Original Broadway Production Produced by IRA PITTELMAN, TOM HULCE, JEFFREY RICHARDS, JERRY FRANKEL, ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY, Jeffrey Sine, Freddy DeMann, Max Cooper, Mort Swinsky/Cindy and Jay Gutterman/Joe McGinnis/Judith Ann Abrams, ZenDog Productions/CarJac Productions, Aron Bergson Productions/Jennifer Manocherian/Ted Snowdon, Harold Thau/Terry Schnuck/Cold Spring Productions, Amanda Dubois/Elizabeth Eynon Wetherell, Jennifer Maloney/Tamara Tunie/Joe Cilibrasi/StyleFour Productions.

The world premiere of Spring Awakening was produced by the Atlantic Theater Company by special arrangement with Tom Hulce & Ira Pittelman.

Spring Awakening is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).  All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.  www.mtishows.com

Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Director Notes

I first encountered the play Spring Awakening in the early 2000s in a small off-off-Broadway theatre. I had gone to see a friend play Wendla’s mother, and I remember being struck by the cautionary nature of the piece. The author of Spring Awakening, Frank Wiedekind, was responding to the polarizing political conservatism of 1890s Germany, which starkly contrasted the industrial and social progress that marked the turn of the century in Europe. At the center of this conflict in the story of Spring Awakening were the victims of this society, the children. Caught between their parents’ conservative rigidity and their emerging humanity, the young people in the piece struggled and suffered to understand what was happening in their bodies, with their friends, and in the world around them. The themes of two very loud, specific, and opposing points of view clashing in the public square stood out to me as an exciting study of culture. Over the course of a few hours, the children in the play experienced abuse, engaged in self-harm, and one character committed suicide. The haunting images from the production stayed with me. 

A few years after I first saw the play, the musical debuted on Broadway. The musical Spring Awakening was a hit and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best New Musical. The creative team, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, juxtaposed Wiedekind’s original symbolist play interspersed with rock music, revealing the characters’ inner landscape. The result was an ephemeral success. As I sat in the theatre watching the original Broadway cast, I was surrounded by rapt teenagers, seeing stories unfold that spoke deeply to their own experiences. At the time, I was in my early 30s, just separated enough to be aware that I was not the target audience. 

When the opportunity came to direct this piece, I was cautious. My impressions of the production I saw over a decade ago were unchanged. However, as I thought about Wiedekind’s original intention, and our fractured society, I pulled out the script and listened to the score with all the openness I could muster. My mother walked in while I was listening to the song “The B*tch of Living,” and as we discussed the premise, she felt strongly that the musical needed to be performed at this specific time for this specific audience. She said, “If the adults do not wake up and realize that our children are watching us and waiting for us to model how to live well, we will be lost.” And she is right; teaching my own children to think critically and be curious is a daunting but necessary task in this world where everything feels out of my control. Engaging with the world outside of my comfort zone seems incredibly intimidating and it would be so much easier to retreat and recreate my children in my own image. 

This argument compelled me to prepare this production of Spring Awakening for our Elon community. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as we have enjoyed creating it for you. The material is sometimes weighty, but it is also true to the human experience. It allows us to look at our humanity, to experience the joys and sufferings of these characters as they come of age in a world not made for them. I hope you find yourself like Melchior, hopeful for a world that we can create through reason, creativity, and curiosity.

Special Thanks

President Connie Book, Provost Rebecca Kohn, Dean Gabie Smith, Fred Rubeck, Natalie Hart, Kimberly Rippy, Brian Kremer, Becca and Sydney Thorn, Kayla Higbee, David McGraw, Susanne Shawyer, Kaye Kennedy, Ryan Shively