Outreach Performances also available on Tuesday, April 26 and Wednesday, April 27 for local schools and home school groups.Ĭontact Teri at or (262) 633-4218 for more details!ĬOVID-19 RTG PROTOCOLS – updated 03/04/22 With less than two weeks until its opening before the COVID-19 shutdown, the show returns to finally bring Akeelah to life on the Racine Theatre Guild’s stage. As the underdog, Akeelah’s spunk and tenacity teach us all a little something about triumphing over any obstacle. Despite her mother’s objections, she studies and prepares for the National Spelling Bee with a determined spirit. This passion is overshadowed by the daily realities of her life in a tough Chicago neighborhood. Standing on the big stage at the national bee, tapping out the rhythm of the words as she spells them while her family cheers her on, she's finally comfortable - she's traveled a long way but has finally found her home.Akeelah lives and breathes words and has a gift for spelling. Frustrated by Fishburne's discipline early on, she calls him a "dictatorial, truculent, supercilious gardener" before flouncing off even in her anger, she takes pleasure in words. Palmer, smiling shyly in her wire-rimmed glasses, makes an appealing heroine whose smarts turn out to be her savior. Fans of the recent documentary "Spellbound" will find many parallels here, right up to the winning word (the dreaded "logorrhea"). But the extra plot devices (and the overdone inspirational score) are unnecessary: There's enough suspense here just in Akeelah's story, and the national spelling bee presents plenty of high-noon drama. Atchison drums up a little drama by introducing various conflicts: Fishburne's character's sad secret a tightly wound bee competitor whose father is contemptuous of Akeelah. Soon Akeelah is climbing the ladder of success letter by letter, with eyes on the grand prize: the Scripps National Spelling Bee.Īlong the way, Akeelah makes peace with her fiery mother (Bassett, who can do fiery like nobody's business) and finds a few new friends. She catches the eye of a local professor (Fishburne), who takes her on as a tutoring project. Nobody knows about her talent until a halfhearted spelling bee takes place at her school. She's a bright girl who doesn't pay much attention in school but has a knack with words. She's not accustomed to attention and doesn't know quite what to make of it when she gets it.ĭoug Atchison's film, unfolding along familiar lines, is the story of how Akeelah finds something that makes her feel special: spelling bees. As 11-year-old Akeelah Anderson, the youngest in a troubled South Los Angeles family, she has a sweet and slightly apologetic quality this is a child who's loved but neglected, who nobody has time for. Keke Palmer, who's been working in television and movies for the past few years, is a natural on screen. That's not to say Bassett and Fishburne (reuniting for the first time since "What's Love Got to Do With It?") aren't on their game, but that the kid is something special. Watch "Akeelah and the Bee" and see something entirely unexpected: a preteen girl stealing a movie from Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.
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