Pier One Theatre’s next show of the season, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, runs Thursday through Sunday from June 11th through 21st with performances starting at 7:30. Directed by Finnley Stineff and Kjirsten Swanson, this show features a primarily youth cast with ages ranging from 14 to 19 with a live musical background.
According to Stineff, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn, who passed away in 2025 who created additional Broadway musicals for several decades including Falsettos, Little Miss Sunshine, Make Me a Song, the Royal Family of Broadway, Romance in Hard Times and others.
“So basically, 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee focuses on this county level spelling bee, where I think it's six different spellers come in and just compete for the prize, and they all get their like moment in the spotlight, and they all get to like learn something and experience new things at the bee, and it's really just watching them like kind of grow up throughout the show,” Stineff said.
This play is written to develop with the cast that performs it, so each evening will be performed in a slightly different way. Also, explained by Stineff:
“One thing that's special about this show is we have four slots for audience volunteers, so every night we're gonna have four random people up on stage with our cast…so there's that chance for the audience to participate and be a part of the bee with us.”
When the audience enters the auditorium, Stineff will be recruiting volunteer audience members who are willing to participate in the performance as bee contestants.
“As people are coming in for the tickets, I'm going to be looking at people and asking them, are you willing to go up on stage…then they get a little bit of coaching, and then they get called up on stage, and they just start spelling, like at a spelling bee, it's super fun,” he said.
This show is Stineff’s first time directing and he explained some of his own theater background:
“I started with theater in my freshman year with DDF, and then I did the spring musical, which was Newsies my freshman year. Then after that, I auditioned with Pier One over the summer, and I did like Cannibal and a couple other plays, and that sort of stuff. And then from there I got into the technical aspect of theater, and I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed, like, making sets and, like, running. running the curtains, doing sound, that sort of stuff, and that kind of led me to where I am now with being the director.”
Stineff graduated from Homer High School this spring, plans to stay in Homer for a bit longer and then hopes to pursue theater studies in Montreal, Canada next year. Following the Spelling Bee, will perform in the upcoming Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Porcupine Theater later this month.
Pier One Theatre has several additional opportunities for youth interested in theatre production and descriptions and dates for these are available on the Pier One website: www.pieronetheatre.org. Theater Skills camp is already underway and the production camp with instructors Carolyn Norton and Kathleen Gustafson will begin on June 29th.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
