being in quarantine i feel like a lot of us have returned to our roots in a way, and i'm sure i'm not alone in saying that i was a theatre nerd.
i have so many fond memories of being in musicals in high school and helping out at my local community theater. it was a place where i found my confidence as a performer. i think being brave enough to go onstage in front of your high school peers and sing a song you know VERY well that you should not be singing because you sound horrid is one of the most terrifying things a kid can do as they're growing up. but kudos to all of you that did it, we're stronger because of it, and most importantly it was really fun.
of course i poured my whole entire soul into theatre. i was a HORRENDOUS singer, but there definitely was a love and appreciation i had as an audience member. junior and senior year of high school i have so many stories of nicole and i going on weekend trips to enter the broadway lottery in NYC. we would run down times square with ten minutes till the curtain to buy our raffled off tickets.
there's one show though for me that stands out amongst the rest.
AND THAT'S SPRING AWAKENING.
spring awakening is a show i think every person should see. (i would try to summarize it but here's a blurb from wikipedia to give you the low-down)
"Spring Awakening is a rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. It is based on the 1891 German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. Set in late 19th-century Germany, the musical tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality."
so basically, everything you never thought you needed, but will definitely want after watching it.
also BILL T JONES choreographed this and won a god damn tony award for it. if that isn't incentive enough to watch it, i don't know what is. the choreography is absolute perfection with beautiful recurring motifs that will stay with you for days after watching.
warning, there's very explicit scenes of violence, suicide, teenage pregnancy, masturbation, and rape in the musical (which are done with a lot of care and thought) BUT are still super believable and scary at times. if you're sensitive to any of those things please watch with caution!!
this was an especially "risque" show for its time, because the cast consisted of actual real life teenagers acting out all of these things. kind of like the 13 reasons why of musicals, but done with much more care and less creepy blaming of things on other people.
you'll probably spot some familiar faces in the original broadway cast of the show, so i'll leave you the (totally illegal) full show to watch here
(go buy the cast album please if you can to make up for this being illegal)
but, this isn't the end of the story.
in 2015 something truly remarkable happened with this show. the amazing theatre organization Deaf West decided to create their own version of the show.
this version of spring awakening was to be done with an integrated cast of verbally speaking people and deaf people. if you aren't familiar with the show it speaks a lot on silencing curiosity as well as education when it comes to sex and sexuality. i think the teamwork of these people that made this version of the production a reality are so brilliant. they created something truly beautiful and devastating that emphasizes the themes and messages of the original show.
(of course im going to link that here too. both productions are no longer on broadway and not on tour so this is definitely less morally wrong right? buy and listen to the Deaf West cast too)
if you have time to watch the evolution of this show i highly recommend it. the choreography and combination of american sign language in the show is so moving. (thanks to choreographer spencer liff!) it makes me feel hopeful that movement will bring us all closer to a place of eradicating ableism. this show is definitely making so many strides forward for differently-abled people, being the first broadway show EVER to have a woman in a wheelchair in the ensemble. (uhh how did it take us that long?)
i think spring awakening is a show that is so self aware of it's messages and delivers them through the very structure of the cast itself. while these pop-culture musicals are all the rage right now with their flashy lights and set design, i can't stop thinking about spring awakening. it's minimal set, it's ability to morph into what each scene needs, it's truly raw and horrifying story of what happens when we silence others.
don't get me wrong, i love a good spotlight, but i think i love digging and revealing a little bit more.
xoxo
caro