SPRING AWAKENING Comes To Orange County Performing Arts Center 11/17-29

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award-winner in years is coming to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Spring Awakening, the eight-time Tony- Award winning Broadway show, will visit Segerstrom Hall for a two-week engagement November 17 - 29.
Spring Awakening swept the 2007 Tony Awards winning eight out of its 11 nominations, including Best Musical, Best Director (Michael Mayer), Best Book (Steven Sater), Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones), Best Orchestrations (Duncan Sheik), Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams) and Best Featured Actor (John Gallagher, Jr.).

Hailed as the "Best Musical of the Year" by the NY Drama Critics Circle, the Drama Desk, the Outer
Critics Circle and the Tony Awards, Spring Awakening has emerged as the most talked about new
musical on Broadway. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times proclaimed, "Broadway may never be the same. This brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery and the thrill to that shattering transformation that stirs in all of our souls." John Heilpern with The New York Observer called the show, "A miracle that must be seen to be believed...The best new musical in a generation." And Michael Sommers of The Star-Ledger said, "The most explosive new musical since RENT!"

Tickets to see Spring Awakening are $20 - $70 and go on sale September 27. They will be available at OCPAC.org, at the Center's Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling 714.556.2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 15 or more, call the Group Services office at 714.755.0236. The TTY number is 714.556.2746. The 2 p.m. performance on Saturday, November 28 will be sign-language interpreted.

Cox Communications is the Media Partner of the Center's 2009-2010 Broadway Series.

Based on the infamous 1891 Frank Wedekind play, Spring Awakening features an electrifying score by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, direction by Michael Mayer and choreography by award- winning Bill T. Jones.

Set against the backdrop of a repressive and provincial late 19th century Germany, Spring Awakening tells the timeless story of teenage self-discovery and budding sexuality as seen through the eyes of three teenagers. Haunting and provocative, Spring Awakening celebrates an unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, a poignancy and a passion you will never forget.

Set design is by Christine Jones, costume design is by Tony Award-winner Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Tony Award-winner Kevin Adams and sound design by Brian Ronan.

Spring Awakening opened on Broadway on December 10, 2006 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre,
following its world premiere at the Atlantic Theatre Co. The original cast recording of Spring Awakening won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Spring Awakening is produced by Ira Pittelman, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and the Atlantic Theatre Co.

Spring Awakening contains mature themes, sexual situations and strong language.

For more information please visit springawakening.com. To join the Guilty Ones and be eligible for discount tickets, merchandise, autographed items and a chance to meet the cast go to OCPAC.org/GuiltyOnes.

Ira Pittelman won a Tony Award in 2002 for Private Lives starring Alan Rickman and Lindsay
Duncan. In that same year, he co-produced TopDog/UnderDog, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His additional Broadway credits include the acclaimed revival of The Iceman Cometh starring Kevin Spacey, Neil Simon's The Dinner Party starring Henry Winkler and John Ritter, Stones In His Pockets, 45 Seconds From Broadway, Baz Luhrman's production of La Boheme and Mark Twain Tonight starring HAl Holbrook and Neil Simon's The Odd Couple starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. His Off-Broadway productions include: Our Lady of 121st Street, Border Clash with Staceyanne Chin and  Loves Fire which featured new works by Wendy Wasserstein, Tony Kushner, John Guare and Marsha Norman, among others. His London credits include The Prisoner of Second Avenue starring Richard Dreyfus and Marsha Mason and Collected Stories with Helen Mirren. Pittelman has also been active in the music industry for more than thirty years as a producer and co-founder of Heartland Music. Over that period he has worked with artists as diverse as Placido Domingo, John Denver, Randy Newman, Johnny Mathis, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, George Strait, Smokey Robinson and Ringo Starr.

Tom Hulce starred in Equus and A Few Good Men (Broadway), The Normal Heart (London's West
End), and Hamlet (The Shakespeare Theater). Hulce's films include Amadeus, Dominick and Eugene, Parenthood, The Inner Circle, Animal House, Fearless, Echo Park, Slam Dance, Wings of Courage and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony, four Golden Globes, two Helen Hayes and an Emmy (which he won for The Heidi Chronicles). In addition to Spring Awakening, Hulce has shepherded two other major projects to fruition: the greatly acclaimed six-hour, two-evening stage adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules and Talking Heads, a festival of Alan Bennett's solo plays which won six Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, a special Outer Critics Circle Award, and a NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. He produced the film of Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World, directed by Michael Mayer and featuring a score by Duncan Sheik and two original songs by Sheik and Steven Sater, which premiered in 2004. Hulce also shepherded a new musical project by Keith Bunin and Grammy Award nominated singer-songwriter Patty Griffin at the Atlantic Theater Company.

Jeffrey Richards (Producer) Broadway: David Mamet's November; Harold Pinter's The
Homecoming; Tracy Lett's August: Osage County; Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio starring Liev Schreiber; August Wilson's Radio Golf; David Mamet's Glengarry GLen Ross (Tony Award); The Pajama Game(Tony Award) starring Harry Connick Jr.; Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial; Matthew Barber's Enchanted April; A Thousand Clowns, starring Tom Selleck; Gore Vidal's The Best Man (Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award). Off-Broadway: Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story (Outer Critics Circle Award); David Ives' Mere Mortals; The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged); The Great American Trailer Park Musical; Peter Ackerman's Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight.

Jerry Frankel (Producer) Credits include: November; The Homecoming; August: Osage County;
Talk Radio starring Liev Schreiber; Radio Golf; Glengarry GLen Ross (winner 2005 Tony Award for Best Revival); Death of a Salesman (Tony Award); Enchanted April (winner Outer Critics Circle Award and Tony-nominated® for Best Play); Gore Vidal's The Best Man (winner Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial; Jekyll & Hyde; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Drama Desk Award). Frankel has presented numerous productions at the Park Cities Playhouse in Dallas including Love Letters with Charlton Heston and Shakespeare for My Father with Lynn Redgrave??

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing
Director) is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre that produces great stories simply and truthfully, utilizing an artistic ensemble. Since its inception 21 years ago, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays, including the Tony Award-nominated The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh and his Tony Award-winning production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane; the world premiere of David Mamet's Romance; Harold Pinter's The Room and Celebration; Woody Allen's Writer's Block; the world premiere of Spring Awakening; the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones; The Cider House Rules, adapted by Peter Parnell; Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol; and Tina Howe's translation of Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano and The Lesson.

Duncan Sheik (Music) In addition to writing the music for Spring Awakening, Grammy award
nominated singer-songwriter Sheik has collaborated with playwright Steven Sater on The Nightingale, a musical based on the Hans Christian Andersen classic which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in the fall of 2007. Sheik has composed original music for The Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night and for The Golden Rooms of Nero, which opened at the Magic Theater in San Francisco. His self-titled debut album was an enormous popular and critical success and spent 30 weeks on the Billboard 200. Other albums include Humming, Daylight, Phantom Moon and White Limousine. His latest release, Brighter/Later, is a two-disc anthology of his Atlantic/Nonesuch albums. Sheik also composed and produced the original score for the feature film A Home at the End of the World, and his songs have laced the soundtracks of dozens of movies and TV shows.

Steven Sater (Book & Lyrics) won the 2007 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score for his work on Spring Awakening. His plays include the long-running Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You, Doll (Rosenthal Prize, Cincinnati Playhouse), Umbrage (Steppenwolf New Play Prize), A Footnote to the Iliad (New York Stage and Film, The Miniature Theatre of Chester), Asylum (Naked Angels), Murder at the Gates (commissioned by Eye of the Storm), In Search of Lost Wings (Sanford Meisner) and a reconceived version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with music by Laurie Anderson, which played London's Lyric Hammersmith and toured internationally. In addition toSpring Awakening, Sater has collaborated with Duncan Sheik on the NY premiere of Umbrage(HERE), Nero (The Magic Theatre), The Nightingale (O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference, La Jolla Playhouse), the critically-acclaimed album Phantom Moon (Nonesuch) and the songs for Michael Mayer's feature film, A Home at the End of the World.

Michael Mayer (Director) received the 2007 Tony Award as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics
Circle Awards for this production. Other Broadway: ‘night Mother, After the Fall; Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination); An Almost Holy Picture; Uncle Vanya; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Tony nomination); The Lion in Winter; Side Man (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards); A View From the Bridge (Drama Desk award, Outer Critics Circle and Tony nominations); Triumph of Love. Off-Broadway credits include Dawn Upshaw in Round About at Lincoln Center, The Credeaux Canvas, Stupid Kids, Antigone in New York, Baby Anger, View of the Dome, Missing Persons, America Dreaming, Hundreds of Hats. National tour: Angels in America (Jefferson and Carbonell awards). West End: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Side Man. Film: A Home at the End of the World, Flicka. Mayer received the 2007 Drama League Award for Excellence in Direction.

Bill T. Jones (Choreographer) received the 2007 Tony Award for this production of Spring Awakening. He also won the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for the New York Theatre Workshop's production, The Seven. Jones began his career choreographing and performing worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner Arnie Zane before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. Creating more than 100 works for his own company, Jones has also choreographed for numerous companies worldwide. In 1994, Jones received a MacArthur "Genius" AwarD. Jones has been awarded several New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Awards, the 2005 Wexner Prize, the 2005 Samuel Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, a 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award and the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones "An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure."

Kimberly Grigsby (Music Director) Broadway: The Light in the Piazza; Caroline, or Change; The Full Monty; You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown; Twelfth Night (music by Jeanine Tesori). Off- Broadway: Mother Courage; Spring Awakening; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Songs From An Unmade Bed; Junie B. Jones; Caroline, or Change; The Immigrant; Radiant Baby; Twelfth Night (music by Duncan Sheik). Grigsby holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Manhattan School of Music.

Christine Jones (Set Designer) Broadway: The Green Bird directed by Julie Taymor. Off-Broadway: Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park) (Playwrights); Burn This (Signature Theatre); Flesh And Blood, Nocturne (NYTW); True Love (The Zipper). Opera: Giulio Cesare (Houston Grand Opera), Lucia Di Lammermoor, (New York City Opera), The Elephant Man (Minnesota Opera). Current: The Onion Cellar in development with The Dresden Dolls for A.R.T.; Leonard Cohen's The Book of Longing, a staged concert by Philip Glass. M.F.A. from NYU, Professor at Princeton University and NYU.

Susan Hilferty (Costume Designer) has designed more than 200 productions for theatres across
America and internationally. Her directorial collaborators include Athol Fugard (set, costumes, co-
director), James Lapine, Robert Falls, RoBert Woodruff, Joe Mantello, JoAnne Akalaitis, the late Garland Wright, Mark Lamos, Frank Galati, Des McAnuff, Sharon Ott, David Petrarca, Richard Nelson, Chris Ashley, Marion McClinton, Laurie Anderson, Tony Kushner, Carole Rothman, Mark Linn-Baker, Garry Hynes and Emily Mann. Recent work: Assassins, Into the Woods (Hewes Award, Tony nomination), Lapine's Fran's Bed, Jitney, Dirty Blonde, Love Stories (Alvin Ailey) and Rodney's Wife. Elton John's Lestat; Manon, L.A. Opera; and August Wilson's play Radio Golf. She designs opera, film, TV and dance, and chairs the Department of Design for Stage/Film at NYU Tisch. Her numerous awards include 2004 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for Wicked.

Kevin Adams (Lighting Designer) Broadway: Spring Awakening (2007 Tony Award for Best Lighting of a Musical), Passing Strange, The 39 Steps, Take Me Out, The Good Body (national tour), Sexaholix (HBO and national tour), Hedda Gable. Off-Broadway he designed the pop/rock shows Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, Passing Strange, Next to Normal and Betty Rules as well as new work by Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, Neil Simon, Christopher Durang, Paula Vogel, Anna Deveare Smith, Eric Bogosian, Rinde Eckert and Charles Mee, Jr. Other: Steppenwolf Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, PS 122, CBGB Gallery, Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera. Concerts: Audra McDonald (Joe's Pub, Town Hall, Lincoln Center, American Songbook), Patti LuPone (Gypsy, Candide, Anyone Can Whistle), Sandra Bernhard, The Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs in two nights at Lincoln Center). For his work Off- Broadway he received Lortel Awards in 1998 and 2007 and a 2002 Obie for Sustained Excellence.

Brian Ronan (Sound Design) Broadway: Grey Gardens, Pajama Game, All Shook Up, 12 Angry Men, Master Harold and the Boys, Look of Love, The Boys from Syracuse, Fortune's Fool, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, The Rainmaker, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Little Me, Cabaret, Triumph of Love, 1776 and State Fair. Off-Broadway: Bug.
Simon Hale (String Orchestrations) After graduating from the University of London with anhonors
degree in composition, Hale's acclaimed solo album, East Fifteen, led to recordings with many artists, including George Benson, Simply Red, Jamiroquai and Bjo?rk. In 1996, he orchestrated Duncan Sheik's first album, and their musical collaboration has continued ever since. Hale is very proud to be involved with Spring Awakening, as it not only marks his 10th year of working with Duncan, but also his Broadway debut.

Orange County Performing Arts Center The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a wide variety of the most significant national and international productions of music, dance and theater to the people of Southern California. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages and offering unsurpassed experiences, engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and an array of inspiring programs. As Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization, the Center owns and operates the 3,000-seat
Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Founders Hall, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, and the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center's studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. These state-of-the-art facilities are united by a community arts plaza. The Center's Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and community plaza, along with facilities of the adjacent Tony® Award-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the new home of the Orange County Museum of Art, are located at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a broad range of programming each season for audiences of all ages from throughout Orange County, and beyond, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.
It offers many education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. These programs reach hundreds of thousands of students of all ages with vital arts-in-education programs, enhancing their studies and enriching their lives well into the future.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is proud to serve as the artistic home to the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale.

For more information, visit OCPAC.org. The Center can also be found online at Blogger, YouTube,
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr.

 

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