Spelling bee research

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a long one-act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups. 
The musical was based upon C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, an original improvisational play created by Rebecca Feldman and performed by The Farm, a New-York-based improvisational comedy troupe. 
The musical begins with Rona Lisa Peretti entering the gymnasium to set up. As she passes by the microphone, she has a flashback to the moment when she won the third annual spelling bee by correctly spelling syzygy.
The spelling bee begins, and as each non-audience speller is called forward, the audience learns about his or her background through flashbacks (with other characters in the flashbacks being played by the other spellers on stage, including simple nonspeaking roles played by the audience spellers, as guided by the actors). 

Character: 

• Rona Lisa Peretti
• Vice Principal Douglas Panch 
• Mitch Mahoney
• Olive Ostrovsky
• William Morris Barfée
• Logainne "Schwarzy" SchwartzandGrubenniere 
• Marcy Park
• Leaf Coneybear
• Charlito "Chip" Tolentino 
• Three or four spellers from the audience 

Minor characters (All can be doubled by the actors playing the major characters)

• Carl Grubenierre 
• Dan Schwartz 
• Leaf's Dad
• Leaf’s Mom
• Leaf’s Siblings
• Olive’s Mom and Dad
• Jesus Christ