Carroll Community College theater department takes on Tony Award-winning musical

In the first sentence of director Bill Gillett's "Spring Awakening" program notes, he issues a warning about the rock musical.

"This play is a little shocking," he wrote.

When the Carroll Community College fine arts department performs "Spring Awakening" the next two weekends at the Scott Center for the Performing Arts in Westminster, cast and crew will take on a controversial theater production meant for mature audiences only.

Show times are 7:30 tonight through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. March 21-22. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for seniors, faculty and staff and students with a valid ID.

"Spring Awakening" is a 2006 Broadway adaptation of Frank Wedekind's 19th century German play.

It addresses many hot-button issues still facing teenagers, including abortion, suicide and abuse. After it debuted, the musical was banned in Germany for addressing such topics.

One century later, the adapted "Spring Awakening" was a Broadway smash. After debuting in 2006, it won eight Tony Awards and helped spark the career of Lea Michele, who played the lead role of Wendla on Broadway and has since gone on to star in the Fox musical comedy "Glee."

"I think what I would love audiences to see is this [musical] explores issues that are still a problem today," Gillett said.

Since its Broadway run, "Spring Awakening" has been performed all over the country. Actors clamored for the chance to take it on at Carroll Community College.

Many of the performers are recent college graduates who studied theater. Susquehanna University graduate Anna Bosnic, an associate director for Liberty High School's drama program, called Wendla a dream role. And she got it in auditions.

A burgeoning sexual relationship between Wendla and Melchior (Stephen Strosnider) is at the center of the plot, one that also includes a kiss between two male actors and the suicide of one troubled main character.

"Even in New York City, where avant-garde theater is expected, this was still shocking," she said of "Spring Awakening." "I remember seeing it and feeling the same way. I thought it was phenomenal."

Strosnider, a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory, didn't get a chance to perform "Spring Awakening" in college. His school didn't perform it. But he did see it when it opened on Broadway and hoped he would one day get the chance.

"The whole concept just opened my eyes," he said. "Nobody is actually singing to each other. It's all what [you're thinking] in your head that you're singing. I just thought it was brilliant."

The Carroll show features choreography from Jen Graham of Westminster-based Project C Dance Studios. Sarah Howes serves as musical director for the rock orchestra, which performs behind a unique wooden turntable set.

The actors stand atop risers for much of the show. The turntable frequently moves between scenes, brief pauses in a sometimes dark plot, one that forces the audience to focus on some of the darkest aspects of growing up.

"This play may at times make you uncomfortable, but maybe this is because it portrays an uncomfortable time in our human development," Gillett wrote in his director's note. "This show is in essence about teenage pressures and angst, depicting the age when we expect teenagers to start acting like adults, while they are coping with sometimes intense biological and hormonal changes."