The local theater education scene got a shakeup last year when director Victoria Bussert and her team announced that they were leaving the music theatre program at Baldwin Wallace University that they’d built to national stature, with most of its graduates going on to Broadway stages, touring shows, TV and film, to develop at new program at Oberlin College. That program, now in its first year, just presented its first production at Oberlin. That program took with it the partnership with Lakewood’s Beck Center for the Arts, which presents an annual production with the music theater students.
The left BW to rebuild its program under the leadership of seasoned theater pro Jennifer Hemphill. Now it’s announced a new partnership. From January 22-25, it will be presenting its first performances at Gordon Square’s Near West Theatre: the 2005 Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which tells the stories of six teenagers taking part in a spelling bee. The show is distinctive in that it’s designed to include audience participation. Hemphill directed and choreographed the production which, as is typical for this program, features two casts to give more students performance opportunities. The Vowel Cast performs on Thursday January 22 at 7:30pm and on Saturday January 24 and Sunday January 25 @ 2pm. The Consonant Cast performs Friday January 23 and Saturday January 24 @ 7:30pm. For tickets go to nearwesttheatre.org or call 216-961-6391.