Audience members join UO’s ‘Putnam County Spelling Bee’

The word is “Xeropthalmiology.”

Language of origin: Greek. 

Definition: the study of a medical condition where the eye fails to produce tears. 

Purpose: Eliminating an audience contestant from the “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” 

“Xeropthalmiology” has been a reliable word when it comes to eliminating guest spellers during the University of Oregon’s production of the spelling bee-themed musical. The production runs through June 8 at the Hope Theatre at the Miller Theatre Complex on UO’s campus.

The show recruits audience members to participate in the in-universe spelling bee alongside actors. Assistant director Logan Love scouts spellers in the lobby before the show, interrupting groups to chat and tease that the bee is in need of some extra spellers. Chosen spellers have ranged from a 12-year-old girl to older adults, always chosen for a spread of ages.

“Usually I can feel out if they would be interested in being a guest speller, or if that sounds like their biggest fear,” he said. 

Unlike the actors, the guest spellers don’t have any lines: the onstage spelling is a guest speller’s best effort at getting the word right. Those words don’t stay the same in each show. The musical, first performed in 2004, contains some guidance in the script but is purposefully kept loose to allow for improvisations.

Words for guest spellers are chosen in the moment by UO sophomore Landon Kobz, the actor playing spelling bee moderator vice principal Douglas Panch. All guest spellers need to be eliminated by the end of the first act, so easy words like “cow” give way to arcane words — hence “xeropthalmiology.” (Some productions have used entirely fabricated words, chosen just to be complicated. Even “xeropthalmiology” isn’t the actual term when compared to the diagnosis, “xerophthalmia.”)

Director Tara Wibrew said some UO audience members have successfully spelled complicated medical terms, however. “You never know what pre-med student or medical professional might be in the space, and actually luck out and get that one right,” she said.

While guest spellers are doomed to be eliminated in the show, Wibrew roots for them to get their words right and feel like they’re part of a true spelling competition, not a public humiliation. As the action of the bee continues, a speller may get an unexpected word right — which means they must get a harder word before the first act ends.

“We have talked a good deal about, what does it mean to make sure that we are picking words that feel accessible enough at different times so that folks really do try to win the bee?” she said. “We’re not trying to trick people outright on the front end of the show and make it impossible for them to win.”

Wibrew said the best spellers don’t ham it up onstage, but genuinely try to win the bee. She said the audience participation, and seeing people who aren’t acting but are earnestly attempting to spell, invites the audience into the world of Putnam County.

“The memory of what it means to be put on the spot a little bit, but trying really, really hard, is something we can connect with to a character,” she said. “But then when we see another audience member who’s just a normal person like us, and who’s not looking for audience attention, they’re just trying to do a good job.”