CAST AS WENDLA BERGMANN
Presenting Frank Wedekind’s play SPRING AWAKENING in a version by Ted Hughes: this student production approached the play’s 19th Century Germany themes of sexuality, abortion, suicide, and child abuse through the 20th Century American lens.
The work depicts school children in a German provincial town in the 1890s whose struggle to reconcile their budding sexual feelings and the moral code of their society leads them to tragedy. Irritated by what Wedekind saw as the hypocrisy of German society’s attitude toward sexuality, he showed in plays such as SPRING AWAKENING the tragedies that can result from repression and societal pretense. He was one of the first to present frank depictions of teenage sexuality, homoeroticism, and masturbation on the stage, and his disregard for conventional morality caused many to dismiss him as a pornographer. He faced frequent censorship throughout his working life.
Directed by Budi Miller.