Courtesy of Elora Sparnicht

The Yale Dramatic Association’s 2025 commencement musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” will be showing at the University Theatre this weekend from Friday through Sunday. The musical features themes of growing up, facing failure and friendship — combining humor with nostalgia for childhood.

“It’s very fun, it’s very silly, it’s very heartwarming, and I love it dearly,” Emiliano Cáceres Manzano ’26, the director of the play, said.

The musical centers on an elementary school spelling bee, with six children competing for the championship. Between spelling words, each character shares sweet stories about their lives.

The show is produced entirely in the period between the end of the semester and commencement weekend. Producer Rhayna Poulin ’25 called it “a musical in ten days.”

“Spelling Bee” will continue to evolve after opening night, since it involves improvisation and audience participation.

Each night, four different audience members are selected to be part of the show as competitors in the spelling bee. Audience members who are interested in volunteering will have the chance to fill out an application when they enter the theater. From these applications, the volunteers will be selected just before the play begins.

“The script is written in such a way that there are all of these flexible elements, but there’s also a very inherent structure to the show,” Cáceres Manzano said. “So really, rehearsing is a lot about figuring out how to maintain that balance and spontaneity and keeping the show moving.”

Since the audience spellers add an element of unpredictability to each show, the performers must be able to react quickly to anything an audience member could do or say — all while staying in character. Improvisation has been essential to rehearsals, where different members of the production team have stood in for the audience spellers.

Hannah Kurczeski ’26 — who plays Schwarzy, one of the children competing in the bee — described the improvisation as a “fun challenge.”

“It’s sort of like adopting a new set of instincts,” she said.

Kurczeski said her character is the most well-read and politically conscious among the young spellers. At one point in the show, Kurczeski must improvise a political speech based on current events. Kurczeski said that her goal is to deliver a slightly different speech every night.

To help the performers develop the right instincts, Cáceres Manzano said he encouraged them to bring something from their own childhood memories. Whether it’s a certain mannerism or a piece of a costume, Cáceres Manzano said he wants the actors to “give a gift from their younger selves to their characters.”

That childlike playfulness makes its way into the show’s comedy, which Kurczeski said brings an exciting “combination of humor and heart.” Kurczeski added that “you will not be able to leave the show without laughing your face off.”

The inner child even shines through in the few adult characters in the play. 

For example, the proctor of the spelling bee, Rona Lisa Peretti, played by Nneka Moweta ’27, won the spelling bee herself when she was a child.

“Even though she is one of the adults, she still has that inner child in her, and you see that in the competitiveness and the spiritedness that she has for the spelling bee,” Moweta told the News.

That sense of nostalgia permeates the play — perhaps an apt emotion for commencement weekend. Other themes, such as facing the unknown and defining oneself, also fit seniors’ transition out of college.

“I think the graduating seniors, much like the characters in the spelling bee, are facing pivotal moments in their lives, moments where they’re really defining themselves,” Cáceres Manzano said.

Poulin, the producer of the musical and a graduating senior herself, has worked on every commencement musical since her first year.

She said that Yale students, like the children competing in the spelling bee, think a lot about material success.

“I think that a lot of your four years of college, now looking back on it, especially at Yale, is learning that there is more to life outside of the big trophy at the end of the day,” Poulin said. “Maybe the moments that you have with other people are probably what you’re going to remember more than getting a good grade on an exam.”

The University Theatre is located at 222 York St.