Summary Of The Play 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a play that was performed in the University of Michigan-Flint theatre on Saturday (April 2, 2016). This play is based on previous projects, including “Super,” “Why I hate Florida” and “C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E.” Shortly, the characters are six bright middle school students, who compete not only for the first place, but also for their own self-esteem, love and care. Through this spelling competition, they fight their anxiety and self-centeredness. Also, they explore their innate vulnerability and compassion. Eventually, they realize that winning is not necessarily a source of happiness, but sometimes losing is better and losing might create a winner. As it was my first time to attend a live play, I
In the opening song, the texture was monophonic with one soloist and alternated between melismatic singing and speech-like singing. Also, it had the same melody throughout and for the most part, its mood was major. However, the pitch and rhythm alternated between high and low, and fast and slow, respectively. The program did not include an explanation of the pieces; however, the names of the performers of each song and the band members were included. As the drama of the play continued to present and improve, the texture of the songs started to get complicated (shift from monophonic to homophonic to polyphonic). For instance, the song “pandemonium” was performed three times during the play and was based on the concept of “call-and-response” between different soloists. In addition, the timbre of the drums and the piano suited the major mood of the song, although the melody was repeated several times. Another remarkable song that was repeated whenever a character was disqualified from the competition is “Good Bye.” This song started in a minor mood with one vocal line and accompanying piano that played in a slow rhythm, and then the drums joined the piano and all the performers sang in harmony in a very high pitch, moving to a major
However, most of them were performed by all the characters, creating either a homophonic or polyphonic texture. In two of the musical works, Barfee (in “the magic foot” song) and Marcy (in “I speak six languages” song) maintained the rhythm by hitting the proscenium (or the stage) using the heels of their shoes in a very regular pattern. Beside the bass and the drums, maintaining the rhythm using shoes reminded me with the same technique used in salsa