Boston Conservatory to Stage Reimagined SPRING AWAKENING, 3/3-6

The Boston Conservatory presents a new production of Spring Awakening, the landmark Tony Award-winning musical that fuses alternative rock and folk music with teenage sexual angst in the repressive German countryside of the late-19th century. The performance runs March 3-6 at The Boston Conservatory Theater.

Austin Regan (B.F.A. '07, musical theater), who directs this new production, spent five years working with Michael Mayer, who won the Tony Award for Best Director for the original Broadway production. In all, the show won eight Tonys, including Best Musical. At once electrifying and heartbreaking, Spring Awakening lays bare the journey from adolescence to adulthood with poignancy and passion.

Regan's production will reimagine Spring Awakening by transforming the space. A new performing area in the middle of the house in The Boston Conservatory Theater has been created by placing the audience on the "stage," as well as in the existing house seats- giving the production an immediacy and engagement that is sometimes lost in proscenium productions.

Inspired by the whispering of dreams and phantasms that flow through this story, Regan has created a ghostly ensemble of actors and dancers, which was inspired by the contemporary-dressed "Chair of Rock" ensemble from the original production that stood up in the midst of the audience and sang. Regan calls them the "Body of Rock." Emerging from the group, these bodies express the winds of desire, longing, danger, passion, and dreaming that are constantly flowing through this world.

"Spring Awakening is a musical of powerful, visceral impact," says Theater Division Director Neil Donohoe. "The fusion of expressive rock music and teenage desire crashing against their conservative parents and society that creates a spectacle of unforgettable dramatic tension."

The musical is based on a 1906 play of the same title by Frank Wedekind, who was lauded for his groundbreaking, straightforward treatment of sex, including teenage lust, same-sex yearning and even sexual violence. Adapted by Duncan Sheik (composer) and Steven Sater (book and lyrics), this modern musical infuses Wedenkind's tale with invigorated innocence and passion through powerful songs like "Mama Who Bore Me," "The Bitch of Living" and "Touch Me."

The original cast recording won a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. Musical direction for the Conservatory production is by Steven Ladd Jones. Peter Mansfield conducts. Tickets to are $25-30 with discounts available, including group rates for parties 10 or more. Ticket fees apply. Performances are: Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m., Friday, March 4 at 8 p.m, Saturday, March 5 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, March 6 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the Box Office by phone at (617) 912-9222 or online at www.bostonconservatory.edu/tickets. The Boston Conservatory Theater is located at 31 Hemenway St. For more information, visit bostonconservatory.edu/perform. Please be advised that this production contains mature content and is for mature audiences only.

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