAS PANCH

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The Vice Principal of Lake Hemingway Dos Passos Junior High, Panch is frustrated with his life. He fell into education, less out of love than a general ability uncoupled to a particular passion. The drive of the young spellers is alien to him. He never found anything that important. Stuck in his current job, endlessly awaiting a promotion that isn't coming, he was not happy to get the call this morning that he was needed to substitute; but he starts the bee eager to do well, to redeem himself for past mistakes. Panch was involved in an "incident" at the Twentieth Annual Bee that got him removed from the judging panel. After five years' absence from the Bee, Panch returns “in a better place,” thanks to a high-fiber diet and therapy. He is infatuated with Rona Lisa Peretti, but she does not return his affections.  

SKILLS: a strong character actor with impeccable comic timing and the ability to improv. While he does not need to sing, he is arguably the most important role in the entire show. 

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CHIP TOLENTINO 

Vocal range: C3-B4

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Speller #21. Last Year's champion of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Confident, strong willed, competitive and ambitious. A social and athletic boy scout, he returns to defend his title, expecting things will come easily to him. Lately though, he's been going through some weird changes, and things are slipping out of his control. He finds puberty hitting at an inopportune moment.  

SKILLS: This role has some of the most difficult singing in the show and requires long sustained high notes. 

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LOGAINNE SCHWARTZANDGRUNIERRE (SCHWARTZY)

Vocal range: Mezzo-Soprano/Alto, range: A3-F5

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Speller #1. Logainne is the youngest and most politically aware speller, often making comments about current political figures and her mature world views.  Younger than most bee participants, she is driven by internal and external pressure– but above all by a desire to win to make her two fathers proud. Her overbearing gay dads have turned her neurotic and self-conscious, but she has a real confidence about her at times.  She lisps, is a little uncomfortable in her body, has some tics, but still manages to strike a strong presence with her political awareness and keen sense of justice. Having drilled words for hours a day, she is aware of everything that passes in the room. 

SKILLS: She speaks with a lisp. Actor must be able to portray this in scenes and songs while still being understood by the audience.  

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LEAF CONEYBEAR 

Vocal range: A2-A4

Character's Gender: Male (easily works as female or non-binary)

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Speller #17. As the second runner-up in his district's bee, Leaf really shouldn't be competing here.  He doesn't expect to win –or even to spell one word correctly–but he finds absolutely everything about The Bee incredibly amusing. Leaf is home-schooled and comes from a large family of former hippies, so everything about this public bee is an adventure for him, from meeting the other kids to each moment of unexpected attention. His mother has made him wear their protective helmet to the bee and they make their own clothes by hand. Leaf lacks social skills. He's strange but very sweet, loving and kind-hearted but distracted. He has severe Attention Deficit Disorder but delights in his own wandering focus. He discovers that he can spell words correctly while in a trance. 

SKILLS: This role allows a ton of personal interpretation and requires physical comedy.

 

WILLIAM BARFEE

Vocal range: E2-B4  

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any
Speller #13. A Putnam County Spelling Bee finalist last year, he was eliminated because of an allergic reaction to peanuts and is back for vindication. He has no interest in making friends at the bee. His famous "Magic Foot" method of spelling has boosted him to spelling glory, even though he only has one working nostril and a touchy, bullying personality. Has a host of health problems and a lot to prove. Loud and combative as a defensive posture, he is the weird kid who becomes a bully to avoid being picked on (though he often gets picked on anyway so gets into a lot of fights). So friendship takes him by surprise. The journey he doesn't expect is one of coming to care about someone else - Olive. When he sees outside his own needs for perhaps the first time, it shakes him fundamentally. He develops a crush on Olive.  

Skills: This role requires a strong character actor with impeccable comic timing and the ability to create his own character. He should have a strong character voice and be an above average dancer. 

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MARCY PARK

Vocal range: C4-E5

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Speller #7. Marcy is the most feared and practiced competitor in the bee. She made it all the way to ninth place in Nationals last year and is back to win again. She is an overachiever to put it mildly, and comes from a family where excellence is expected and so simply produced. Marcy has never been given another option. Her many talents include piano, dance, martial arts, baton twirling, and/or whatever special gifts you have. She speaks six languages, is a member of all-American hockey, a championship rugby player, plays Chopin and Mozart on multiple instruments, sleeps only three hours a night, hides in the bathroom cabinet, and is getting very tired of always winning. She is not allowed to cry.  She is incredibly intense and does not recognize her own lack of humor.  Marcy attends a Catholic school called "Our Lady of Intermittent Sorrows." She assumes God also expects perfection from her.

Skills: We would prefer an actress with unique talents (i.e. playing piano, twirling batons, juggling, gymnastics) but are open to all interpretations. 

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OLIVE OSTROVSKY

Vocal range: B3-F5

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: Tween

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Speller #11. The heart of the show. Olive is a  young newcomer to competitive spelling.  A word lover, Olive has a fairly quiet life. An only child with often-absent parents, Olive spends a lot of her time alone. She fills some of that time reading the dictionary, which she thinks of as her best friend. The words bring her comfort, as does the idea of the vastness of the world the book contains.  Olive is basically deserted at the bee. During the first half of the bee, she often peers into the audience to see if her father, who is delayed at work, has made it yet.  Her mom is in an ashram in India and her dad never shows up.  She starts enormously shy, and shyly blossoms.

Skills: This role requires an actress who, despite her meek appearance, has an incredibly strong voice and belt. 

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MITCH/MEG MAHONEY 

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male or female

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The Official "Comfort Counselor."  With a bouncer's physique and demeanor, Mitch appears an odd choice to be the bee's "comfort counselor,” but it's part of his/her community service assignment. He/she has no idea how to offer comfort, but does wish he/she could find a way to make the kids feel better about losing, and perhaps place misspelling into a wider perspective. He/she hands out juice boxes and a dose of reality to the losers. The outsider, who in a way gets to inhabit the audience perspective, he/she wonders about the wisdom of putting the kids through this at all.​

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CARL DAD

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male 

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any
Schwarzy's main trainer, the more intense and competitive of Schwarzy's fathers. 

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DAN DAD

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male 

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The more laid back and ineffectual of Schwarzy's fathers. 

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JESUS CHRIST

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male 

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Deity invoked by a speller in need.

Normally played by the actor playing Chip.

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LEAF'S MOM, DAD, SIBLINGS

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender: Male or female

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

All more academically gifted than Leaf, they are even more surprised than he is by his success.

Normally played by the spellers and audience volunteers. 

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OLIVE'S DAD 

Vocal range: Tenor

Character's Gender: Male 

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

A fantasy version of Olive's dad coming to the bee from work. Sings the duet/trio "I Love You Song." 

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OLIVE'S MOM 

Vocal range: Soprano

Character's Gender: Female 

Character's Age: Adult

Character's Ethnicity: Any

A fantasy version of Olive's mom at her Ashram in India.

Sings the duet/trio "I Love You Song." 

Normally played by the actor playing Rona.​

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Ensemble

Vocal range: Any

Character's Gender:  Any

Character's Age: Any

Character's Ethnicity: Any
Our hard working Ensemble will be featured in different scenes as well as songs such as "Spelling Rules," "Pandemonium," "Magic Foot," "Prayer of the Comfort Counselor," "I Speak Six Languages," "Jesus," "Second," and many MORE!

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