UC San Diego

When I began to prepare Spring Awakening it immediately became extremely personal. The production became a kind of confession. Drawing directly on my own memories as an adolescent, I wanted finally, to give a name to that forgotten alienated creature--his anxieties, neuroses and fears. To somehow liberate that young man from embarrassment.

! Seen through the student's eyes, Melchior is at the edge of himself looking blankly at a culture he cannot understand. His erotic awakening forced him to see a morality based on hypocrisy, a hypocrisy that leads him to feel like an exile. Unable to make sense of what he thinks of as an internal and devastating violence he searches for another way. Melchior's journey is a journey towards a liberation. This liberation is more than circumstantial, In every way he is looking for an escape from himself. His is a Metaphysical Liberation.

! This liberation stands in stark contrast to the decaying social orthodoxy. As the primary agent of indoctrination the school became the symbol of this orthodoxy. It is the only structure on stage: the dominating force in the lives of all of the characters. Every moment of the play is in someway in reference to the school. Only in the last moment as Melchior looks out beyond the horizon does the school disappear. We see a young man standing on a margin: he has left behind the world before, and will--in the moments after he disappears from view --begin to author himself for the first time.