Meet ‘Putnam County Spelling Bee’ actor Cassandra Hlong (Marcy Park)
On stage now through April 12 at Florida Rep is the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. From set to music to storyline and acting, this production is so heartfelt, engaging and outright hilarious that it deserves your attendance even if you only use your personal copy of Merriam-Webster’s or the New Oxford American Dictionary as a door stop or to settle arguments on Scrabble night.
One of the spellers in this show is Marcy Park, played by Cassandra Hlong. She’s an overachiever par 
excellence. And the audience discovers in “I Speak Six Languages” that not only is Marcy multilingual, she struggles to overthrow the Tiger Mom messages she’s internalized from an early age. It might be anathema to her misfit peers, but the Bee might just be the safe place in which to fail that Marcy needs in order counterbalance her drive and determination with the competing need for benign acceptance.
Cassandra is incredibly humbled to join the Florida Rep family with her Florida Rep debut! A North Carolina 
native, she holds a B.A. in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her credits include the National Tour of A Chorus Line (Connie Wong), A Chorus Line for Atlanta Lyric (Maggie Winslow), Miss Saigon for Serenbe Playhouse (Gigi Van Tranh) and Footloose at Legacy Theatre (Rusty). She also worked as principal singer for Norwegian Cruise Line.
Cassandra gives special, special thanks to Jason and Justin for believing in her and including her in their exhilarating spelling bee train. She also dedicates her performance in Putnam County Spelling Bee to Chevy Martinez, “the real Marcy Park,” to Anthony Obnial, “for your one-of-a-kind-direction,”and the “jesus-reading that landed me the job.
March 3o, 2017.
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About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.