Four UCLA alumni are bringing “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” to La Mirada Theater this month. The Tony Award-winning musical features Jeff Maynard as director, Brian Kite as producing artistic director, and actors Lana McKissack and Brett Ryback in key roles. The musical centers around a group of quirky children who compete in the spelling bee and return with more than just a ribbon to show for their efforts, as they learn about what winning truly means.
“This show is inspiring, touching and moving, all while making you laugh, so it was a story that as a director I was interested in,” said Maynard, who graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1993. As a production which moved off Broadway in 2005, the memory of the original Broadway cast remains fresh presenting a challenge which Maynard was determined to overcome.
“There were originally nine characters, and the play was actually written around them in the original,” Maynard said. “I didn’t want to do what had already been done.”
As a result, he encouraged the actors to make the characters their own, a more flexible task in this play due to its elements of improvisation. For example, the judges’ introductions for each contestant and the sentences they give as word contexts are usually devised on the spot. Hilarity ensues.
Another feature of this play is audience participation, since several pre-screened audience members serve as contestants.
“The person I’m sitting next to on the benches is different on every show, so we have a little more leeway in how we react to them. … It’s fun giving them little glares once in a while,” said 2005 graduate Lana McKissack, who plays the competitive Marcy Park.
McKissack said she interpreted her character in a different manner than the original cast member did.
In the play, Marcy Park is an overachieving Asian character who is good at everything and faces no challenges, as McKissack describes her.
“She’s always very cold and standoffish in other productions,” McKissack said. “I’m trying to make her a little more human … and show a little bit of a softer side to her.”
While McKissack sympathized with the work ethic, but not the personality, of Marcy Park, Brett Ryback, an alumnus who graduated in 2006, identified with his character more easily.
“When I first heard Leaf’s songs, I definitely associated myself with him and thought it was a good role for me,” Ryback said of his portrayal of Leaf Coneybear.
Born into an aggressive family and often called a dumb kid, Leaf is curious and has no expectations. “Everything is like, “˜I’m on Cloud 9′ from the get-go, and it’s beyond everything he would have expected for himself,” Ryback said.
Leaf is as intuitive about spelling as Marcy is driven.
“He has this sixth sense for spelling that’s totally beyond his control and happens at the right moment,” Ryback said.
For the UCLA alumni involved, the play felt just as right to do together.
“We come from the same training ground and school of thought, literally. It feels like a little community which now the whole cast has become part of,” Ryback said.
However, it was the play’s combination of unusual elements, humor and touching story line that compelled the cast to audition.
“There are genuinely moving moments, and it’s a really fun evening at the play,” Maynard said. “Any time you can be moved and laughing, that’s a sign of a great piece of theater.”