For the City Times

WAUSAU — Get ready to laugh as the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at Wausau’s Department of Theatre presents the high-spirited musical comedy “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” featuring a cast of student and community actors including WSAW Sunrise 7 news anchor and producer Sean Caldwell.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2-3, and Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 8-10. Matinees are offered at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 and 11. The production will be staged at the James F. Veninga Theater, 625 Stewart Ave., Wausau.

“The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” debuted on Broadway in 2005 and centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the bee with the goal of bringing home the title and trophy.

Three equally quirky grown-ups run the contest, including Caldwell’s character, Vice Principal Douglas Panch, and Rona Lisa Peritti, a prominent real estate agent and former Putnam County Spelling Bee champion, played by community member Mary Sharfinek. UW-Stevens Point at Wausau students comprise the rest of the 11-member cast.

“As part of a popular feature of this musical, audience volunteers take turns at the microphone as Panch and Peritti take us all on a journey through some of the most esoteric words, definitions and example sentences found in the English language,” said Communications-Theatre Arts Professor Sarah Rudolph, who directs the play. Julie Burgess is the production’s musical director.

Tickets are $18 for general admission, $15 for senior citizens and other students. UW-Stevens Point at Wausau students are free with a valid student I.D. Tickets will be available for purchase online at http://uwmc.uwc.edu/arts/theatre, by calling 715-261-6290 or at the James F. Veninga Theater Box Office one hour before each performance. A group rate of $10 per ticket is also available, call 715-803-3165 for details.