Meet the Spellers: Cal Meakins

Introduce yourself! Where have audiences seen your work before and what's coming up next for you?

I am a Colorado local who has worked as an actor, stage manager, and house manager for the past 5 years in Denver. Most recently, I stage managed the Arvada Center’s theatre for young audiences production of A Year With Frog & Toad. The past few years I’ve been SMing, swinging & understudying, so you may not have seen me in productions of Into the Woods (Arvada Center) & Avenue Q (Miner’s Alley Playhouse) but I was there and having a blast! I was last seen onstage at Town Hall Arts Center, where I played the Mute in The Fantasticks. I met Carter in The Fantasticks and I’m so thrilled to be working with him in his directorial debut!

What is your favorite aspect of your role within the Spelling Bee team? What makes it unique?

I love the opportunity to play Leaf. This is such a knockout cast and everyone has raised the bar in their work ethic & what they bring to their characters. Leaf in particular is dynamic & unpredictable, so it’s been really fun creating organic & out-of-the-box moments with my fellow spellers. I have a lot of ad-lib/loosely blocked movement in the show, so it’s fun to surprise my castmates with new ideas every performance.

What would you say to an audience member who's never seen this show before?

If you haven’t seen this show I recommend you learn NOTHING about it before coming to see it. It’s a show about underdogs: there’s someone for everyone to root for, and you’ll root for everyone. It’s a dazzling score by one of my favorite composers, Bill Finn, & you’ll be surprised by each characters’ big feelings and triumphs.

Do you have a favorite line or song from the show?

My favorite line in the show is “...At a Spelling Bee?” It’s a funny moment for my character & the audience to share an in-joke, but it also shows that Leaf is quicker than he lets on—he’s still really invested but it’s all new to him.

My favorite song in the show is “My Friend, the Dictionary”. Ava, who plays Olive, is so charming, and we really get to know her character in this song. I think all of our characters fall in love with her during her solo, and it’s not hard to do! There’s a sweet moment at the end where the ensemble sings along, and we all show how the Spelling Bee & the Dictionary are our safe space, as well.

If you were to assign a word to another member of the team to spell in front of the group, which word would you choose and why?

If I were to assign a word to our spellers to spell, I think I’d pick “Grandiloquent”, “Malapropist” or “Bombastic” because they’re all words that mean “using big words” but usually in ways that are high-falutin or incorrect. I just think that’s neat!