Events Around Town

Performances
August 28th – September 14th, 2025
– Thursday 8/28 at 7pm
– Friday 8/29 at 7pm
– Saturday 8/30 at 7pm
– Sunday 8/31 at 2pm
– Thursday 9/4 at 7pm (Understudy Show)
– Friday 9/5 at 7pm
– Saturday 9/6 at 2pm & 7pm
– Sunday 9/7 at 2pm
– Thursday 9/11 at 7pm
– Friday 9/12 at 7pm
– Saturday 9/13 at 2pm (Understudy Show) & 7pm
– Sunday 9/14 at 2pm

Production Staff:
Edie Flores – Director
Michael McGushin – Musical Director
Erin Rose Solorio – Choreographer & Assistant-Director
Bessie Zolno – Intimacy & Violence Choreographer

Synopsis:
Spring Awakening (book and lyrics by Steven Sater, music by Duncan Sheik) is an eight time Tony Award winning musical that was adapted from Frank Wedekind’s late 1891 play “Frühlings Erwachen,” which translates to “A Children’s Tragedy.” Wedekind’s work challenged German society to the point of the play being considered scandalous, outright obscene, and ultimately banned. Wedekind refused to be silenced and decided to publish the play himself in 1891. It received its first fully staged German production in 1906 and its English translated American production in 1917. Fast forward about 100 years from Wedekind’s original piece, the play has been reinterpreted as a musical with the same setting as the original but it is juxtaposed by contemporary pop/rock music sung by the teenage characters as a way to call out to be heard.

This show was conceived by Sater and Sheik as a way to touch the hearts of troubled teens following the Columbine school shooting in 2001. The choice to make the music of this show completely contemporary was a way to assure the music would be “relevant to the culture at large,” as often stated in interviews by both writers. The musical is orchestrated for a modern rock band accompanied by a small string section. The instruments involved are piano, guitar, bass, drums, violin, viola, cello, and harmonium. Contextually, they provide a pop/rock sound with hints of 20th century classical music influence.

Content Warning:
This show contains haze, the loud noise of a gunshot, and explicit language. Spring Awakening contains depictions of parental and systemic abuse, semi-consensual intercourse, individual and group masturbation, depression, theatrical suicide, and attempted self harm. Themes and Discussions of sexuality, sexual fantasy, sexual discovery, sexual violence, abortion, abandonment, and the consequences of lack of sexual education are present.