Young actors explore coming-of-age tale in OTC’s ‘Spring Awakening’

by David L. Coddon

Through the lens of “Spring Awakening,” the 2006 musical that spoke to a generation, can be seen both late-19th-century Germany and the America of today.

Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s rock musical adaptation of German playwright Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play “still feels really fresh,” said Gerilyn Brault, director of Oceanside Theatre Company’s new production of “Spring Awakening” at the Sunshine Brooks Theater. “The themes remain universal: themes of adolescent discovery, of eroticism and sexuality and our natural urges, and also the theme of society trying to control and censor information from children.

“Unfortunately that’s going to be an evergreen theme in our society. We’re not trying to be political with this show, but society is making it depressingly relevant,” Brault said.

For adolescents including Melchior (Joshua Powers) and Wendla (Sarah K. Pierce) living in late 19th-century Germany, their society is one of oppression and repression when it comes to curiosity about their sexuality. Their awakening to the realities of their minds and bodies is to the adults around them a form of rebellion that must be quashed.

Sarah K. Pierce as Wendla in Oceanside Theatre Company's "Spring Awakening." (Ken Jacques) — Sarah K. Pierce as Wendla in Oceanside Theatre Company’s “Spring Awakening.” (Ken Jacques)

When Sheik and Sater’s musical premiered 19 years ago, The New York Times reported that “a straight shot of eroticism has steamed open under the innocuous name of ‘Spring Awakening,’ and Broadway may never be the same.”

To actor/director Brault, who played the Ilse character in a graduate-school production of “Spring Awakening” and is now directing it for the first time, “It feels like every decade there’s a modern musical that hooks a generation.” (She referenced “Hair” in the 1960s, “Rent” in the ‘90s and “Hamilton” in 2015.) “With ‘Spring Awakening’ more of the show is relevant today than it was a year ago when we agreed to do this production. Another headline brings this show to a different level.

“To this day my now-20-year-old students at colleges where I teach are still finding this show really easy to connect with. It talks about the conversations in ways that others are not bold enough to discuss. My evocative image for this show is banned books and books missing from bookshelves. I feel like the censorship and restriction of education is an undercurrent of this piece.”

In Oceanside, Brault’s ensemble includes 10 students who are in the company’s STAGES Apprenticeship Program, an internship partnership between OTC and North County-based Cal State San Marcos, Palomar College and MiraCosta College.

“We’re treating them like professionals but they have the grace of a student,” Brault said. “Some of them I did know from my teaching at MiraCosta and Palomar. It’s wonderful to see them excelling as I knew they would. They are really thriving.”

The student members of the cast are all at least 18 years old, even though they’re playing 14-year-olds in “Spring Awakening.” They’re learning and also teaching the established professional actors in the show a few things, Brault said.

“The seasoned actors are being reminded of the joy and the eagerness that can be here,” she said. “We can get so bogged down in doing it right and getting it, and they remind us how fun it can be.

“Part of my passion is prepping the newer generation to come join us onstage. It’s the most rewarding thing to me as a professional actor or director — when my students are in the audition room with me and I’m able to help push some of them, who are ready, into this next step.”