Spelling Bee Audience Members

[scaredflyer21]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 3:39pm

I am currently in rehearsals for "Spelling Bee," and am wondering how the audience selection process worked for the Broadway and touring companies. I remember that when the touring company was at our local performing arts center there was a booth where you could sign up to be an audience speller. Was there a paper with questions to fill out? We want to make sure that we have the right type of people on stage who aren't too distracting.

Any help would be apprecriated! Thanks!

Updated On: 1/4/15 at 03:39 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 4:02pm

Our production was in a small theatre company and we used the following per night:

1. Ensemble ringer- also played Jesus, Carl Dad and the offstage voices.
2. One frequent audience member known to be a good participator.
3. A "special guest speller," a public figure or local celebrity who agreed to come for that night.

[losttheatre12]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 5:00pm

When the national tour came to my area, they had a table set up in the lobby asking people to sign up to be on stage. Then they interviewed all of us. The questions were mainly aimed to eliminate people...at least it seemed this way to me...who were just looking to get on stage to show out more or less. They didn't announce who had won until less than 5 minutes before the show started which was really inconvenient since my seat I had a ticket for was smack dab in the middle of a row and I had to climb over so many people who hated me for that.

I didn't end up getting chosen...although a local (overrated) radio morning show DJ was and she made a total ass of herself onstage trying to do an act. So...my advice...don't choose a local "celebrity". It sounds like a good idea in theory but it annoyed not just me but several people who commented on her dragging the show down. I really wanted to like the show...but that one DJ trying to do HER act in the middle of a show kinda ruined it for me.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 5:06pm

Sounds like there was a whole lot going on that day.

[MusicAndPassion]

Posted: 1/4/15 at 7:43pm

I did Spelling Bee in college. We had our friends/people in our drama department taking the sign ups. Before the show we looked at the list and made choices based off of who we knew would be good. The people running sign ups also made suggestions. If the person picked was annoying, we'd give them the boot early. If they went with the flow, we kept them on.