The Wanda L. Bass School of Music’s final mainstage of the semester is a rock musical about sexual and religious transparency and education.
The School of Music will present “Spring Awakening,” by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater at 8 p.m. April 23-24 in the Kirkpatrick Theatre in Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center via livestream.
Luke Gilmore, music theater junior, is playing “Ernst.” He said the show is about sexual exploration and discovery at a high school in 19th century Germany.
Gilmore said performing the show with COVID restrictions encouraged the performers to reconsider the way they interpret scenes.
“As much as this show is about intimacy, it is also a show about isolation,” Gilmore said. “And that feeling of wanting someone to be right there beside you at your lowest, and a lot of the things the characters experience really shows that isolated feeling.”
Gilmore said the team was challenged to reevaluate the meaning of intimacy and what communication means.
“I’ve just been amazed at how well this has worked, you know, in being such an intimate piece,” Gilmore said.
Simón Gómez, music theater/music composition senior, is playing “Mortitz.” He said performing “Spring Awakening” with restrictions offers an attractive challenge to theater companies.
“I think it’s really interesting that a lot of schools are doing this,” Gómez said. “I think it’s the challenge of doing a show that is so heavily linked to intimacy and physical touch.”
Gómez said the intimacy directors, Kris Kuss, visiting assistant professor of voice and acting, and Olivia Laskin, acting senior, were two of the driving forces behind the execution and vision for the show.
Gómez said the intimacy directors emphasized emotional limits and tools to help the actors execute their work safely because the production is socially distant.
“The first thing they talked about was rehearsal safety,” Gómez said. “They introduced a tool called the button, where if you say button, the whole rehearsal stops. You get asked what you need, and you say whatever you need next.”
Gómez said other tools the intimacy directors provided were ‘boundaries.’
“Boundaries on your body, like if you have a boundary on your chest area, pelvic area, you can express that, and then you just don’t physicalize any movements on that are,” Gómez said.
Gómez said he hopes the message of the show shines through the format and get its message across to the audience.
“The essence of ‘Spring Awakening’ is that teenagers and children that have gone through so much at such a young age are often left out to dry by adults,” Gómez said. “They’re dunked into this giant turmoil of emotions and with no help.”
Brianna Williams, music theater junior, is playing “Martha” in the show. She said the process of preparing “Spring Awakening” was emotionally taxing and rewarding.
“It has actually been very heavy. It’s been like trying to figure how I, Bri, would feel trying to tell my friends something so heavy, especially in a time period where that was not done,” Williams said. “But it has also been very inspirational, to think like a woman in that time and then see where women have come and where we’re at.”
Williams hopes the audience takes away the importance of transparency and education around intimacy.
“I really hope they take away that education is important. I think that’s the basis of this entire show,” Williams said. “You find that each of the characters are not educated. The adults, the children. It leads to this cycle that this is a continuous disaster of horrific events that have been because no one educates people properly.”
The School of music will present “Spring Awakening” at 8 p.m. April 23-24 livestreamed from the Kirkpatrick Theatre in Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center. Tickets are available via ShowTix4U.
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