Ray Shultz's Spring Awakening

Professor Wolf is the author of Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical (Oxford University Press, 2011), A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical (University of Michigan Press, 2002), and the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical (with Raymond Knapp and Mitchell Morris, 2011). She has published articles on theatre spectatorship, performance pedagogy, and musical theatre. Professor Wolf also oversees the Lewis Center’s Music Theater Lab and has experience as a director and dramaturg. Wolf holds a B.A. in English from Yale and an M.A. in Drama from the University of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recent publications include

has been recognized as a new kind of musical play that denied its Broadway audiences many of their most treasured traditions, says David Ewen in American Musical Theatre. There was no opening chorus line, no chorus until midway through the first act, in fact. There was rather a serious ballet and other serious overtones, including a killing in act two. The story, which was so simple, seemed to engage the audience in more than mere evening diversion. (248) These changes, far from disappointing to viewers, were upheld by a success that had never been seen in the history of musical theatre.

The playwright has created the most boring,artificial,stereotypical characters I have ever seen in a play,t.v show or movie. Being a teen i have a lot of experience on how we act and talk, but i have never met a teen that was similar to the ones that the playwright created. The characters in the play use 21st century slang throughout the play with a dash of stereotypical teen phrases such as “Fuck off mom” and “She is honestly such a bitch”.Using these stereotypes and current slang was a double edged sword. In my opinion it helps the older audience feel more connected with the play because most media depicts teens acting and talking the way they did in the play but at the same time it makes the younger audience such as me feel uneasy throughout

play was outrageous and not accepted. The image of women in plays and stories at the time were

Also it is apparent that the teenage characters in this play, are excessively disrespectful of their parents:

the training ground and inspiration for the birth of the American musical. As the primary

“In the early days of the musical, what mattered most were the songs, and it was essential that they were catchy enough to amuse the audience or provide material for dancers or comedians. But, beginning in the 1930s, the situation, the book or libretto, of the musical started to achieve primary importance. A story or narrative became more frequently the spine of the musical; the songs followed the plot and the characters, rather than the other way around.”

The theme of gender is presented to the audience as dramatic irony as well, since this play was written in 1912, the play shows how women were in that certain period of time, they didn’t have as many rights, they weren’t treated equally with men, in fact they were seen to be lower than men. However in the time that this play was written which is 1945 women had a lot more rights due to the fact that when men left the country for war, which according to Mr.Birling wasn’t supposed to happen, all the women were the people who looked after the country and kept it going, women became more interdependent and the society just grew and became a lot more open minded with their thoughts. JB Priestly has tried to show the importance of women in the play as well in the play as well at some places but very indirectly, like in that part where the inspector says, “There are a lot of young women living that sort of existence in every city and big towns in this

The adage “age is just a number” is true for the most part, a generational age gap can result in diverse ideas, as such is the social and technological advancement of society. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Youngers, an African-American family that is financially struggling, is given an opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty when Mama, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar insurance check upon her husband’s death. Disagreement as to what to do with the money arises, and the Younger family struggle to set aside their problems and differences in order to reunite as the family that they were before. In the play, Hansberry effectively communicates the idea that people harbor different opinions on varying ideas depending on the generation by revealing the opinions of Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha on the ideas of religion and marriage.

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind pushed many envelopes when it was first performed in 1906. The play, which is set in pre-World War I Germany in 1890, touched on many controversial topics such as teen sexuality, abuse, rape, homosexuality, suicide, and abortion. Wedekind’s blunt and dramatic use of the caseara in the dialog between characters and in Mortiz’s soliloquy in the resolution as well as the use of expressionism helps further enhance the overall theme of the play. Wedekind shows this in a series of short, frantic scenes that unraveled what lies beneath the surface of the regimented German society at the start of the 20th century and discusses topics that no one wanted to address on a global scale.

This past week, I had the opportunity to experience a magnificent play called Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. This performance was the third of three plays I saw at the Arizona Repertory Theatre. The other two plays were Epic Proportions by Larry Coen and David Crane and Hands on a Hardbody by Doug Wright. These were the first plays I have been to, not only while attending the University of Arizona, but in my generation as a teenager. All together, these performances were amazing and have brought a newly improved insight to my perception of theatre. The hard work and dedication by the actors, directors, producers, cast members, and sound developers were absolutely incredible and I have tremendous respect for their efforts during the overall sequence of producing the plays. The most recent performance I saw, Born Yesterday, can be described and reflected on through various topics such as lighting, sound, directing and producing.

At the age of eight, my mother took me on a trip to New York City. On it, I saw the Lin Manuel-Miranda show In the Heights. Unlike my eight-year-old self, my mother loved performing arts, and she occasionally played CD’s from musicals in the car, which I groaned about. Given this, it is not hard to imagine I was less excited than the average person to see a broadway show; however, when my mother mentioned, “Chad from High School Musical is in it,” I perked up. As I walked into the theatre, my attitude improved again from the astonishingly vast house, filled with endless rows of red, velvet chairs leading towards an expansive stage trimmed with gold. Nevertheless, I still did not appreciate the opportunity to witness a Tony Award-winning musical, as I would in three hours. When the lights dimmed, the whole theatre fell silent, yet still buzzed with anticipation.

views of equal rights for both sexes which are vital. At the time the play was written, it was known for being negative towards women as they did not dare to stand for themselves. The play

This theme was conveyed by the play being both a comedy and a musical. These two forms of drama brought with it both wittiness and purity, both of which are a direct correlation youthfulness. And the character’s ability to sing with clarity helped boost such a message. The role such clarity played is relevant to American culture, today. In order for people to listen, in a society with so much information, a message must be clear and transparent. Although it is not necessary

With the 1960s came a need for change, as an immense amount of smog and toxic chemicals used in agriculture and industry caused, the blue to fade away from the sky and water in America. Rachel Carson provided the catalyst for this change with her book Silent Spring published in 1962, which revealed the harmful impacts of pesticides on almost all wildlife and human beings. People reading a book wouldn’t be enough, though, for twenty million Americans came together on April 22, 1970, to celebrate the beauty of Earth and raise awareness about increasing concerns for the environment and declining quality of life. (maybe add a sentence about structure and diversity of the movement) Without these key events leading to the Environmental Movement’s diversity and unique structure through the 1970s, American values in politics and way of life would not have been able to change.