Casting Breakdown for cast of 6:

WORKER 42: A dutiful servant of her hive. A stickler for protocol. Under extreme pressure. Highly intelligent.

MESSENGER: Earnestly wants to help save bee-kind. Quiet, observant, smart. He knows he’s different than other drones (male bees) but doesn’t exactly know what that means yet.

QUEEN: Daffy to an outrageous degree. Has power and knows how to use it. Spoiled/conceited. For some reason, she speaks with an extremely posh British accent. (Even though we’re probably in North America.) Older than WORKER 42.

SIX: Hunky young male bee. Caring & intelligent. Presents as heterosexual.

PUPPETEER 1 (FEMALE ROLES): WORKER BEE 46, WORKER BEE 94 (dutiful worker bees), SISTER (MESSENGER’s older sister. Caring & sweet.), various others

PUPPETEER 2 (MALE ROLES): Plays BABY MESSENGER (a puppet; MESSENGER as a child), DUDE DRONE (brainless dude), RANDOM DRONE, various others

To cut the cast from six actors to five, there is an option to cut the PUPPETEER 2 (MALE ROLES), in which case, BABY MESSENGER could be operated and voiced by any of the actors playing SIX, or QUEEN, or WORKER, and the rest of the MALE PUPPET roles could be played by PUPPETEER (FEMALE ROLES). That’s up to the discretion of the production and how many background bee puppets you want buzzing around the hive at any given time. There is also the option to increase the cast and have many more actors playing puppets and/or background bees.) When we’re inside the hive, there are always background worker bees flying around. They may be puppets, video images, actors, or a combination of all three.