Director Michael Arden Discusses Historical Context In Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING

In a Los Angeles Times article published shortly after Deaf West Theatre's production of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's Spring Awakening opened at Inner-City Arts, director Michael Arden discussed how there's a significant historical context that becomes illuminated when the musical mixes deaf and hearing actors.

"In the late 1800s in Europe," reporter Deborah Vankin notes, "deaf educators imposed oralism - speaking or lip reading - and forbade deaf students to sign."

In this production, which will begin Broadway previews on September 8th, the character Moritz Stiefel is played by deaf actor Daniel Durant. Moritz's inability to communicate with his hearing parents is meant to add to the musical's theme of lack of communication between the generations.

"'We're trying to say something about what was happening in deaf culture at the time, a very dark time in deaf history,' Arden said. 'The play itself is about people who were denied a voice, and deaf people at that time were sterilized, forbidden from marrying and weren't allowed to sign. I think it adds another layer, it's almost a bigger story than the original piece.'"

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SPRING AWAKENING, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2007, will play a strictly limited Broadway engagement at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street) with previews beginning on Tuesday, September 8 and opening night set for Sunday, September 27. The show will run 18 weeks only, through Saturday, January 9, with no extension possible. 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.