November 07, 2014

Fall Main Stage 2014: SPRING AWAKENING, the Musical by Stephen Sater & Duncan Sheik

Director: Professor Stepan Simek

Music Director/Conductor: Stephen Alexander

Choreographer: Guest Artist Jessica Wallenfels

Vocal Coach: Sue McBerry

Scene & Costume Designer: Guest Artist Megan Wilkerson

Lighting Designer: Staff Technical Director Matthew Robins

 

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE


After six long years, a production of a modern American musical finally returns to the Lewis & Clark Fir Acres stage.

Spring Awakening is a Tony-Award winning based on the original play by the German proto-expressionist playwright, Frank Wedekind. It is a story of sexual awakening among a group of young children in a late nineteenth century provincial town in Germany. The children—oppressed by a rigid educational system, and lied to about sex by their parents—rage against the prevailing repression, explore their sexuality, and test the limits of freedom.

In the musical version of the play, the inner lives of the children, their anger, their desires, and their confusion are expressed by rock, punk, and garage band-inspired music and songs. The musical numbers are full of literary allusions, poetic depth worthy of Baudelaire, pain and anger reminiscent of Kurt Cobain or Sid Vicious, and the burning emotionality of Patti Smith. These songs reveal the depths of the characters’ souls as they tell us the real story of the children’s emotional journey. Modern music is juxtaposed with the oppressive realities of nineteenth century life, and the musical seamlessly switches back and forth between the two: the rich world of contemporary rock and soul breathing life into the dullness of their everyday struggles.

Please note that the play and the production deal with explicit sexual issues in honest and decidedly non-Puritan ways.

 The cast consists of sixteen undergraduate students who sing, dance, and act like angels, and is supported by more than twenty students in various technical and design roles.  This production is directed by Stepan Simek, Professor of Theatre; Musical direction is by guest artist Stephen Alexander; voice direction and coaching is by Susan McBerry, Music Department; guest artist Jessica Wallenfels is the choreographer; sets and costumes are designed by Megan Wilkerson, Theatre Department adjunct instructor; and the lighting is designed by Matthew Robins, Theatre Department Technical Director.


Performances are November 7, 8, and 13, 14, 15 at 7:30pm and November 9* and 16* at 2pm.

 

Ticket Prices:

 $15 General
 $10 LC faculty/staff/alum, seniors, non LC students
 $  8 Groups of 10 or more
 $  5 LC students

 

Visit the Box Office for ticket information.