{"id":13045,"date":"2016-01-06T13:58:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T18:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13045"},"modified":"2016-01-20T21:17:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T02:17:14","slug":"put-your-spelling-to-the-test-with-special-library-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/put-your-spelling-to-the-test-with-special-library-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"Put your spelling to the test with special Library bee"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spelling can be a serious business \u2013 just ask Theatre Aurora and the Aurora Public Library.<\/p>\n

But, if you think you\u2019ve got what it takes to go the d-i-s-t-a-n-c-e, these groups invite you to step up and face off for a new spin on the traditional spelling be next Saturday, January 16. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the fruit of a very successful larger partnership which has come to be known as the Aurora Cultural Roundtable,\u201d says Cindy Shaver of the Aurora Public Library (APL). \u201cWe have been fortunate enough to work with Theatre Aurora (TA) on a number of initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

For TA\u2019s Sergio Calderon, this is the perfect blend of literacy and theatrical fun and recently Mr. Calderon has come to see firsthand just how serious a business spelling bees can get. A long-time veteran of TA, Mr. Calderon sits in the directors\u2019 chair for this month\u2019s production of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which ostensibly focuses on a bunch of twelve year olds participating in a tumultuous spelling competition. But that is not the spin TA has put on the Tony award winning favourite.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it is all about what the story is and what is being told,\u201d says Mr. Calderon. \u201cThe title can be misleading that you\u2019re going to see a bunch of 12-year-olds do their spelling be but, for me, my approach is this is a memory play. These are adults who are remembering the spelling bee when they were twelve. When you\u2019re twelve and competing in something, it is always life and death! The amazing thing about it is the moments where each of them have their epiphany and their moment where they grow up and realise, \u2018Hey, it isn\u2019t all about this. There is so much more to life and this world I think I can enjoy, and I don\u2019t have to be so emotionally wrought about winning and losing this particular event in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Calderon started theatre around the same age as the characters in the play took on their do-or-die competition and within the theatre, even as a youngster, he says there is a sense of competitiveness but, in the end, it was more about the challenge than the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a fascination with Leaf,\u201d says Mr. Calderon of a perennially popular participant in the on-stage bee. \u201cEvery character we have been working on are all extraordinarily difficult and my challenge, coming from a performance background, is trying to get Leaf to be super simple yet insanely complex at the same time. I think that is where we get into this idea of caricature. I don\u2019t want him to just seem feeble and simple-minded. He is just simple in the way he lives life and his philosophy and that is walking the fine line where I don\u2019t want it to be about the joke or his silliness. I want him to be a complex character that lives simply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants looking to show off their spelling skills, or even those simply looking to cheer on the competitor of their choice, will be treated to a sampler of what TA\u2019s upcoming production has to offer, and there will, of course, be prizes to boot. In the end, both Ms. Shaver and Mr. Calderon agree this partnership is all about forging a connection, not just between their two organizations but the community with the community as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have crazy, romantic notions and, for me, it is about participation and being involved,\u201d says Mr. Calderon. \u201cI think we have evolved into such a disconnected, isolated, socially-minded people that I feel participation is the only way we can get to the heart of what really matters, or connect to other people. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis theatre season is all about creating connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spelling Bee gets underway at 2 p.m. TA\u2019s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opens at Theatre Aurora on January 21, running on select dates and times through January 30. For more information, visit www.theatreaurora.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theatre Aurora and the Aurora Public Library team up to put your skills to the test — and give you a flavour of the upcoming production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3op","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 05:00:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/2016-01-07-02.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}