At the Spelling B-E-E

Last night we went to a dinner theatre to see a production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. At the show, they pick  four audience members to come up to the stage and be contestants in the bee. Given that I am a horrible speller, I was a little nervous to sign up (spell check actually corrected a word in this sentence already and I'm not telling which one!), but loving theatre and wanting to be a part of it plus having seen the show twice before and knowing that the words for audience members are super easy/made up, I decided to put my name in the hat (it was actually a bowl--hat just sounds cooler). After we ate dinner, someone that I guessed to be an actor in the show (the Vice Principle to be exact--and I was right!) approached our table. He asked if I was still interested in spelling and several more questions about me, but he didn't ask if I had seen the show before (the person did the 2nd time I saw the show--which I believe got my name crossed off that list!). I was told that at the beginning of the show the lady in charge would say that several spellers were missing, she would call my name, I was to go up to the stage, pick up my number 12 at "Speller Registration," and then one of the "kids" would find and ask for me to sit with them. He also told me that when my name was called to spell a word, I was to ask for a definition and then for the word to be used in a sentence. I can handle this. I join the stage, put on my number 12 placard, and head over to the kids. Olive runs over to me and says "Number 12! You're my friend! Come sit next to me!" Yes, Olive is a sweetheart! While the adults were at the mic explaining the rules of the bee, the kids introduced themselves to the audience spellers and were chatting/misbehaving. For instance, I briefly heard the Vice Principle say something about how he had been absent for 5 years before Chip (sitting behind me) said "Five years? That's nothing! I once had nonstop diarrhea for five years!" The audience member between us cracked up, and Olive turned around and hushed him with "That's gross!"

Time to spell! Now, for those of you not familiar with the show, while you are walking up to the mic to spell your word the announcer states a fact about you for the audience. The first audience member who was bald got: "Ben is recovering from head lice." Wearing a sweater, the next guy got: "David likes to distract his competitors by wearing argyle." (Logainne whispers to me, "It is very distracting!") My turn. I walk up to the mic and hear: "Kerri was Mattel's inspiration for their hot new toy, Barbie's little sister, Spelling Skipper!" Oh, that's not so bad! My word: apoop. Definition, please? "A nautical term referring to one side of the boat's deck." Sentence? "Guido, the seasick Italian sailor, said 'scusa me boys, I'm a gonna go apoop!" Don't worry, I spelled it right--good thing too, now I got to be a part of "Pandemonium," my favorite song from the show!  After dancing around the stage with the cast, I had to spell again, and this time there was no hope as I got a made up Irish drinking game that sounded like it had way too many ks and gs in it to possibly be a real word. Oh well. It's been fun. As they came over to sing the goodbye song, I notice that Mitch hadn't returned to the stage. Mitch is an ex-convict who is performing his community service by serving as the bee's official comfort counselor, handing out juice boxes to losing students. I was actually excited to be getting a juice box, but since he wasn't on stage, I got lead off by the remaining students and no juice box. Sad day! :(   As it turned out, the director of the show actually sat next to me in the audience, so I got to hear all his reactions to stuff (it was their opening night). He seemed thrilled with the production and was laughing like crazy, so that's a good sign!  Ultimately, it was a great night at the theatre, and I love that I got the opportunity to be a part of the show!