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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; A veteran of at least one real-life spelling bee, 12-year-old Rhianna Lewis, of Scranton, has this advice for would-be champs: &#8220;Don&#8217;t let the other spellers freak you out.&#8221;</p><p>Hearing that remark, her cast mates in the Tony Award-winning musical &#8220;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee&#8221; dissolved into giggles &#8212; acknowledging they portray a quirky bunch, some of them quite determined to win.</p><p>Consider William Barf&#233;e, for example. He&#8217;s not above trying to intimidate the competition with his &#8220;magic foot,&#8221; which he uses to tap dance a word the way less-ostentatious spellers might trace it on their hand before spelling aloud.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a little dance move going on,&#8221; said Ian Wettlaufer, 19, of Ephrata, who plays Barf&#233;e in a production staged by the Performing Arts Institute at Wyoming Seminary. The show is set for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center for Creative Arts, where audience members will meet Barf&#233;e and learn about all of his afflictions.</p><p>&#8220;He has a mucous membrane disorder; he hates contact with people; he&#8217;s a big germophobe; and he&#8217;s allergic to nuts,&#8221; Wettlaufer said.</p><p>Speller Olive Ostrovsky seems more well-adjusted, but she has her own set of challenges.</p><p>&#8220;Her parents aren&#8217;t there for her,&#8221; said Maggie Dishong, 19, of Plains Township, who plays Olive and believes the character might have a little crush on the competition. &#8220;I think she sees herself in William. They&#8217;re both outcasts.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We all are,&#8221; chimed in several other young actors, whose characters range from an over-achiever who speaks six languages to a child who refers to herself as &#8220;not smart&#8221; &#8212; though she can successfully spell the name of just about any South American rodent the announcer throws at her.</p><p>One youth wears a Scout uniform to the bee; another brings a stuffed animal collection; a third speaks with a lisp and, well, of course she&#8217;s going to have to spell a lot of &#8220;s&#8221; words.</p><p>The lisping competitor has two moms &#8212; a change from the original script, in which she has two dads &#8212; and watches in horror as one of her parents tries to trip up Barf&#233;e&#8217;s magic foot.</p><p>The show uses humor to get the audience&#8217;s attention, artistic director Steve Pacek said. Once you&#8217;ve started to care about the characters, you see how vulnerable they all are.</p><p>The script also calls for bringing a handful of audience members onto the stage to participate in the bee, and the cast recently practiced with friends to see how that would go.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t know if they&#8217;ll spell the words right or wrong,&#8221; said cast member Tommy Walkowiak, 17, of West Wyoming, explaining that during rehearsal, a guest was asked to spell &#8220;cow,&#8221; a word everyone expected the visitor to spell correctly.</p><p>Only, he didn&#8217;t.</p><p>&#8220;He started out &#8216;C-A &#8230;&#8217; Walkowiak said, and the cast had to figure out what to do on the spot.</p><p>How did they react?</p><p>Well, it is a musical, after all.</p><p>&#8220;We jumped right into a song,&#8221; Walkowiak said.</p><p><ins>For other Life Section stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/features" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Speller Chip Tolentino (Tommy Walkowiak) steps forward to spell a word during a rehearsal of &#8216;The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,&#8217; presented by the Performing Arts Institute (PAI) at Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center for Creative Arts in Kingston. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_putnambee1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Speller Chip Tolentino (Tommy Walkowiak) steps forward to spell a word during a rehearsal of &#8216;The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,&#8217; presented by the Performing Arts Institute (PAI) at Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center for Creative Arts in Kingston. </caption0><photoCredit0>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_putnam2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Rona Lisa Perretti (Denise Angieri) and vice principal Douglas Panch (Max Wang) are the adults in charge of &#8216;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.&#8217; Perretti won the county bee 22 years earlier by spelling the difficult word &#8216;syzygy.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_putnam2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Rona Lisa Perretti (Denise Angieri) and vice principal Douglas Panch (Max Wang) are the adults in charge of &#8216;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.&#8217; Perretti won the county bee 22 years earlier by spelling the difficult word &#8216;syzygy.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_putname4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The cast of &#8216;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee&#8217; rehearses on a recent evening. The spelling bee begins with a pledge of allegiance. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_putname4.jpg</photo2><caption2>The cast of &#8216;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee&#8217; rehearses on a recent evening. The spelling bee begins with a pledge of allegiance. </caption2><photoCredit2>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Performing Arts Institute presents musical</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>&#8216;The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee&#8217;</p><p><strong>Presented by:</strong> Wyoming Seminary Performing Arts Institute (PAI)</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. Aug. 4 and Aug. 5</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Kirby Center for Creative Arts, 260 N. Sprague Ave., Kingston</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $20 for adults, $12 for students and seniors.</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> wyomingseminary.org or call 570-270-2190</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ shows at Performing Arts Institute