41.1 F
Clarksville
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeArts/LeisureSpring Awakening Brings a Youthful Passion to the Roxy Regional Theatre

Spring Awakening Brings a Youthful Passion to the Roxy Regional Theatre

Spring Awakening at the Roxy Regional TheatreClarksville, TN – When I heard that the Roxy Regional Theatre was doing the musical Spring Awakening, I was hesitant; I wasn’t sure if they would be able to pull it off. When I told Tom Thayer this before seeing the show, he gave me an ā€œoh pleaseā€ look.

I had watched the videos of this production when it first launched on Broadway and felt sure that the Roxy’s Stage would be too small for that many people, Tom reassured me that there wasn’t really that many people in this production. He was right, and the cast was just the right size to tell the story.

Set in a socially and sexually repressive village in 19th century Germany, this coming of age story follows teenagers Melchior (Matt DuMont), Wendla (Hannah Church), and Moritz (Gregory Pember*) on their journeys of self-discovery.Ā  Also featured are Melanie Beck, Josh Bernaski, Ryan Bowie, Regan Featherstone, Humberto Figueroa, Leslie Greene, Erin Keas, Ashley Laverty, John McDonald, Hollie Morse, Sean Ormond, Rob Rodems, Cassie Thompson and Kendall Anne Thompson.

Spring Awakening at the Roxy Regional Theatre
Spring Awakening at the Roxy Regional Theatre

The Roxy’s cast does a wonderful job putting on this show, in voice and action they are as good as the show’s original Broadway cast.

Spring Awakening is a musical which celebrates the unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, poignancy, and passion that you will never forget.Ā  The show is adapted from Frank Wedekind’s 1891 expressionist play of the same name and is about the trials, tears, and exhilaration of the teen years.

Synopsis*

*Warning Contains Spoliers

The play starts off with Wendla Bergmann, an adolescent in late-nineteenth century Germany, as he laments that her mother gave her ā€œno way to handle thingsā€ and has not taught her the lessons she needs to learn (ā€œMama Who Bore Meā€).

She tells her mother that it is time she learned where babies come from, considering that she is about to be an aunt for the second time. Her mother cannot bring herself to explain the facts about conception clearly to Wendla despite knowing her daughter is reaching puberty. Instead, she simply tells Wendla that to conceive a child a woman must love her husband with all of her heart.

The other young girls in town appear to be similarly innocent and are upset about the lack of knowledge presented to them (“Mama Who Bore Me – Reprise”).

At school, some teenage boys are studying Virgil in Latin class. When Moritz Stiefel, a very nervous and intense young man, sleepily misquotes a line, the teacher played by John McDonald chastises him harshly.

Melchior Gabor
Melchior Gabor

Moritzā€™s classmate, the rebellious and highly intelligent Melchior Gabor, tries to defend him, but the teacher will have none of it, and hits Melchior with a stick. Melchior reflects on the shallow narrow-mindedness of school and society and expresses his intent to change things (“All Thatā€™s Known”).

Moritz describes a dream that has been keeping him up at night, and Melchior realizes that Moritz has been having erotic dreams which Moritz believes are signs of insanity. To comfort the panicked Moritz, Melchior, who has learned sexual information from books, tells Moritz that all of the boys at their age get the dreams.

The burned-out boys tell about their own frustrating thoughts and desires. (“The Bitch of Living”). Moritz, who is not comfortable talking about the subject with Melchior, requests that he give him the information in the form of an essay, complete with illustrations.

Some girls are gathered together after school and tease each other as they fantasize about marrying the boys in the town. At the top of the list is the radical, intelligent, and good-looking Melchior (“My Junk”).

Meanwhile, Hanschen masturbates as he looks at an erotic postcard, and the piano student Georg indulges in some lively fantasies about his well-endowed female piano teacher.

Moritz has eagerly digested the essay that Melchior prepared for him, but complains that his new knowledge has only made his dreams even more vivid and torturous. Melchior tries to calm and comfort his friend, but Moritz runs off in frustration. All of the boys and girls express their desires for physical intimacy (“Touch Me”).

Wendla runs into Melchoir
Wendla runs into Melchoir

Searching for flowers for her mother, Wendla stumbles upon Melchior. The two share a moment while sitting together in front of a tree (they were childhood friends, but grew apart as they got older). Each of them considers what it would be like to give in to their physical desires, but they do not do so (“The Word of Your Body”).

Meanwhile, at school, Moritz sneaks a look at his test results and is thrilled to learn that he has passed his midterm examinations, but the teacher and schoolmaster cannot pass everyone, so they decide to fail Moritz anyway, deeming his passing grade is not up to the school’s lofty standards.

Martha, one of the teenage girls, accidentally admits to her friends that her father abuses her physically (including sexual abuse) and that her mother is either oblivious or uncaring. The other girls are horrified to hear this, but Martha makes them promise not to tell anyone, lest she end up like Ilse, a friend from childhood who now wanders homeless and aimless because her parents kicked her out of the house (“The Dark I Know Well”).

Later, Wendla finds Melchior again at his spot in the woods and tells him about Martha’s abuse. Melchior is appalled to hear this, but Wendla convinces him to hit her with a switch, so that she can try to understand her friendā€™s pain. At first Melchior is determined to do nothing of the sort, but reluctantly complies. He gets carried away in the beating, taking his own frustrations out on Wendla and throws her to the ground. He then runs off, disgusted with himself, as she weeps curled up on the ground. Alone, Wendla finds that Melchior has left his journal on the ground. She picks it up and takes it with her.

Moritz is told he has failed his final examination, and his father reacts with disdain and contempt when Moritz tells him that he will not progress in school; rather than attempting to understand his son’s pain, Moritz’s father is only concerned with how the others in town will react when they see ‘the man with the son who failed’.

Moritz writes to Melchiorā€™s mother, his only adult friend, for money to flee to America; she tenderly but firmly denies his request and promises to write his parents to discourage them from being too hard on him (“And Then There Were None”). Devastated by the refusal and feeling he has few choices left, Moritz begins to contemplate suicide.

In a stuffy hayloft during a storm, Melchior cries out in his frustration at being caught between childhood and adulthood (ā€œThe Mirror-Blue Nightā€). Wendla finds him once again, telling him she wants to return his journal, and each apologizes for what happened the last time they met.

Before long, they begin to kiss; Wendla resists his advances at first. Although she doesn’t really understand what’s going on between them, Wendla is reluctant, sensing that what they are doing is something very powerful, and very unlike anything that she has known before. They begin to make love in the hayloft (“I Believe”).

Act two begins as Wendla and Melchior are finishing their moment of intimacy in the hayloft; they reflect on and discuss what has just happened (ā€œThe Guilty Onesā€).

Moritz, having been thrown out of his home, wanders the town at dusk, carrying a pistol (“Don’t Do Sadness”). He comes across free-spirited Ilse, a childhood friend who he has not spoken to in years, and secretly loves. Ilse, who also secretly loves Moritz, tells him she has found refuge at an artists’ colony; and they reminisce in some childhood memories and “remarkable times” (“Blue Wind”).

She invites him to come home with her and join her in sharing some more childhood memories and perhaps something more, Moritz refuses as he’s only set on killing himself, but Ilse does everything she can to convince him to change his mind (“Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind”). After coming close to kissing and admitting their feelings for each other, Moritz refuses, and Ilse leaves very hurt. After suddenly changing his mind, he desperately calls after her, recognizing his true feelings for her and the need to tell her, but it is too late; she is gone. Feeling rejected once again and losing his final offer of hope and love, Moritz feels that he has lost everything and the world he sees is dark and cold. Believing that he has nowhere to turn, Moritz shoots himself.

At Moritz’s funeral, each of his friends including Ilse, drop a flower into his grave, and Melchior chastises Moritzā€™s father for being so cruel to his friend, as the other students look at Moritz’s father with disgust for pushing Moritz too hard when he was alive (“Left Behind”).

Back at school, the schoolmaster and teacher feel the need to call attention away from Moritz, whose death was a direct result of their actions, in order to absolve themselves of their own guilt. They search through Moritz’s belongings and find the essay on sex which Melchior wrote for him.

They lay the blame of Moritz’s death on Melchior, and although Melchior knows that he is not to blame, he knows there is nothing he can do to fight them, and he is expelled (“Totally Fucked”).

Elsewhere that night, Hanschen meets up with his shy and delicate classmate Ernst. Hanschen shares his pragmatic outlook on life with his classmate before seducing him. “Me? I’m like a pussycat. I just skim off the cream,” is Hanschen’s way of telling Ernst that he is special because he knows how to work the system of the world to his advantage. It is Ernst’s first sexual experience, and he tells Hanschen that he loves him as the two share a passionate kiss (“The Word of Your Body – Reprise”).

Wendla has become ill, and her mother takes her to visit a doctor. He gives her some medication and assures them both that Wendla is suffering from anemia and will be fine, but he takes Wendla’s mother aside and tells her that Wendla is pregnant.

When her mother confronts her with this information, Wendla is completely shocked, not understanding how this could have happened. She realizes that her mother lied to her about how babies are made and expected her to know the consequences of her actions with Melchior despite not learning about it properly.

Although she berates her mother for leaving her ignorant, her mother rejects the guilt and insists Wendla tell her who the father is. Wendla reluctantly surrenders a passionate note Melchior sent her after they consummated their relationship. Wendla reflects somberly on her current condition and the circumstances that led her to this difficult position, but ends with optimism about her future child (“Whispering”).

Meanwhile, Melchior’s parents argue about their son’s fate; his mother does not believe that the essay he wrote for Moritz is sufficient reason to send him away to reform school. When Melchior’s father tells his wife about Wendla’s pregnancy, however, she agrees that they must send Melchior away, which they do without telling him that Wendla is pregnant.

During this time, Melchior and Wendla only keep contact through the use of letters, with Ilse delivering them to each other. At the reform school, Melchior gets into a fight with some boys who grab a letter he has just received from Wendla and use it in a masturbation game. As one of the boys reads from the letter, Melchior finally learns about Wendla and their child, and he escapes from the institution to find her.

He does not know that Wendla’s mother has already taken her to an underground practitioner to have an abortion. When Melchior reaches town, he sends a message to Ilse to have her get Wendla to meet him at the cemetery at midnight, but as he “doesn’t know”, heartfelt, she is unable to take action. There, he stumbles across Moritz’s grave, and swears to himself that he and Wendla will raise their child in a compassionate and open environment.

When Wendla is late to the meeting, Melchior begins to feel a little uneasy. Looking around, Melchior sees a grave he hadn’t noticed before. He reads the name on the stone – Wendla Bergman – and realizes that Wendla died from the forced abortion. Overwhelmed by shock and grief, he takes out a razor with the intention of killing himself.

Moritz’s and Wendla’s spirits rise from their graves to offer him their strength. They persuade him to journey on, and he resolves to live and to carry their memories with him forever. “Not gone, not gone,” Wendla assures him in song (“Those You’ve Known”).

Led by Ilse, everyone assembles onstage to sing “The Song of Purple Summer” about life and hope.

As you can see this is a story with an incredible breadth and complexity. You will be laughing, and at times crying along with the incredible cast that the Roxy has put together for this show.

Spring Awakening has won 8 TONY Awards, including BEST MUSICAL. It has been hailed as the “Best Musical of the Year” by the New York Times, New York Post, Star Ledger, Journal News, New York Observer, and USA Today.

With book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik (known for his 1996 radio hit ā€œBarely Breathingā€), ā€Spring Awakeningā€ is directed and choreographed by Tom Thayer and features Thayer on piano, alongside Vicki King and Wayne Wyman on strings, Bruce Ervin on bass, Thad Wallus on drums and Jarrod Jackson on guitar.

This production contains strong language, sexual situations and subject matter not appropriate for all audiences.

ā€œSpring Awakeningā€ runs through May 5th, playing Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00pm and Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm.Ā  Tickets are $20.00 and may be purchased online at www.roxyregionaltheatre.org, by phone at (931) 645-7699, or at the theatre during regular box office hours (9:00am to 2:00pm, Monday through Friday).

Get out and see this show!

Photo Gallery

More about Spring Awakening

Documentary

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seQURhkc8S4[/youtube]

Bitch of Living

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l24rXvqmKI[/youtube]

*Gregory Pember is appearing courtesy of Actorsā€™ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Bill Larson
Bill Larson
Bill Larson isĀ  is politically and socially active in the community. Bill is a member of the Friends of Dunbar Cave. You can reach him via telephone at 931-249-0043 or via the email address below.
RELATED ARTICLES

Latest Articles