Arts & Entertainment

Photo by Joan Marcus

Dana Steingold as Logainne
Schwartzandgrubenierre in
the touring production of The
25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee

"My goal is to
enjoy where I'm at."

- Dana Steingold

Tony-winning

touring show

comes to Fisher

Theatre with a

former Detroiter

in a lead role.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

D

ana Steingold, at 10 years old, appeared in musical
theater at the Jewish Community Center and dreamed
of becoming a New York pro touring to Detroit's Fisher

Theatre.
The actress soon will have that dream come true.
Steingold, at 23, is about to appear as a 10-year-old in The 25th
Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee running Oct. 2 21 at the
Fisher.
The Tony Award-winning musical comedy, in its second tour
year, showcases six young spelling competitors going through
puberty, overseen by adults barely free of childlike tendencies
themselves. They all share unexpected lessons about winning and
losing with the audience.
Members of the audience also can get into the act as spellers.

-

"I play Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, a very fierce com-
petitor," says Steingold, costumed to look like a young politician
with braids. "She's under a lot of pressure from her parents to
win.
"My character comes from an alternative home life and is out
to prove herself. She is half Jewish, the product of two gay fathers,
one Jewish. There's pressure on my character to prove that her
home life is as solid as anybody else's.
"I remember the first time I saw the show. I was in college
and really wanted to be in it. The first night I went on stage, in
Baltimore, it hit me that I actually was part of the show, and the
feeling was so surreal!"
This year's Apple Award winner, David Stone (see sidebar), pro-
duced Spelling Bee. Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner James
Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods) directed
both the Broadway and touring productions, which were con-
ceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss.
Rachel Sheinkin completed the book, and William Finn wrote
the music and lyrics (see related story). In another Motown con-
nection, former Detroiter Dan Moses Schreier is responsible for
sound design, while he wife, Natasha Katz, is lighting designer.
Steingold, whose theater training began with Nancy Gurwin at
the JCC, was chosen for the play the day she graduated from the
theater program at New York University. Her big song, "Woe Is
Me',' describes the pressure brought on by parents.
"I started as an understudy for multiple roles:' says Steingold,
who has been with the tour since the start. "I did that for eight
months before they offered me the role [of Logainne].
"It's an amazing gift to go on stage and work out issues from
adolescence. No matter what kind of adolescence somebody had
— and I had a great adolescence — there still are tumultuous
times. At the end of each performance, we come out as adults
who made it through those times!"
Steingold, who has toured to almost 40 cities, has played Sally
in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at New York's Century
Center and was in the chorus of A Tribute to Moss Hart at New
York's Lincoln Center, where Julie Andrews was MC.
A year and a half ago, she returned to the Jewish Community
Center for a show featuring Danny Gurwin, a mentor, the son of
her early coach and a lead Broadway actor who has gone on to

Bee Season on page 66

September 27 2007

63