The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn at Colorado State University, Fall 2023
Director: Noah Racey | Set Designer: Thomas Ray | Lighting Designer: Jake Mosier | Sound Designer: Patrick Middlebrook | Costume Designer: Jasper Day | Prop Master: Avi Miller
Number Placards
The placards for the main cast were printed one-sided and laminated before being covered with a clear matte spray to reduce glare under stage lights. The audience member placards were reprinted nightly with that performance’s date and volunteers got to take them home as souvenirs. The audience placards used strange numbers to differentiate them from the main cast.
Chip’s Concession Tray
For Chip’s concession tray, we used a previous prop for the tray itself, then cut and measured straps for the neck and waist. We used purple fabric spray so that it would match the school’s colors (based off of the real Fort Collins High School!), and we put Velcro on the box/waist strap so that the actor could adjust to his comfort level. I used rubber adhesive on some candies and stuck them inside the tray so that the only candies he could throw were Skittles and Starbursts. For the Peanut M&Ms, we emptied out a bag and filled it with Poly-fil and a couple hex nuts for weight, then sealed it shut with clear tape.
Breakaway Board
Under Melissa Centgraf’s supervision, we cut a piece of solid wood in half and put a thin, scored insert in the middle so that the break would make a nice sound without being difficult to break. The insert was attached with hot glue at the corners so that it could be removed each night. Initially, we made two reusable boards and multiple inserts for each rehearsal/performance, but we ended up making more boards as backup since the center of the boards sometimes broke along with or instead of the insert. The actress playing Marcy hit the board in the center, marked with a light X, with a palm strike, and the actress playing Logainne bent the boards inward to ensure the board broke.
Hand Props
I made many vocab cards for Carl Dad with real words from the show. We ordered a custom-engraved trophy off of Amazon. Annie Hennen researched savings bonds to match the time period, then I wrote the specific information with pen. This show had 3 phones: 1 1st generation iPhone for Dan Dad, 1 flip phone for Olive, and 1 house phone for Leaf. Mitch’s actor carried in all of Marcy’s props for I Speak Six Languages.
1st Generation iPhone
This production was set in 2008, so we wanted Logainne’s dads to have a 1st Generation iPhone. To do this, I 3D printed one, then Kaleb Chaney put wood filler on it. We sanded it down to make it smoother. I spray painted it black and silver and hand painted the button details on. Finally, we used the Cricut to print an Apple logo, and we applied that on the back of the phone with spray adhesive.
Set Dressing: Gym Storage Closet
We borrowed real sports equipment from intramurals at CSU, and I dressed the storage closet with these and a few items from our stock.
Rona and Panch Desk
To build Rona and Panch’s table, we cut a piece of wood, I routed the edges, we adhered laminate on top, we cut half of the legs off so that it could sit half on/off the stage, we attached the legs, put a table cloth around the edges with velcro, then Libby Williams cut and hemmed the fabric. From there, we added 2 microphones from Sound. Rona had a clipboard with contestant biographies, and Panch had a binder with spelling words. They had a pitcher of water and small plastic cups. And of course, we had a practical bell for incorrect spellings.
Avi Miller 