By Allison Keyes, WTOP.com
WASHINGTON — A show at D.C.’s Arena Stage tells the story of a little girl who hides her light — and goes on to become something she never dreamed of.
Director Charles Randolph Wright hopes “Akeelah and the Bee” teaches people to take a chance.
“She’s discovering her talent, and her dream,” Randolph-Wright says.
“Akeelah and the Bee” is the story an 11-year-old African American girl living in a dangerous neighborhood in the south side of Chicago. Akeelah’s classmates make fun of her for being smart, and having a talent for spelling.
She enters a spelling bee because her principal forces her to, and she ends up in a national contest with a multicultural group of children.
“I walk into the rehearsal room and see young black, Latino, Asian and white, all these kids, it gives me hope because we’re in such a time of division and everything we do is about how separate we are,” Randolph-Wright says.
“I love pieces that say we have more in common than we have that’s dissimilar, and this piece especially deals with that.”
“Akeelah and the Bee” is playing at Arena Stage through Dec. 27.
