Theatrefolk Featured Play: Snapshot: Bee-u-ti-ful

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Snapshot: Bee-u-ti-ful is a competion-length version of Beauty and the Bee, and an awesome character piece for your next competition!

Do you get along with your sister… or is she the freak? And more importantly, does she think you’re the freak?

Meet Catherine: high school royalty. Cheerleader. Pageant queen. Meet Cosette: homeschooled genius. Spelling bee champ. Knows way too much about rats. When Cosette enters Catherine’s glittering, chaotic high school world, the collision is nuclear.

A sharp, weird comedy about sisters, status, and the sting of standing out — where the pressure to fit in gets so intense it conjures GIANT TALKING BEES. Yes. Literal bees. With opinions.

Witty, wild, and full of emotional honey, this play asks: what does it really mean to belong… and can one photo fix a fractured bond?

Sisters. Spelling bees. Frenemies. Freak-outs. Say cheese.

Let's hear from the author!

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Why create a competition version?

The original, Beauty and the Bee, is just too long for most high school competitions. I love this play and I love the characters in it. I feel like I could go into any school and meet Catherine, Cosette, and Julian in the halls. And can I mention life-sized bees one more time? I want this play to have more productions and I hope a competition length version can make that happen!

1. Why did you write this play?

This play can be found in a longer length on our site as "Beauty and the Bee." The inspiration was simple. I love spelling bees and watched them for years.

I'm fascinated by spelling bee participants. How do they keep those words in their heads? Some participants are so charming. Some, so obnoxious. A unique and intriguing community! It was only a matter of time before such a character made it into one of my plays. It was a natural progression to throw an opposite character into the mix, make them sisters, and then make them have to talk to each other.

2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences?

A play about family, relationships and learning how to hold on who you are.

3. What's the most important visual for you in this play?

The characters talk about the photographs that have been taken of them throughout their lives and how pictures, frozen in time never really tell the truth, even if they want them to. Where does the truth lie? In the picture or just outside the frame?

4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be?

This play is all about character and relationships, so do the work to make your actors bring these three dimensional characters to life. Spoiler alert - the mom is the most impactful character who never makes an appearance.

5. Why is this play great for student performers?

This is a great script to show students strong character wants and what characters are willing to do to get what they want. It also theatricalizes abstract concepts: in the play the sister's heads are so full of conflict they manifest life-sized bees. And when are you ever going to have the chance to play a life-sized bee?

6. Who is your favourite character in the play?

The Bees! They are the characters I would love to play. The bees represent the buzzing in your brain when you are trying to hide from something that you should really face.

7. What is your favourite line in the play?

"And you are living in a dream world. A bubble. A dream world surrounded by a bubble wearing a sweater vest. There are no sweater vests in high school! It’s a vicious place where the weak get tossed onto the tundra to be devoured by wolves."

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