Spelling Bee with All My Heart by Madison Rose
18 July 2017
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” -Nelson Mandela
On December 1st and 2nd of 2016, I did something that I had never done before. I was part of Courtyard Theatre putting on a full-length show. It was to be a show only for the high school and college students of Courtyard.
We did “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
The initial announcement was met with an abundance of enthusiasm from the older students of Courtyard, but I had no idea what the show was about. Then our director explained that it was a show about six adolescents and their journey of self-discovery as the struggle to win the County Bee. From there, I was hooked.
I was accepted into the show and cast as Rona Lisa Peretti, one of the few adults in the show, and a former spelling champion. Rona is in love with spelling and competition, and her true passion is the spelling bee. I loved my character, but she wasn’t the one I related to the most.
The one I connected with the most was Leaf Coneybear.
Traditionally (can you say traditionally when a show is only fourteen years old?) Leaf was cast as a boy. In our show, she was a girl.
The reason that I connected with Leaf wasn’t that she was home schooled, or that she had a lot of siblings, and certainly not that she likes spelling. It was that she wasn’t sure if she was good enough.
Through this past school year, theatre was the one thing that kept me sane. Theatre, stories, music, singing, art; those are my passion. Bringing a story to life, pulling the audience from the monotony of the every day and immersing them in a world that is not their own for just a moment. Making inspiring, relatable characters that the audience will root for; that is what I love, what I was created to do.
I’m not sure that I want to act for a living, but storytelling is my life. I’m not as good as some people, I probably won’t ever write something as fantastic as Les Miserables, but I will be the best that I can be. Like Leaf, I will keep going, and even when I fall, I will know that I haven’t lost. I can get back up. I am equipped for a living, but storytelling is my life. I’m not as good as some people, I probably won’t ever write something as fantastic as Les Miserables, but I will be the best that I can be. Like Leaf, I will keep going, and even when I fall, I will know that I haven’t lost. I can get back up. I am equipped for everything that I am called to do. I will either win or learn, and I will do it with all my heart, one step at a time.