photo by: Maren Meneley/KU Department of Theatre and Dance

University Theatre students rehearse Wednesday night for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," which opens Friday, Oct. 24. From left to right: Paul Ruf, Jack Yampolsky, Natalie Loftus, Maya Welde, Brandon Heflin, Darryl Brundidge.

If you were looking for someone to direct a Tony-Award winning musical comedy, Theresa Buchheister wouldn’t be the obvious choice.

Buchheister, a University of Kansas theater graduate, is not really a “musical theater person” and mostly worked in avant garde theater in New York City for the past 20 years.

But “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is, in its own way, an unconventional sort of musical. The winner of multiple Tony Awards in 2005, it is a coming-of-age comedy that features students competing in a spelling bee, while transporting the audience through the characters’ fantasy-driven inner worlds.

The show, first produced in 2004, opens Friday night at University Theatre. For Buchheister, returning to Lawrence to direct is an opportunity to showcase a unique take on the production and to provide a different perspective for KU actors.

“It is a really exciting way to discover increasingly new ways of working in different environments,” Buchheister said.

Although Buchheister, who uses they/them pronouns, did not see the show before working on the production, they were intrigued by the concept. Buchheister said that in so many productions of famous shows like “Wicked,” people end up “doing their version of [what] existed,” akin to doing karaoke. Buchheister had “no interest in doing that.”

But people who like the musical the way it’s been done before will “still really like the show,” they said.

“I’m not trying to break it apart, but trying to make the most genuine thing possible now,” Buchheister said.

Part of that relates to gender and race in casting. Buchheister focused on casting the right person for the role regardless of gender presentation or identity. That choice was “super freeing,” said Buchheister, who identifies as nonbinary, and it allowed the actors to shine.

“You’ll see the show and think, ‘Yeah this was cast exactly correctly for the people in the show,'” Buchheister said.

photo by: Maren Meneley/KU Department of Theatre and Dance

KU students rehearse Wednesday for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” From left: Jack Yampolsky, Paul Ruf, Natalie Loftus, Brandon Heflin, Maya Welde, Darryl Brundidge.

Buchheister said one of the hallmarks of the first production, according to notes from composer William Finn, was how key the identities of the actors who originated the roles were in creating the musical’s characters. Buchheister wanted the actors “to be as instrumental in interpreting their characters” in the KU production.

One line that’ll be changed in the KU show is the line “It’s a hard age for girls — and boys” to “It’s a hard age for boys and girls — and everyone who’s not a boy and everyone who’s not a girl” to create a broader space for gender identity. In a show that is all about language, it was important for Buchheister to acknowledge how language changes over time.

When they were younger, Buchheister spent a lot of time feeling confused about not identifying as male or female. But later the identifying word “nonbinary” gave them freedom to not fixate on how labels and the time to think “more deeply about who they actually are.”

One of the stage managers and one of the actors also identify as nonbinary, Buchheister said, and they hope that the inclusivity of the language and the show can help people feel recognized at a time when nontraditional gender identities are under attack.

“It’s not about twisting the whole meaning of the show or stealing the spotlight from anyone; it’s just saying can there be room for those of us here who are not boys and not girls,” Buchheister said.

photo by: Contributed by Walter Wlodarczyk

After 20 years in the avant garde theater scene in New York City, KU graduate Teresa Buchheister returned to Kansas this fall to direct “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

Buchheister praised the work of co-director Kat Leverenz, a recent KU graduate who has been “a great choreographer,” and that of Jeremy Watson, the musical director. Buchheister said the music for the show “absolutely slaps.”

Buchheister hopes the show helps young actors see what is out there in the theater world and how traditional shows can be more broadly interpreted.

“I’m encouraging them to also make space for contradiction within themselves and within other people,” Buchheister said. “I think it would definitely make them better artists but also better people.”

University Theatre’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” will have several shows from Oct. 24 to 26, Oct. 29 to 31 and Nov. 1 to 2.

Tickets are available in person at the University Theatre Box Office in Murphy Hall, 1530 Naismith Drive or online at the University Theatre’s website.

photo by: Maren Meneley/KU Department of Theatre and Dance

KU students rehearse Wednesday night for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” From left: Jack Yampolsky, Paul Ruf, Natalie Loftus, Brandon Heflin, Maya Welde, Darryl Brundidge.