Melissa Firlit directs “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” being performed between June 12 and 28.
By Richard D. Smith
What embodies “community” more than an old-fashioned spelling bee, or better than a local performing arts festival?
How about putting the two together? The 2015 Princeton Festival will feature among its many events a run of the Tony Award-winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
And the Festival’s production, like many real community spelling contests, will be performed in a real school gym. Or at least what used to be one: Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts is currently housed in the former Princeton Middle School at 185 Nassau Street, and its intimate Mathews Acting Studio theater was built inside the former public school’s gymnasium. The show runs from June 12 to 28.
“It’s interesting because it really was an old school,” says director Melissa Firlit, adding that set and lighting designer Christopher Heilman will definitely take advantage of the remaining gym architecture. “We’ll be using the space to tell the story.”
Because the New York City-based Firlit has been living a peripetic life as both a director and theatre teacher, this is her first collaboration with the Princeton Festival. “I’ve always missed it because I’m usually starting on the road for summer work,” she says. “So it’s really fun to finally be here for the month.”
“The sense of community [the festival] builds is awesome,” she adds. “To work in this town and meet a large group of artists is really exciting.”
Written by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” has become a serious traveler in its own right. It arrived in New York in 2005 and was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning in the Best Book and Best Featured Actor categories. Since then, “Spelling Bee” has literally lettered around the world, from Europe to Israel to Australia.
The musical is set in a fictional Putnam County (although there’s a multitude of real ones in the United States). The main cast includes the grownups running the competition and the children taking part (also played by adult actors). The plot unfolds in the present and in flashbacks. Of course, words given the main characters often relate to the spellers themselves in ways that are comedic or touching.
“Not only is a spelling been a competitive situation, you meet characters that open your heart,” Firlit says. “They are going through transformations right before your eyes. And you realize you’re part of it.”
And some audience members will literally be part of it. A few are recruited at every performance to come on stage and improvise a small part as a spelling bee finalist. Firlit won’t reveal if these volunteers will get easy or impossible words. But she promises that because of the happy unpredictability of audience participation “no two nights will be the same. It’s such a good example of how all the elements have to come together to create the theatrical experience.”
Firlit was born in Utica, “The Gateway to the Adirondacks” and, she says, “the Center of New York State according to the locals.” Her parents are not performers but certainly are creative and enjoy the arts. Her mother is a hair stylist with her own salon; her father is a machinist with a lively love of music (polkas being a favorite that he’s often played in the car or at home).
She graduated with a theatre major and music minor from the University of Hartford in 2002 and in 2012 earned her MFA in directing at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts. She’s done additional studies at the National Theatre Institute at Stratford-Upon-Avon in England and the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in Russia. Firlit’s successes include a Best Director at the Denver Broadway Awards and productions staged at the Chicago Fringe Festival, FringeNYC and the Crossroads Theatre.
Despite this being her first time at the Princeton Festival, Firlit is no stranger to the town or the regional performing arts scene. She’s been teaching in the McCarter Theatre’s education outreach program for the last three years. And, strictly speaking, she’s already directed “Spelling Bee” locally. While working with sixth to eighth graders in the McCarter program, she led students in performing scenes from the show.
“It freed them in ways I hadn’t seen before in their character work,” Firlit says. “The characters are heightened versions of what they’re dealing with now.”
Richard Tang Yuk, general and artistic director of the Princeton Festival, had already scheduled “Spelling Bee” for 2015. The show’s production manager, John Hunter, had also been a student with Firlit at Mason Gross. He enthusiastically encouraged her to get involved. “You’d be the perfect director,” he said.
Firlit was soon among the many talented young directors spelling out their interest in the doing the show. After an interview, a review of her previous work, and support from her references, Firlit was selected as the best fit for this production. Adding to her excitement, she says, was that “Richard told me it was particularly appropriate for the kind of audiences they attract.” (The production has also inspired one of the Princeton Festival’s many educational lectures this year – see sidebar article.)
If there is anything more fraught than a spelling bee, it’s auditioning for a role in a musical at a well-known festival. Some 500 performers auditioned for only nine acting slots in the Princeton Festival production (although each does additional pop-up characters in the course of the show). Firlit, music director Evan Rees, and costume designer Marie Miller have been working intensively with the cast in preparation for the show’s 10-performance run.
“The show is just a blast,” Firlit says. “There’s a great sense of people wanting to be a part of it. You really sense that you’re directly affecting a community, and that’s the point of theater.”
And, she emphasizes, “it’s what the Princeton Festival is all about.What’s the point of doing it only for yourself? You need to share it.”
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