William Barfée

***William Morris Barfée*** is one of the main 6 characters, and one of the 2 lead roles of the musical comedy; *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* by William Finn. He is usually Speller #13, and on rare occasions; Speller #11. He placed 2nd in the 24th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; withdrawing due to an allergic reaction. He places 1st in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, by spelling weltanschauung correct.

## William Barfée

### Aliases

Mr. Barfee (by Rona and Douglas)Barf (By Olive)

### Relatives

Mr. Barfée and Joan Barfée (parents; divorced)Sheila (step-mother)

## Appearances

### Appears in

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

### Debut

Barrington Stage Company; 2004Off-Broadway; 2005 Broadway; 2005

## Appearance

**Crepuscule, Barrington Stage Company World Premiere, & OBC :** William has fair skin and brown curly hair that's parted on the on side. He wears a white button-down blouse that has black and yellow striped tie. He wears grey cargo shorts and black + gold striped socks with Oxfords or Saddles. The only difference is in Barrington Stage where he wear a blue and white tie and white socks.

Crepuscule William, 2002.Barrington Stage Company William, 2004.
## Character Background

> ***"Has a host of health problems and a lot to prove. Loud and combative as a defensive posture, he is a the fat kid that becomes the bully to avoid being picked (though he often gets picked on anyway so gets into a lot of fights). His parents are divorced, his father remarried to a much younger woman; and William does not expect kindness from anyone but his mother. So friendship takes him by surprise. Still, he's noticed on the spelling circuit for his remarkable technique--spelling words out on the floor with his foot. Taken out the competition last year because of an ill-timed allergic reaction, he's here for vindication. The journey he doesn't expect is one of coming to care about someone else--when he sees outside his own needs for perhaps for the first time; it shakes him fundamentally."***
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## **Backstory & Synopsis**

**Pre-Spelling Bee:** William is an 11 year old boy that attends Cold Spring Country Day and lives in Cold Spring, New York. His parents got divorced when he was younger, which starts the "real mom" and "fake mom" debate during the Second Act. He has a sea anemone circus in his basement, likes science, has a rare mucus membrane disorder, has a peanut allergy, and has echolalia, canonically written in the book. He has been in the competitive spelling world since The 24th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; where he placed second. He had to leave the competition since he got an allergic reaction by someone spiking the brownies with peanuts during the snack break of the previous year. He spells his word with his "magic foot"; which is his way to ideate.

**Spelling Bee:** William enters, after being introduced as "last year's tragic setback", and he corrects Rona by saying his last name correctly. He starts marking his magic foot area with invisible tape until a new girl steps on it. He says the areas marked with invisible tape & yells at her. After the opening number, Olive, the new girl; what school he attended, he told her to “shut up”. When Rona was introducing herself & the kids from the districts, she said each of them is already a winner; which Barfée repeated. William’s first word was “lugubrious”; which knew the definition which is “sad & droopy”; Panch said more or less. He starts to spell the word in the floor; which Rona comments.

## Trivia

* Barfée didn't have any name change throughout the show's history or workshops.
* He placed 42nd in the National Spelling Competition & studied with his new friend, Olive Ostrovsky.
* The word that his magic foot got stuck with soda on, which was "crepuscule" was: 1. a reference to The Farm's improvisational play that Dan Fogler starred in, 2. Rona's reference to "syzygy" or "star-syzygy".
* On majority of the shows and performances, William wears black suspenders, except in the main images above.