VIDEO: SPRING AWAKENING's Krysta Rodriguez Shares Her Story of Returning To Broadway After Breast Cancer Treatments

We're nearing the end of Breast Cancer Awareness month, but audiences at Broadway's Deaf West Theatre production of SPRING AWAKENING will continue to witness an inspiring reminder of the importance of early detection and treatment with the performance of Krysta Rodriguez as the free-spirited Ilsa.

As an ensemble member in the original Broadway production of SPRING AWAKENING, she understudied the role of Ilsa, and after her breakout Broadway performances in THE ADDAMS FAMILY and FIRST DATE and displaying her musical theatre chops on television's SMASH, her return to the role would have been enough to celebrate.

But as she stands center stage at the end of the show, joyfully leading the company in "The Song of Purple Summer," she stands there as a woman who, after treatments, is now cancer-free.

In this PIX11 interview, Rodriguez talks about how the experience has affected her physically and emotionally.

Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed production of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's SPRING AWAKENING, directed byMichael Arden and choreographed by Spencer Liff, opened on Sunday night, September 27, at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

SPRING AWAKENING, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2007, will run 18 weeks only, through Saturday, January 9. It will be performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken and sung in English by a cast of 28. Deaf West Theatre was last represented on Broadway with the triumphant production of Big River in 2003.

Based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 expressionist play of the same name and featuring an electrifying pop/rock score, SPRING AWAKENING follows the lives of a group of adolescents as they navigate their journey from adolescence to adulthood in a fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll. An extraordinary creative team including Michael Arden and Spencer Liff has reinvented the groundbreaking musical about lost innocence and the struggles of youth in true Deaf West style.

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy, make-up by Alex Michaels