SPRING AWAKENING Comes to Foothill Music Theatre, 2/21-3/10

SPRING AWAKENING, the 8-time Tony Award winning Broadway musical, will be presented by award winning Foothill Music Theatre and Foothill Music Arts, with direction by Milissa Carey, musical direction by Mark Hanson and choreography by Amanda Folena, February 21 - March 10, 2013 at the Lohman Theatre, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. The public may purchase tickets ($10 - $28) either online at www.foothillmusicals.com or by calling (650) 949- 7360. NOTE: SPRING AWAKENING is a powerful coming of age story with mature themes: sexual situations, partial nudity, and strong language.

Based on the infamous 1891 Frank Wedekind play of the same name, SPRING AWAKENING features an electrifying score by Duncan Sheik, and book and lyrics Steven Sater. SPRING AWAKENING swept the 2007 Tony Awards winning eight out of its eleven 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 New York Drama Critics Circle, the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony Awards, SPRING AWAKENING emerged as one of the most talked about musicals on Broadway, where it ran at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre from December 10, 2006 through January 18, 2009, for 888 performances and 29 previews. Said Charles Isherwood of The New York Times, "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." The original cast recording of SPRING AWAKENING won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.

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 the moved John Heilpern in The New York Observer to declare it, "A miracle that must be seen to be believed ... The best new musical in a generation."

Director Milissa Carey has assembled a stellar cast for SPRING AWAKENING, including: Juliana Lustenader as Wendla, Jason Rehklau as Melchior, Ryan Mardesich as Moritz, Brandon Leland as Hanschen, Warren Wernick as Ernst, Casey Ellis, as Ilse, Holly Smolik, as Martha, Carissa McElravy, as Thea, Mark Sanders as Georg, Dillon Mena as Otto, Taylor Sanders as Anna, Justin Karr as Adult Male, Caitlin Papp as Adult Female. The cast also features: Jacob Marker, Jeremy Griffith, Dana Johnson, Lyn Meheula, Ashley Steffenson, Lori Grass.

MILISSA CAREY (Director) joined the Foothill faculty in 2003 and teaches in both the Theatre and Music Departments. An award-winning Bay Area actress, Carey has performed leading roles with many Bay Area theatre companies including TheatreWorks, Center Repertory Theater of Walnut Creek, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Pacific Alliance Stage Company, San Francisco Playhouse, Thick Description, 42nd Street Moon, Theatrefirst, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, George Coates Performance Works, and Urban Opera. She was in the cast of the 25th Anniversary Broadway National Tour of Evita under the direction of Hal Prince. Carey has performed with Foothill Music Theatre as "Kate" in Kiss Me Kate, "Golde" in Fiddler on the Roof, and "Lily" in Twentieth Century, directed by Jay Manley, and directed Foothill Music Theatre productions of Working and All Shook Up. Most recently she directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Bus Barn Stage Company, as well as projects at American Musical Theatre of San Jose and the A.C.T. Young Conservatory. She is also on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as an acting teacher and stage director in the Opera Department.

MARK HANSON (Musical Direction) returns to Foothill Music Theatre for his eighth show. He has provided musical direction for many Bay Area theatre companies, including eight musicals at Bus Barn Stage Company, including last year's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other Bay area credits include Broadway by the Bay, Contra Costa Musical Theatre and Foothill Music Theater. Mark is a member of the music faculty at College of San Mateo.
AMANDA FOLENA (Choreography) Artistic Director of Broadway By the Bay, Folena has a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Acting from Purdue University. She has worked with many Bay Area companies including San Jose Repertory Company, Opera San Jose, Center REP, Diablo Theatre Company, California Theatre Center and Summer Repertory Theatre in Santa Rosa. Directing and choreography credits include The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, The Full Monty, Dead Man Walking, Annie, Gypsy and Compleat Female Stage Beauty.

Duncan Sheik (Music) In addition to writing the music for Spring Awakening, Grammy award nominated singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik has collaborated with Playwright Steven Sater on The Nightingale, a musical based on the Hans Christian Andersen classic which will premiere 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 earlier this year. 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." 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. Currently, Sheik is composing the music for the musical adaptation of American Psycho, as well as collaborating with director McG on a feature-film adaptation of Spring Awakening, set to begin filming in 2013.

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 to Spring 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.

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