Spring Awakening: A Director’s Perspective

In an exclusive article for AussieTheatre.com, Yvonne writes about her directorial journey with Spring Awakening…

In an exclusive article for AussieTheatre.com, Yvonne writes about her directorial journey with Spring Awakening…

Yvonne Virsik is the Artistic Director of the Monash University Student Theatre (MUST) and one of independent Melbourne theatre’s most respected directors. She’s received consistent critical acclaim and the love of all who work with her. However, she had never directed a large scale musical and the opportunity to present Spring Awakening as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival has led to many challenges that have been overcome by the passion of a dedicated team.

The opportunity

When the opportunity came up to finally stage a MUST show at The Alexander Theatre, we had already programmed 2011, but it was an opportunity too good to pass up! At times we have bemoaned our insanity and sworn never to take on so much again, but it has been an extraordinary and fulfilling experience and I think we’ve created something special.

The “Alex” is a 500-seat theatre, so we had to choose something big that could attract a large audience and as there were no other musicals planned, our genre decision was made.

The choice

We wanted to do something with great music, real theatrical possibilities and a gutsy story line that had some substance and questioning to it. So, the choice to do Spring Awakening was almost easy – and I‘d been listening to the soundtrack and had become enamoured of the music.

But as the Artistic Director of MUST, I had to direct. Now, I’ve directed many shows – with diverse content in different spaces – and I’ve directed shows with music, but never a big musical.

So when it came to finding a Musical Director, I wanted someone who had a similar language to me or could create a new one with me. When I met with the brilliant Tom Pitts (a recent Monash graduate, front man of indie band The Harlots and member of AtticErractic Theatre), I knew he’d be perfect, even if he had never done a big musical before either.  He was way too busy, but he said yes.

We were off.

Assembling the team

But before we could even audition, Tom and I needed advice from people experienced with weaving singing, music, choreography and acting together in musicals, especially because we knew that our approaches might differ. With a new team of generous advisors (including Matt Lockitt, Jem Splitter and Amanda Schroder), we went for coffee and listened to them argue and agree. This was incredibly helpful and showed us how much passion there is for Spring.

When it was time to audition, we wanted everyone to have a real chance to show us their approaches to the songs and text. Over 150 students auditioned, so making decisions was excruciating, and, as always, we learnt so much about the show and its needs during this process.

And the love for the musical continued with many auditionees becoming involved in production aspects of the show.

Reading the original play

During my preparation period, I studied several translations of Frank Wedekind’s play, which Spring Awakening is based on. I wanted to see if there were sections that we could use to gain more character information and resonances for our production. Ultimately, this ended up being interesting but not so helpful.

Not even looking at the addition of music, the play and the musical are fundamentally different, especially the motivations of the characters and the relationships between them. For instance, in the play Melchior rapes Wendla, while in the musical their sex scene is consensual (even if he does push her a bit and arguably should have considered her naivety and the consequences for her more…).

I learned a lot about adapting plays to musicals and the structure of musicals by comparing the libretto to the play. But as a director, I had to be concerned with bringing the libretto to life and to find the truths and insights within it.

Learning the songs