The ‘Spring Awakening’ of today
Conn College’s production of the coming-of-age story reflects its modern-day relevance
Almost anything — from art to books, television shows to movies — can take on a different meaning as time passes. That’s especially true in the theater world, it seems, where musicals and plays from years past are often revived and reanalyzed in the context of present times.
The team behind “Spring Awakening” at Connecticut College has been experiencing its own re-evaluation of that 2006 musical as it puts together its production for this weekend. Originally written as a play in 1891 by German playwright Frank Wedekind, the musical is a coming-of-age story about the thrills, trials and tribulations of sexual maturation in a strict, repressive German society dictated by adults. The teenagers, in an effort to forge their own paths, learn tough lessons along the way, tackling issues relating to sexuality, rape, homosexuality, suicide and abortion — themes guest director Leora Morris says have coincidentally taken on a different meaning with the ever-shifting political and cultural climate today.
“There is a sort of awakening happening right now throughout the country,” Morris says of the production she has tactfully navigated with her cast of 15 Conn College students and a creative team that includes chair of dance department David Dorfman (he choreographed the Broadway play “Indecent”) and musical director Robert Frost. “That, in a way, has allowed us to take the liberty to explore these themes in this new context.”
Morris, who is guest-directing at the college for the first time, is a 2016 graduate of Yale University’s MFA directing program and has already developed a reputation for being able to thoughtfully approach difficult productions. Her version of “Women Beware Women” for her thesis project garnered the attention of James Bundy, dean of Yale School of Drama and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre — landing her his recommendation to work with Conn College on this production.
“Spring Awakening” the musical, which was written by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater and premiered on Broadway in 2006, garnered eight Tony Awards, including Tonys for Best Musical, Direction, Book, Score and Featured Actor. The musical was written in response to the Columbine massacre.
In that context, it seems that “Spring Awakening” is more relevant than ever, considering the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. Just last Friday, New Yorker magazine writer Michael Schulman drew a parallel between Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old survivor of that shooting who started the “Never Again” anti-gun movement, with “Spring Awakening’s” main antagonist, Melchior.
“Like Melchior, Kasky and his classmates have vowed to remake a world that failed them,” writes Schulman in the piece, questioning the world that millennials and the younger generation are being forced to enter in today.
In that same vein, Morris, her cast and her creative team are also attempting to explore these notions within themselves and through their performance.
Besides working closely with Dorfman, who developed original choreography for the show, and Frost, who will oversee the show’s live music, Morris and her cast have also had to come together to search within themselves what these issues mean to them and the Conn College campus.
“We’ve had to deconstruct as a team a lot of the themes explored in this musical and talk about each one together,” Morris says. “There has been a lot of talking about where the play meets with their lives, and I think it’s a very unique opportunity for them and for the audience.”
In particular, Morris remembers working with the cast on one of the musical’s key scenes — that of a sexual encounter between a male and female character that begins consensually but ends non-consensually.
“It triggered some very important conversations about vocabulary and asks how do we talk about what’s consensual and not consensual and how we communicate about those things,” Morris says.
Another scene exploring sexual assault triggered a conversation about the #MeToo movement.
“We specifically talked about the sense of solidarity in having other people with whom you can share those stories. We talked about how the women in this story don’t yet have that and that they don’t feel like they can be honest,” she says. “The students have really come together for this and even have been like, ‘This is our moment, this is our #MeToo moment, we get to stand together and look at our peers and sing.’”
This sense of solidarity is precisely the driving point behind the play, Dorfman says in a phone interview last Wednesday.
“Whether it’s protests we see occurring over gun violence, or the #MeToo movement, seeing the articulation of new ideas by folks who haven’t had a strong voice is completely what we need right now,” Dorfman says. “This idea of compassion and intimacy and support and hope are the underpinnings of this play. And I think that, in this moment in history, those things are most needed. Our world and country have become divided. And we need art that points to ways in which we can heal and move forward and bring out voices that aren’t heard.”
“Spring Awakening,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London; $18 general admission, $8 seniors, students, military; (860) 439-2787.