WISP TRIES SOMETHING NEW WITH “THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE”
Noah Golden
When it comes to youth theater, you can often separate groups into what I think of as Theater Schools and Summer Camps. The goal of the first is to make meaningful art, train the next generation of performers, and pass along good theater etiquette and technique. The goal of the second is to give kids a fun experience, boost their confidence, and let them explore the arts. Both groups are perfectly valid and needed. There's no doubt which group Karen Wagner wants WISP to be in. WISP (which stands for the Wagner Iovanna Studio Performances) started three years ago in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, as an outgrowth from the vocal studio Wagner started with her husband, Robert. A classically trained singer and actress with a long professional resume, Wagner says she felt a space missing when it came to training young performers. Her husband and WISP co-founder, Robert Iovanna, is also a professional singer and vocal coach who specializes in bel canto and appoggio vocal techniques.
"I love community theater and grew up doing community theater. But if you really want a career, you need a certain kind of training that you not going to get in a lot of community theater productions," Wagner says, especially of groups geared towards kids and teens, "the whole purpose of WISP was to form a theater company based on education and training that happened through the rehearsal process and workshops." While WISP does bring in talent scouts and have had 15 students sign with management so far, Wagner is quick to add that there are also many students who perform solely for fun and personal growth.
WISP launched with a musical revue and has since produced four full musicals. After a large-scale production of "Legally Blonde" this summer, Wagner knew she wanted to return to the company's black box roots for its next show. She found the perfect vehicle in "The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee." A 2005 Broadway hit, "Spelling Bee" follows a group of quirky middle schoolers as they participate in a local bee. The musical, which features songs by William Finn and a book of Rachel Sheinkin, also includes audience members selected to be on-stage spellers. For Wagner, the show was the perfect choice to stretch her students' musical and acting abilities.
"The characters could be just played as character tropes," she says of a cast that includes a hippy homeschooler, a driven catholic school student, a hormonal little leaguer and a permanently stuffy nerd, "it would be really easy to just play that one comedic side and then forget the human side of it. The one thing that I try to teach them is that you have to find the truth in the character." While Wagner is handling directing duties and Danielle Boucher is doing choreography, Iovanna plays vocal director and has written some new arrangements specifically for this cast. "We put a humungous emphasis on the vocals," she adds, "Robert has this incredible ear and put our own spin on the harmonies. We ask these kids to do some stuff that's very, very difficult. It really trains their ears."
That's not the only way Wagner is differentiating this production from other "Spelling Bees." They are housing the show in a church hall, cabaret-style with tables and BYOB refreshments. Actors in character will greet and seat audience members, lending an immersive feel to the show. She's also added a prequel that will act as a preshow. The wholly original short takes place at the 3rd Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee, where Rona Lisa Peretti, emcee of the 25th Annual and top realtor, is a child herself. Audience members will also meet speller William Barfee's mom Joan and younger versions of Mitch Mahoney and Vice-Principal Panch, as well as some new characters. Creating the prequel was a fun, new challenge for Wagner, Boucher, assistant director Kate Simpson and the cast. "We took songs like 'I'd Rather Be Me' and completely rewrote the lyrics for the characters. It's all tied in," Wagner says. The preshow also allowed Wagner to cast a larger group of young performers aged 12-17. "It's a different cast for the prequel but some of them double," she explains, "the casts are really blended and at the end for the finale, both cast come together and sing. It's truly an ensemble piece."
After "Spelling Bee" closes, Wagner has big plans for WISP. They're planning a cabaret dinner show with professional guests at Amarante's Sea Cliff on February 22nd and multiple classes in vocal performance, dance, and audition techniques. Another upcoming event is a six-part cabaret workshop starting in February. Six kids and six adults will work with Wagner and Iovanna to create original 15-minute cabaret performances that will be performed on the Connecticut shoreline.
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” runs January 17-19 at the First Church of Christ in Old Saybrook, CT. For more information on these workshops or to purchase tickets for “Spelling Bee,” visit: www.wisperformances.org