The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Cast

Lila Carpenter is seventeen and is a junior at MERHS. Lila is a member of the SoundWaves acapella group and is very involved in the music and arts program at MERHS. Lila can often be found taking naps between classes on the floor of the chorus room. Lila is so thankful to be back performing for an audience again and can not wait for you all to see the show! She would like to thank her friends, family, and especially the cast and crew for making this show come to life.

Josh Cohen (William Barfée, Leaf's Dad) is a freshman at MERHS. In the past, he has played Mr. Quigley (Oh, What a Tangled Web), Mr. Smee (Peter Pan), the Baker (Into the Woods), Uncle Fester (The Addams Family), Mayor Shinn (The Music Man), and Earthworm (James and the Giant Peach). He is thrilled to unleash the full potential of his magic foot. He would like to thank his family for supporting him, Ms. B and Mr. Icenogle for everything, and the entire Drama Club for welcoming him.

Lucia is a junior and has been doing theatre for seven years and has been in a total of 13 shows. She recently appeared in Peter Pan as Peter Pan and Aladdin as Aladdin. She plans on going to college for theatre and pursuing an acting career. Lucia wishes to thank her boyfriend Matt for constantly supporting her plans for the future as well as her current ventures.

Caroline Quinn Is thrilled to be back in the theater after such a long delay! Caroline is a sophomore and has been doing theater for 5 years and has been in 13 different productions over the years with companies like Summer Stage and NSMT. Her most notable roles over the years have been Stan Glowacki in ‘22 Dramafest and Cinderella in Into the woods back in 2020, a role that she regrets not being able to perform due to the covid 19 shut down. Caroline does not have any plans for the future at the moment but has expressed a desire to pursue a career in acting. Caroline wants to thank all the wonderful people in her cast and crew and especially thank her family for “Never giving up hope in me, even when I gave up hope in myself”.

Nicholas Haley is a freshman at MERHS and is delighted to be working on this production. He has been designing lighting since before he was in middle school and would like to pursue it in the future. Some of his favorite past shows are Oh, What a Tangled Web, The Little Mermaid, Annie, The Addams Family, and Peter Pan. He has also volunteered for Manchester Summerstage and the YMCA

Maddie is currently a junior at MERHS. She recently worked as the sound designer for the drama club’s production of Oh, What A Tangled Web! Maddie is a natural blonde with a keen sense of humor! She has a large obsession with both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars. In her free time, Maddie enjoys feeding her glow fish(Dorothy, Pearl, and Sheldon). She is extremely “stoked” to perform in this show alongside her cast mates and hopes you enjoy the show!

Sofia Sarmanian is eighteen years old and is a graduating senior at MERHS. She is thrilled to not only be acting in this show but choreographing and assistant directing. Sofia is thrilled to be working with an awesome cast, crew, and board of directors. Sofia has participated through many companies including shows through the YMCA, North Shore Children's theatre, Manchester SummerStage, Neverland Theatre, and lastly Stage 284. Some of her favorite roles that she has played in the past were: “ Paulette” in Legally Blonde Jr, and “Sharpay Evan” in High School Musical! Besides theatre, Sofia enjoys fashion, baking, and spending time with her family. Sofia would also love to thank the amazing cast, crew, and directors for a great experience!

Gelsey McCue is a senior at Manchester Essex, who has been doing theatre for long than she can remember, and has been in too many shows to count (but if she had to guess, it’s around 15.) She’s headed to James Madison University next year to study political science, and hopefully keep performing. In addition, she would also like to thank all the family members who’ve come to see her shows over the years (the good and the bad,) her parents for telling her those shows were great regardless, and to Ms. Coleman, just because.

Owen O’Leary is a Junior at MERHS and while he normally appears on stage, he is working backstage for Putnam. He has really enjoyed building sets and learning about the production’s tech. He can’t wait for you to see the show. He’d like to thank Nathan and Dan Cortese!

Nate Kelleher is 18 years old and is a graduating senior here at Manchester Essex Regional High School. He is so glad to be back with the high school drama department in producing this show. His most recent credits include production manager in the award-winning show Oh, What a Tangled Web, technical lead in Manchester SummerStage’s Peter Pan, and Troy Bolton in Stage 284’s High School Musical. In the fall, Nate will be attending Suffolk University to pursue a BA in Theatre. He would like to thank his mom for encouraging him to always pursue what he loves.

Christopher Siems is eighteen years old and is a senior at Manchester Essex Regional High School. Chris has acted in other shows prior to The Twenty Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, including, but not limited to, MERHS's 2019 performance of The Little Mermaid. Throughout his high school career Chris has also been a part of MERHS's delegation to the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild's Dramafest, as well as an ultimate frisbee player. Christopher engages in many other human behaviors.

Gianna is very excited to be making her musical directorial debut with Putnam this year! A former graduate of MERHS class of 2006, a Dramafest and MERHS Drama Club alum, her background in theatre comes from a deep rooted passion in acting and all things arts after growing up performing professionally at North Shore Music Theater, Emerson College, Wheelock College and various locations in community theater, just to name a few. This show is dedicated to the late and great, Ms. Gloria Tanner, in which this theater program owes its spirit and magic to, as well as my late father, Stephen, who was always my biggest fan and pushed me to always pursue the arts. Much love to my new husband Greg, both of my beautiful grandmothers and my colleagues who supported me in my chaos while navigating my first year as a director :)

Ben Icenogle (colloquially known as Mr. Ice) is ecstatic to be making his debut as music director in this production. Aside from working with the MERHS drama department and teaching middle school Chorus and General Music, he also enjoys playing bass in a Boston-based band, creating art and stories, and growing however many plants will fit on his porch each summer. Ben would like to thank his partner, Michelle for listening to him hum showtunes constantly, as well as Gianna Baglioni, Edi Rovi, and the entire cast and crew for all of the care and effort they put into this production!

Mr. Finn is the writer and composer of Falsettos, for which he received two Tony Awards, Best Book of a Musical (with James Lapine) and Best Original Score. He has also written and composed In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, two Los Angeles Drama Critic's Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, and Guggenheim Fellowship in Musical Composition). Mr. Finn wrote the lyrics to Graciela Daniele's Tango Apasionado (music by the great Astor Piazzolla) and, with Michael Starobin, the music to Lapine's version of The Winter's Tale. His musical, Romance in Hard Times, was presented at the Public Theater. Recently, he wrote Painting You for Love's Fire, a piece commissioned and performed bye the Acting Company, based on Shakepeare's sonnets. For television, Mr. Finn provided the music and lyrics for the Ace Award-winning HBO cartoon "Ira Sleeps Over," "Tom Thumb and Thumbelina," "Pokey Little Puppy's First Christmas," and, with Ellen Fitzhugh, two "Brave little Toaster" cartoons. Mr. Finn has written for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and The New Yorker. A graduate of Williams College where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for Musical Composition, Finn now teaches a weekly master class at the NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre Writing. His most recent projects include Elegies, A Song Cycle (Lincoln Center) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which ran on Broadway and has been produced nationally and internationally, as well.

Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Tony, Drama Desk awards); Off Broadway: Striking 12 (Lucille Lortel nomination), Off-Off: Serenade. Regional: Guthrie, Little House on the Prairie; Center Theater Group, Sleeping Beauty Wakes(Los Angeles Ovation Award); London: Blood Drive. Residencies, fellowships, commissions include: Eugene O'Neill National Theater Center, Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Manhattan Theatre Club, Deaf West, McCarter Theatre, Playwrights Horizons. Rachel is a volunteer mentor for TDF's Open Doors program, a visiting instructor at Yale School of Drama, and adjunct faculty member of NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Rebecca Feldman is the conceiver of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for which she won a Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Desk and Tony Nomination for Best Musical. She directed its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in the summer of 2004. Rebecca is Associate Producer on TRANSPARENT, the MUSICAL FINALE and served as Staff Writer on the finale as well. She is currently developing an episodic drama with Big Kid Pictures, called LA COYOTE, which has been selected to the WeForShe’s 2019 Writeher List. She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab as well as the AFI Directing Workshop for Women where she won the Jean Firstenburg Award for Best Short. Her short films include, MY FIRST TIME DRIVING (AFI Jean Firstenburg Award, Best Short at Lake Arrowhead Film Fest, Best of Shorts at Outfest), A/V CLUB (TV Pilot, NYTVF), UBER ALICE (Woodstock Film Fest), DEAD CAT (Producer, Tribeca Film Fest) and IRVING (Official Selection Rhode Island Film Fest, Official Selection USA Film Fest, Ft. Lauderdale Film Fest, Atlanta Jewish Film Fest).

This is Julia’s first time teching for a musical. She is so thankful for this opportunity and to have been able to work with so many wonderful people and be a part of something amazing.

Finnegan Doane is a graduating senior here at MERHS. He plans to join the airforce after graduation. Finnegan has been participating in theatre for eight years, but also enjoys being in both the GSA and drama clib. He would like to thnk his paeeents, grandparents, uncles, and cousins for coming to the show.

I'm a junior and my favorite show I have been in was " Bye Bye Birdie"( ages ago) I am excited to be in a musical again after three years! Shoutout to Sofia for being cool!

Jay Reiss is playwright. He is a Julliard graduate and provided additional material to the book for THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. Reiss appeared in the original workshops, Off-Broadway cast, and Broadway cast of the musical as Vice Principal Douglas Panch.

Hi, I'm Madelyn Officer (but you can call me Maddy), a junior here at MERHS. I've been doing theatre since middle school, working in shows like The Losers Club for our 2020 Drama Fest performance. I'm also a member of our school's GSA and club president of the Young Poets Society! Looking forward, I'm excited to explore my college education at places like UMichigan or UCLA. I'd like to thank all of my fellow cast and crew members for supporting me throughout the show and making this year really special.