Spring Awakening being performed by high schools?

[Nettik]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:37pm

According to MTI's upcoming shows page, a few high schools have gotten the rights to perform Spring Awakening.

I have no problem with high schoolers seeing the show, but I don't think that it's appropriate for a public high school to perform.

Thoughts?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:38pm

I have no problem with high schoolers performing the show, but I don't think it's appropriate for them to see it.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:45pm

It would depend on the sophistication of the school and students. Schools that can't present Once Upon a Mattress because of the pregnant princess plot will not be doing SA.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:46pm

I don't think students should see a play with a pregnant princess but I think they should get pregnant.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:19pm

And often they do!

[trentsketch]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:34pm

There are some schools that actually allow educational theater to be an educational experience. That means trusting the director to choose plays that have a way of opening up new experience to the students. While I don't care for the musical Spring Awakening, I can see how some directors would fight for the chance to open up a discussion about the issues in the show.

I can think of a few schools in my area that would do Spring Awakening without attempting to alter any language. At most, they would find a way to tone down the sex scene without hiding what's actually happening. These are schools that opted to license the real version of Rent or do productions of The Laramie Project or The Heidi Chronicles. If they can get district approval to do the show and do it well, more power to them.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 5:15pm

Funny truth:
We can do Sweeney Todd, but not Spring Awakening.

So killing is fine, but sex is not.


(And we happen to be doing Mattress this year -- so really, only ON stage sex is out. And we've done Laramie.)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 5:20pm

Since I thought the show was a glorified after-school special as performed by angsty drama students, it seems appropriate enough. They can use the how-dare-you-censor-us choreography from the Tony awards to be all rebellious and whatnot.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 5:40pm

It is kind of strange to think about high schools and youth theatres putting on productions of Spring Awakening especially because I imagine them to be so sanitized compared to the Broadway production, but it is a show about young kids that deals with issues that we're already exposed to in everyday life so I, personally, don't take issue with it. There aren't a ton of shows that feature a cast made up of mostly students so I would imagine it to be a nice fit for more progressive high schools and youth companies. I just hope no one gets in trouble for having under age actors take their clothes off. Yikes.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 9:45pm

I'm no great fan of this particular musical, but I don't understand the rationale for barring it from schools based on its sexual content. By the time kids graduate high school they'll likely have read more sexually explicit works in English class. There is also the fact that health class is a requirement in most public schools across the country, and unless anything has changed in the ten years since I was a high school students, they don't spare many details there. And of course the movies and television they watch, and magazines they read, speak more frankly of sex than SPRING even insinuates.

It would be great if high schools staged productions of Wedekind's original text.

Updated On: 9/10/11 at 09:45 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 3:17am

1. Knowledge and action are two different things.
2. (I'm fairly sure) Its ILLEGAL for minors to simulate sex in a performance. Isn't this why Jen Damiano stopped understudying Wendla?


And I'd be fired for telling any student to put his (or her hand on the breast of any other student. (And I have a HS that is pretty lenient and a principal that is incredibly supportive.)

Updated On: 9/11/11 at 03:17 AM

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 3:25am

I'm no great fan of this particular musical, but I don't understand the rationale for barring it from schools based on its sexual content. By the time kids graduate high school they'll likely have read more sexually explicit works in English class. There is also the fact that health class is a requirement in most public schools across the country, and unless anything has changed in the ten years since I was a high school students, they don't spare many details there. And of course the movies and television they watch, and magazines they read, speak more frankly of sex than SPRING even insinuates.

It would be great if high schools staged productions of Wedekind's original text.

Agreed! Although I have grown to like the musical over the years, I would enjoy seeing a high school take on the original play.

I've also seen high schools do borderline revival productions of Cabaret and let's face it, that has more sex and promiscuity than anything in Spring Awakening.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 5:17am

Funny, but in all the productions I've ever seen of Caberet (a show I love) I've never seen simulated sex. THAT'S the difference.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 8:42am

2. (I'm fairly sure) Its ILLEGAL for minors to simulate sex in a performance. Isn't this why Jen Damiano stopped understudying Wendla?

Just out of curiosity, since I don't work in high school...would the situation be the same if both the actors playing Wendla and Melchior were 18?

[Kad]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 9:18am

That, of course, means only 18-year-old students would be allowed to be cast as those roles, which is remarkably unfair and requires careful scheduling.

I don't really have a problem with it being performed by high schoolers, but I imagine everyone else in the community would.


My high school performed Streetcar two years after I graduated. Which I find incredibly inappropriate for a high school on many levels.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 9:29am

Actually, come to think of it, Alexandra Socha understudied and performed the role of Wendla before she was 18. Does anybody who's more in the know about SPRING AWAKENING know if anything was altered when she was on? (By the time she assumed the role she had turned eighteen)

Updated On: 9/11/11 at 09:29 AM

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 11:54am

Dramamama, how was Two Ladies staged in the productions of Cabaret you've seen?

[Nettik]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 6:12pm

My main concern about the average high school performing this show isn't so much about the sex or profanity, but about the possible lack of support for the students taking on these roles. I have friends that are in high school/just graduated from high school who find Spring Awakening highly triggering because of the suicide and abuse the characters live with. I'm sure a performing arts school could handle it, but the average high school?

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 8:21pm

Funny, but in all the productions I've ever seen of Caberet (a show I love) I've never seen simulated sex. THAT'S the difference.

I've seen ones that have, so it depends on the director and the school and whether or not the parents are okay with it.

So yeah, there is a DIFFERENCE on how it's performed. :)

[redmustang]

Posted: 9/11/11 at 9:53pm

I personally don't like the show but, I say let them do it. I don't think the students will have any problems. It will be the aunts and uncles (thinking they're coming to see Oliver) who may faint.