ic The 25th Annual Schuster County Spelling Bee (Rehersals) [Open]

[Poncho]

(Count as King Cole Post)

January, 2025

 

Claremont was preparing for it's first play of the New Year.

 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was a 2005 Broadway production, and Renee had taken the reigns of showrunner- with a few changes appropriate to Freedom City-, to have some fun with it. She wasn't making any drastic changes, but she did want to at least make it fun.

 

Of course that also included inviting the entire school's students to participate however they wanted; designing the stage, joining the production, helping with the back end work. It was organized chaos, because the swaps between Renee and King Cole would always cause at least a little chaos. It wasn't that they disagreed with each other, since they were the same person, but while Renee kept the process running with a steady- if anxious- hand, the King was more prone to just let chaos reign and pull it all together later, so it was a bit like having two different show-runners who had the exact same final goal but totally different processes.

 

The star of the show, taking the place of William Morris Barfee, was Daniel Evans. William was the kid who won the spelling bee, and Renee had cheerfully placed Daniel in the lead role- the person who was also invested in becoming a famous star, he was quickly put in a major role since it was important for him-. Other students had taken other roles, while Renee hadn't taken a role this time; she wanted to focus on show-running.

 

The play had taken over the auditorium, with chairs set up, the stage pieces being painted, the musical accompaniment getting their locations settled, mics being run, electrical lines and decorations being thrown around. Excluding when the musicians were practicing, there were small laptops or phones playing music around the area; using it to help them work. Paint was being placed on wooden backdrops, which was being hefted onto rollers. The sound system was being tested, and specific songs and moments were being rehearsed as everyone got prepared. The play was starting on the weekend, so it was the last few sprints to get everything ready, with people going in and out during free periods in school and the afternoon. Right now, class had just gotten out, but Renee had been in the auditorium for a few hours already, working to keep things set up.

 

The King Cole, or rather, Renee, was sitting in a rope swing above the stage while pecking away at her laptop. It let her see everything, looking down over the stage, as it slowly rotated around. It was something Cole had put up, but that Renee had taken to sitting in, even though there wasn't really a use for it in the play; Cole liked to be above everyone, Renee liked to be aware of everything.

 

"...Is everything actually going to turn out okay for once?" she asked in confusion as she surveyed the area. "...No one's sick. No one's forgetting lines...maybe everything's going to work out?" she asked. "Daniel?" she called to the other theater kid, the main star of the show. "Are you ready? And how is our stage work going?" she asked someone else, twisting around in her seat. "Music's good? Everything's working? This is actually going well? I think I'm going to lose my mind that everything is working well."

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum

 

Daniel was delighted to be offered the part by Renee and had accepted enthusiastically. He had been reading and practicing his lines since getting the script. As such as soon as classes were over he rushed into the auditorium, and he was not the only one. Iris was no actor but she wanted to support her brother, so managed to get in to see the rehearsal, if just to comfort him as despite his excitement, Daniel was nervous. 

 

The duo entered the building and Iris sat down in one of the audience seats while Daniel headed to the stage, his eyes scanned the area for Renee, then he looked up and spotted her. "Yeah I'm here! I'm pretty sure everything is fine." The young man glanced around, everything seemed in order...wait...there should be more props, oh no! 

"Nevermind, I think there is some stuff missing-!"

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"I'm sure. I'm sure. Everything is fine." she agreed, swinging back and forth in her little chair. Up until he said something was missing, and she panicked, yelping and quickly trying to get out of her chair. She stumbled in doing so, falling towards the ground, and splatting into it. But she had her tablet held up to avoid it getting damaged, but she laid on the ground for a moment, groaning.

 

"W..wh..what's missing?" she asked, without getting up, her voice a little wobbly. "This...this is a disaster..." she said, slowly getting back to her feet, already panicking and looking to see what had disappeared.

[Dracostern]

Cerebellum

 

Daniel would try to help Renee as she fell but was a little too late, still he helped her up and shook his head. "I think we are missing some props. Do not worry we have time but umm...where exactly did you get these? I think either they messed up the order or there are some troublemakers afoot. What do we do director?!" He tried to hide it as to not scare her even more, but Daniel was not Iris and he did not have nearly as good a poker face as her. He was worried as well. It showed all over his face. 

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

"What do you mean some props are missing?" Came another voice as Lynn Conners approached the pair. The blonde teen was dressed as she often was, a red and blue plaid skirt, white collared blouse with a red tie, over which she had a sleeveless light blue sweater. Her right arm was down by her side, holding her violin case, while in her left hand, tucked up by her side, was a stack of sheet music.

 

Not only was Lynn one of the musicians providing the musical accompaniment for the production, but she had also been working on the musical arrangement and orchestration to account for the somewhat sparse selection of musicians and instruments at the school. In addition, it turned out she was almost as good an artist as she was a violinist, so she had been helping with painting some of the set pieces.
 

[Poncho]

(Renee)

 

"Su...surely...surely we're not missing actual props." Renee said, trying to offer a very uncomfortable smile. She wasn't having a great time now, flicking through her laptop. "We'll just run a quick check on everything. It's not exactly a super big set, right?" she said with an awkward little tap tap from her left foot to her right foot.

 

"H..Hey Lynn." She was being 'nicer' to Lynn today; they had something in common right now, which helped bridge the gap for Renee's awkwardness. When connected via working towards the same goal, Renee could overcome her inbuilt insecurities and take a handle of her own capabilities. Not that she was ever actively rude to Lynn, just that she often had trouble connecting to people, and Lynn's own difficulties made it difficult for the two to break through their own shells to engage with each other. If you pressed her, she'd say she felt sorry for Lynn, and that she liked her; the same way she liked Daniel and Iris or Mattie or most of her classmates. "I uh. I dunno. I'm figuring out missing props. I mean, what do we need. Uh." She looked around. "Let's not panic." said the one person panicking.

 

"We'll just do a normal speed inventory. We need the background, the scoreboard, the bench, the trophy, and the spell checker's desk. If you see one, call one out. It might just be getting repainted or be drying outside. Which wouldn't be a big deal at all."

[Dracostern]

Cerebellum

 

"Hello Lynn." Daniel nodded towards the new arrival. He had not spoken to Lynn as much as his sister had, but he was still going to try leave a good impression as he would with anyone he considered a friend, and he considered both Lynn and Renee friends! He would take a few deep breaths himself however, he was starting to panic a little bit at this case of a missing props.  

 

"But yes, I do think some of the props are missing, I mean I was checking the stage and some of the props weren't set up, hopefully they are still in the back. Everyone just take some deep breaths!" He then turned to director Renee and nod his head, he would duck back behind stage and look for any of the mentioned props.