Deaf West's Michael Arden-Helmed SPRING AWAKENING to Return This Summer

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts ("The Wallis"), Deaf West Theatre and Cody Lassen present the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening for a limited 22-performance engagement Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, June 7, 2015 (press opening May 28) in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. Tickets are now on sale.

The innovative and acclaimed production, which enjoyed a sold-out engagement at downtown L.A.'s Rosenthal Theatre in fall 2014, is performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken English by a cast of 25. The Los Angeles Times said that Spring Awakening is "an emotional triumph" and that "Awakening awakens us to the dormant possibilities of this musical, with all the goose-bumps and teardrops to prove it."

Patricia Wolff, Interim Artistic Director of The Wallis says, "We are thrilled to welcome to The Wallis Los Angeles' own Tony-winning Deaf West Theatre, and to share the creativity and joyousness of this brilliant and utterly original production with a broader audience. In Spring Awakening, American Sign Language is not just incorporated but actually choreographed into this emotionally charged musical, creating an organic and beautifully theatrical metaphor, ultimately expanding the theme of adolescent struggle to one that also celebrates the universal human need for communication and connection."

James D'Asaro, Interim Producing Director of The Wallis noted, "Our role as lead producer for the transfer of Spring Awakening to our venue points to two of our presenting tenets - to not only partner with the best and most creative theaters in this country and abroad, but to support in the fullest sense visionary and innovative work created in our own Los Angeles theatre community. It feels especially important that we can show that support, by bringing a show produced on the Los Angeles 99-seat plan to a full production on our main-stage Bram Goldsmith Theater."

Deaf West Theatre Artistic Director David J. Kurs says, "We are thrilled to be able to bring our patrons another opportunity to see our unique, mesmerizing production of Spring Awakening. Bringing this production to a bigger stage allows us to bring our show closer to our original vision, including new scenic and projection design elements."

Kurs explains that his production illuminates the divide between deaf children and their hearing parents who do not share their world. "The play is all about the fraught relationship between parent and child, about navigating the world without strong guidance. The inability of the characters in Spring Awakening to connect to and communicate with their parents is similar to the experience of many deaf children."

Spring Awakening, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, is directed by Michael Arden and choreographed by Spencer Liff. Arden, who plays Patrick on the FX series "Anger Management," recently originated the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the La Jolla Playhouse and previously appeared in Deaf West productions of Big River on Broadway and Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum. Liff is an Emmy-nominee for his work on FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" and choreographed the current Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Neil Patrick Harris.

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 director Arden, choreographer Liff, and musical director Jared Stein (first National Tour of Spring Awakening as well as Broadway productions of American Idiot and Hair) reinvents the groundbreaking musical about lost innocence and the struggles of youth in true Deaf West style.

F. Kathleen Foley said in The Los Angeles Times, "It's hard to enumerate all the ways in which Deaf West's Awakening is so very, very good. The signing in this production does more than simply translate; it ennobles. Spencer Liff's choreography incorporates signing and movement into perfectly coordinated sequences that seem completely organic to the narrative, while music director Jared Stein exploits the show's young singers to spine-tingling effect. Yet the real star of the evening is director Michael Arden, whose staging involves a mind-bogglingly intricate meld of the show's many disparate elements."
The cast of Spring Awakening will be announced at a later time.

Tickets are $19 - $99 and are available at www.thewallis.org or by calling 310-746-4000 or in person at The Wallis Ticket Services located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

About The Wallis - Located in the heart of Beverly Hills, California, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (aka "The Wallis") brings audiences world-class theater, dance and music, performed by many of the world's most talented and sought-after artists. With eclectic programming that mirrors the diverse landscape of Los Angeles, and its notability as the entertainment capital of the world, The Wallis offers original and revered works from across the US and around the globe. This fall marks The Wallis' second season, which also includes its prestigious "Arts & Ideas" series, conversations with guests from the realms of culture, literature and politics. Housed in a breathtaking 70,000-square-foot venue designed by Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA of Studio Pali Fekete architects, The Wallis celebrates the classic and the modern. This is reflected in the juxtaposition of the restored, original 1933 Beverly Hills Post Office (on the National Register of Historic Places) that serves as the theater's dramatic yet welcoming lobby, and houses the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater, as well as a theater school for young people, and the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater. Together, these two structures embrace the city's history and its future, creating a performing arts destination for LA-area visitors and residents alike.

About Deaf West Theatre - Deaf West Theatre (DWT) productions are renowned for weaving ASL with spoken English to create a seamless ballet of movement and voice, thereby creating a fully inclusive theatrical experience for deaf, hard of hearing and hearing audiences. Spring Awakening marks DWT's fifth musical production. The company's Big River received Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Backstage Garland awards for Best Musical in its L.A. premiere, then went on to garner a Tony nomination and four Drama Desk Awards when it transferred to Broadway. Pippin was produced at the Mark Taper Forum in a co-production with Center Theatre Group, and Sleeping Beauty Wakes, also a co-production with CTG, was presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. DWT's production of Oliver! was honored with an Ovation Award for Best Musical. Other award-winning productions from Deaf West include Cyrano (a co-production with the Fountain Theatre - Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Ovation Award for Best Play). In 2005, DWT was selected to receive the Highest Recognition Award by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for its "distinguished contributions to improve and enrich the cultural lives of deaf and hard of hearing actors and theater patrons." DWT's next production is American Buffalo by David Mamet in February 2015 in association with Cal State Los Angeles.

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