Once again, the Spokane Civic Theatre has advanced to the national community theater competition finals.

The Civic’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” won first place in the state festival, held here last weekend. Idaho, Oregon and Alaska did not have state festivals due to lack of participants – times are tough for community theater – which means that Washington’s state festival was, de facto, the regional competition.

So the next event will be the American Association of Community Theater Festival in Rochester, N.Y., June 20-26.

Going to nationals is nothing new for the Civic. In fact, the Spokane Civic Theatre has won the national competition twice and finished second once.

The Civic also won a slew of other awards last weekend. Here’s the list:

WSCTA Magic Moment Award: Lacey Bohnet singing “The I Love You Song.”

Oustanding Performance: Mark Pleasant.

Outstanding Costume Design: Jan Wanless.

Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Oustanding Choreography: Kathie Doyle-Lipe.

Outstanding Design and Production Team.

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