My Awakening with Spring Awakening
Is it a crime to feel love? This question was asked on January 15, 2011 to over 1000 people in the audience during a performance of Spring Awakening. Directed by Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening is the story of six (6) young boys and five (5) little women who are all experiencing their own sexual and moral growth in a town that is suppressed and believe all exploration is not only ill advised but an affront against god. Kingsbury Hall and the Broadway Across America Touring Company allowed me the privilege of watching these teenagers express their inner most feeling and thought through movement and song because they couldn’t openly speak. Original Choreography by Bill T. Jones was adapted to the Utah stage by Joann M. Hunter and captivated the minds of all in the audience on a completely empty stage, where the imagination of the viewers was put to the test.
Do you feel your life is a bitch? In act 1 the number Bitch of the Living (Joann M. Hunter) was performed. Moritz Schtiffle (played by Coby Getzug) leads the boys in a song about their first experiences with a wet dream. As this time period is late 1800 Germany, the boys were all in their private school attire and very stiff, that is until the music started. A school teacher yells at the boys and right as his line ends, three notes are played very hard on an electric guitar, young Moritz looses his posture and proper speech and begins growling into a microphone pulled out of his jacket pocket “God! I dreamed there was an angel…”. The song continued on with only him singing for about two lines when suddenly all the boys begin moving their right shoulder to the beat of the song until the line “It’s the BITCH of the living!!!” is yelled by all the boys who now have lost their posture and all have microphones in their hands. After those words are yelled the lights turn a dark red and the boys are now turned in all directions slamming their feet as hard as they can chanting “Bitch, Just the Bitch!” as young Moritz sings of their experiences. This stomping and anger showed their frustration perfectly, and really made the audience feel as if they were about to be hit from the anger in the room. As the song began to rise with its energy the kids got out of their chairs and began to wander the room kicking chairs and the air as they traveled, never once looking at each other to keep that “inner thought” aspect alive in the dance. The song continues until they hit the line “Do they think we want this?!” when they all stop and at the same time point directly at the teacher in the classroom and just stare him down. The song changes tempo after this moment and the lights fade to blue for a more touching feel as the boys describe their feelings for the girls and even some of the men in the town, because this is slow the dancers took on a slow motion beat, still stomping their feet but now without sound and only about ¼ the speed they were just going. The song suddenly picks up to full speed again, red lights blaring twice as bring, stomps twice as loud and chaos on the stage, the teenagers were rolling on the ground, jumping over chairs, kicking the air, nearly running into each other even. The line “God! Is this it!?” suddenly was sung by all the boys and they all hit a synchronization of stomps until traveled into a circle, after breaking this circle they went to their chairs, climbed up on them and with the line “Oh god! What a bitch!” they jump off the front of their chairs, sit sharply at the same time and are instantly back into their original postures, returning us to the “real world, classroom.”
Bitch of the Living was a very moving piece that made the audience cheer, but not as much as the number in act 2 entitled Totally Fucked (Joann M. Hunter) sung and performed by the entire cast. At this point in the show, leading man Melchior Gabor (played by Christopher Wood) has been accused at aiding with the suicide of this friend Moritz and, on top of that, others are discovering that he impregnated his lover Wendla (played by Elizabeth Judd). The entire cast is sitting on stage moving their heads from looking at him and looking back out into the audience as the first riffs of the song hit and the lights slowly change from a whit to a purple and red color. “There’s a moment you know…your fucked!” is sung by the lead boy as his posture, yet again, changes and he pulls the microphone from his jacket; taking us back to the “internal world.” Three boys stand up and sing along with Melchior, making very nice levels of one boy standing 3 girls sitting until the next boy standing. They were also very stiff and still had their posture and even straight arm movement even though Melchior was loose and very modern. I felt, personally, that this showed the conflict of doing what those around you say and believing what you believe. The kids all move upstage, passing the adults as the words “blah blah blah blah” are chanted, the lights switch very sparsely and in nearly half a second, as they go back into the “real world” for a quick line and as soon as they changed they change right back for verse 2 of the song. The kids moved back downstage as Melchior began singing again, now all with loose and modern movements even moving their feet or moving their heads to the beat of the song, and for the first time in the show all looking at one another and interacting. I loved this because it gave the number a more universal feel. The chorus stands and sings the song as Melchior suddenly goes back to a stiff posture but with sharp, and big yet fluent movement makes hand transitions. The first is to his face, burying it, then moving over his chest, abdomen, back to the chest, crossing his arms and resting his hands on his hips, putting his hands behind his back and moves his head in one big circle, crossing his arms in a huge motion across his face, hands moving across his shoulders until both fully extended at the sides and then moving his left hand to meet his right and following it up the arm and to his shoulder, hands together now he moves them down the front of his legs and up the back. He then repeats the entire movement twice while standing between two parents who are frozen. This added so much to the conflict theory I had earlier. The lights switch and the music stops as Melchior admits to the deeds and the music comes back up in full blast, drums slamming and guitars shredding. The cast stands up and in that same posture do their own their own individual hand movements like Melchior just did. Some were moving from ground to head as others were just in the chest region of their body, it was all happening so fast it was hard to see what was fully going on with each individual amongst the chaos. I loved every second of it. It all comes to a halt as they face forward and with hands in fist begin yelling at the audience “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!” After their yelling they all begin to move in the more modern posture and everyone is dancing again in chaos as the lights begin to turn psychedelic and strobe lights are even slightly incorporated. Everything from random bouncing to pirouettes and grande jettes were being performed on stage for about thirty seconds until they all hit their individual poses with the final yell of “TOTALLY FUCKED!!!”
These numbers stood out to me because of the choreographed chaos and each number was praised with applause that felt like they lasted forever. The best part of this performance was that every number was like these, their every movement expressed the feelings of the characters in the show and only the characters in the show, and if any feeling such as love or hate was on a universal scale the entire cast was involved with it. Transitions were my most favorite part. The show never stopped and the bare empty stage made bringing on and off scenery fluent and simple. The performers did amazing at the transitions as well. For example, in the number entitled My Junk (Joann M. Hunter) the girls went from being silly little girls jumping around and daydreaming to having a boy bring in a chair right in the middle of them and began a rhythmic masturbation movement, these silly girls suddenly became this boys fantasy and all it took was a shift of the light and proper positioning of the performers. The simulation of sex was also incorporated into the story through the song I Believe (Lucy Skilbeck). Though many may just believe the actors were doing the scene, the entire scene was choreographed. The music would speed up as their passions rose, slow when she was unsure and became lyrical as she finally gave herself to him. Any thrusting or movement was done on a beat of the drum and in synch to make the scene and story told in full. My favorite though was a movement the girls did to represent their “blooming” it was a movement over their chest and their hips with a bent wrist shaping their figures. In the number Touch Me (Joann M. Hunter/Lucy Skilbeck) the boys ask each other “how do you think the woman feels?” and in their thoughts as the song climaxes they follow a “blooming” girl doing the exact same choreography and creating their own “figures.”
This show Captivated me and made me cry several times through their movement and song. I really felt like I was feeling their feelings and in many ways as a young man it related to me. I would suggest this show to anyone on any level amateur or professional, the story itself and the movement within the story is brilliant and will not soon be forgotten. Perhaps life is a bitch, and in the end your totally fucked, but our experiences are our own as we awaken into life.
