Dear Parents, Guardians and Students, 

As we prepare for our 36th Season at Playhouse Stage Company, we are mindful of the incredible theatrical student body in the Capital Region, and excited to once again present productions that feature, celebrate and challenge the incredible young artists that are selected to study with Playhouse Stage Academy. We could not be the region’s premier youth theatre training program, if it weren’t for the fact that the regions most talented, driven students consistently enroll in and pour their passion and hard work into our classes and productions.

In the case of our advanced teen training program, our goal is to challenge our students to go beyond their experiences in their individual schools’ shows, and significantly elevate and deepen their work to further prepare them for the world of collegiate and professional theatre. Across recent seasons, it has been our intention to select and produce a diverse range of both classic and modern musicals that challenge our advanced students in both theatrical form and content. This spring, our teen students will be working alongside professional actors on the 2006 Steve Sater and Duncan Sheik rock musical Spring Awakening. Based on a 19th century German play of the same name, the show explores the fraught nature of adolescence and the challenges that teenagers face in discovering their place in the world, their ability to connect with the adults in their lives and, particularly, their sexuality. The piece won multiple Tony and Drama Desk Awards and was heralded as a dynamic piece of theatre that advanced the art form in the mid 2000’s. 

Ahead of our auditions in September, we wish to share some thoughts and guidance with you on what the process of working on this musical will entail, so that students can best decide whether it is a project that is right for them based on their individual circumstances, and so that parents and guardians can assess whether they wish to support their young artist in auditioning to work on the piece.  Spring Awakening, through text, lyrics, and staging, explores sexuality, self-harm and issues of body autonomy. It is important to know that it is not gratuitous or without artistic purpose. All of the topics explored, from difficulties discussing sexual behavior with adults, to discovering one’s own body and their ability to make choices about that body, to sexual assault or harm, to the often awkward, uncertain connection between young people connecting for the first time, are issues that teens in our modern world still grapple with today.  While we may think of these things as “adult subject matter,” we believe it is valuable and important for students to use the theatrical art form to explore and present audiences with stories featuring issues they face every day. Spring Awakening tells a compelling story of coming of age, but it is important that you know in advance that these are some of the topics that are explored by the musical and, thereby, will be explored in the rehearsal room. The casting of this production, as encouraged by the writers, in both its off-broadway and on-broadway iterations, maintained the essential nature of the characters being age appropriate - at roughly 14-18 years old.

It is also important that you know that students and their families can count on our Playhouse Stage Academy creative team and teaching artists to lead a process that makes participants feel safe, comfortable and empowered to express themselves. A professional intimacy coordinator will be employed on this production, as will a stage combat director. Moreover, the staging of the production will be handled in a way that is sensitive to the age of the performers, and never puts them in a position where they will feel lost or unsupported on stage. It is always our goal to create a safe, positive working environment in which students can step out of their comfort zone and out of their shell to do theatrical work beyond what they may have originally believed themselves to be capable of. While it may feature what might be seen as heavier subject matter, you can be assured that our production process will create that exact same sort of safe positive working environment that Playhouse Stage Academy is known for.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Producing Artistic Director, Owen Smith, at owen@playhousestage.org or 518-434-2035 x100.

Wishing you all the best,

The Playhouse Stage Company Team