And I was there when it hap­pened

Note: this video was uploaded by Youtube “atlantispro­duc­tion­sinc”, not by me.

Too bad there weren’t too many footages of the audience’s faces. The look on their faces were sim­ply price­less

UPDATE: Here’s an arti­cle from the actress who played the Vice-Principal. Click on the head­line to visit the orig­i­nal article:

Can you spell P-R-O-P-O-S-A-L?
By Cathy Azanza-Dy Updated July 10, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philip­pines — One of the things that makes The 25^th Annual Put­nam County Spelling Bee such an enjoy­able play to watch is that no two shows are ever the same. The Bee invites audi­ence mem­bers to be guest spellers on stage, which makes each show a unique and spe­cial experience.

This was dou­bly true on the night of July 4, where at the end of the show, the audi­ence was treated to yet another heart­warm­ing spec­ta­cle: an honest-to-goodness, real-life mar­riage pro­posal, right there on stage.

Guest speller Sher­i­lyn Siy, who had been elim­i­nated in the ear­lier round of the Bee, was called back on stage by the show’s hosts, Rona Lisa Peretti, whom I play, and Vice Prin­ci­pal Dou­glas Panch (Joel Trinidad). Due to a “tech­ni­cal­ity,” Siy was given a sec­ond chance to spell another word, to be given by a guest word pro­nouncer — who turned out to be her boyfriend, Charles McJilton.

Pick­ing up the micro­phone, McJil­ton said solemnly, “Your word is: ‘Marry.’”

A speech­less Siy stood smil­ing and teary-eyed as the audi­ence cheered. McJil­ton quipped, “If you can’t spell the word, I can give you a sentence…”

The cou­ple had been together for about a year. McJil­ton is the exec­u­tive direc­tor of Sec­ond Har­vest Japan, a non-government orga­ni­za­tion that matches food dona­tions with var­i­ous relief and wel­fare agen­cies in Japan. Siy, on the other hand, is a teacher and researcher at Miriam College.

They met briefly dur­ing a din­ner hosted in Manila by Bruce and Ros­alie Hall for those involved in the food-banking mis­sion. The next evening, McJil­ton and Siy found them­selves on their first date, which was the first of many lead­ing to this spe­cial moment dur­ing the Bee.

McJil­ton pointed to their seats in the orches­tra sec­tion. “A year ago, in those seats, you stole my heart,” he said, allud­ing to their first date watch­ing Atlantis Pro­duc­tions’ Avenue Q last year. “It would be my great plea­sure spend­ing the rest of my life wak­ing up to you, and rais­ing chil­dren with you.”

Wip­ing her tears, Siy joked, “Do I have to spell it?” before finally let­ting out a breath­less “Yes!”

The newly engaged cou­ple then sealed the moment with a pas­sion­ate kiss onstage, as the entire the­ater erupted in shouts and thun­der­ous applause. Indeed, any­thing can hap­pen at the Bee!

To the beau­ti­ful cou­ple, the entire cast and crew of The 25^th Annual Put­nam County Spelling Bee extend their best wishes for a life­time of hap­pi­ness and love.

C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S!