Stage Wright Spells Out a Comeback with Spring Musical

After a two-year gap from Covid-19, Stage Wright is back to hosting spring musicals on their stage. This semester, the Stage Wright cast is keeping it true to Wright’s educational environment and is hosting a spelling bee on their stage.

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” originally written by Rachel Sheinkin, is this semester’s campus musical. The spelling bee highlights six students, all with their own different backgrounds, and important characteristics that influence their behaviors. The bee’s six students are competitive middle schoolers who were all winners at their school’s spelling bee.

Sophomore Tracey Ho, who is cast as Marcy Clark, describes her character as a prodigy when it comes to academics.

“She’s really smart — She doesn’t mean to act like a know-it-all, but she is separate from the other students in a way because of that.”

This will be Ho’s first production at Wright.

Wright Sophomore Leiana Carrasco-Ramos, cast for the role of Logainne Shwartzandgrubenniere, is excited to be back singing and working on the stage.

“This is one of my first musicals back since covid,” Carrasco-Ramos said. “It’s really fun, we have a really great cast. A lot of people are really talented.”

Logainne Shwartzandgrubenniere, as described by Carrasco-Ramos, is a young girl that has two fathers that are typical helicopter parents. Logainne’s character is in all types of clubs and has multiple leadership roles that are sometimes hard to maintain.

Carrasco-Ramos stated that her character has aspects she can relate to, which makes the part easier to play.

When it came to establishing the plot of the spelling bee, Carrasco-Ramos labeled it as complex and structured around the students participating.

“We are just a bunch of wacky kids with our own issues,” Carrasco-Ramos said about the plot, and our own depictions of things that will go on.”

Three weeks into rehearsals as of publishing time, the cast has gone through readings of the script, had individual sessions with a musical coach, and even began building their own set.

Having a student-led cast and tech crew gives Wright students the chance to try something new. The theatre department offers stage makeup classes, stage crew classes, and StageCraft, which is building the set.

On the right side of the stage sits a 3-decker wooden staircase constructed by the entire musical cast.

“Someone like me who has never built anything in my life, I can say I helped build this which is really cool,” Carrasco-Ramos said.

This semester, Prof Tom Murdock is the musical’s director, and their set designer is Prof Patrick Ham. Ham assisted the students with building the set, but Murdock leads the students during rehearsals.

Caterina Benincasa, who is cast as Olive Ostrosky, is also preparing for her first appearance on stage.

“He definitely is a director that is trying to prepare us for real-world situations so if we ever do choose to pursue theatre or performance art,” Benincasa said, “we would know what was expected of us from other directors and choreographers.”

Olive, Benincasa’s character, is another spelling bee contestant, who is one of the few students whose lack of opportunity, and childhood, shines through her actions.

With experience in tech from last semester’s production, The Humans, Logan Gonzalez is cast as Chip Tolentino and Jesus. This will be Gonzalez’s first time on stage.

“I’m very excited to get this out, and I am excited to present it with my classmates to the people who come out to see it,” Gonzalez said.

Chip Tolentino, according to Gonzalez, was last year’s spelling bee champion, and Chip is back at the 25th bee to keep his trophy.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee production at Wright is set to premiere on March 24, 2023, and through March 26, 2023. There will be one matinee performance on Thursday, March 23, 2023, for Wright students to see during class hours.

SIDEBAR:

The cast are as follows:

Rona Lisa Peretti - Maeve Sheedy and understudied by Serena Diaz

Vice Principal Panch - Wendy Acosta

Marcy Park - Tracy Ho

Chip Tolentino - Logan Gonzalez

Logainne Shwartzandgrubenniere - Leiana Carrasco-Ramos

Leaf Coneybear - Thomas Velisaris

Olive Ostrovsky - Caterina Benincasa

William Barfee - Ray Ramos

Mitch Mahoney - Paul Scavone