Donald Keough, Editor-in-Chief
The Denison Theatre Department is working on their spring performance “Spring Awakening” this semester, with the first showing on April 30.
This will also be Alison Morooney’s debut as a director at Denison, who is an assistant professor in the music theatre department.
The musical, Spring Awakening, takes place in a 19th-century German town that rejects many aspects of relationships between young adults. Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play, the musical explores themes of teenage intimacy and sexuality through repressive societal norms. Characters like Melchior, Wendla, and Moritz depict the struggle that young adults face when growing up in such a society.
There are a few things audience members are encouraged to know before attending. The consequences caused by the characters’ upbringing in the musical are severe, creating several intense moments during the show.
The current content disclosure for the production reads as follows: “Spring Awakening contains strong language, mentions of abortion, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as depictions of violence, suicide, and sexual content.”
While less traditional in terms of sensitive material, the production’s themes and educational experience that it can provide pay homage to Morooney’s tastes. According to her, the themes throughout the show can be important for both audience members and students involved.
The decision to do the production was based on a variety of reasons as well. Each production by the department is chosen based on the insight of a committee of faculty and students. Morooney, who was hired at the end of the last academic year, said that she was very grateful to be a part of the process.
“You don’t always get to do your favorite shows,” Morooney said. “The shows are really providing an educational experience for our students, and that’s the most important thing that’s happening.”
She also said that choosing Spring Awakening felt natural, as the department hadn’t done a show similar to it in a number of years. Part of what makes the show stand out compared to previous productions is that it’s more “dramatic,” as Marooney put it. Much of this drama comes from its sensitive moments.
These moments, which occur throughout the show, have been allotted ample time throughout rehearsals in order to nail proper artistic vision without overstepping student boundaries.
Rehearsals, which began on Jan. 30, have focused on telling the story in an authentic and responsible manner to address these moments. In addition to on-staff guidance, Lusie Cuskey, an intimacy coordinator, was hired to assist at some rehearsals.
Cuskey, who is also an assistant professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, has an extensive background working in the realm of intimacy. She often teaches in her classes elements of understanding intimacy, and she also works for the Theatrical Intimacy Education, an organization that trains others to work in the field.
Contrary to what some may believe, Cuskey said her job doesn’t boil down to making sure that everybody is safe. Instead, she said that it’s about creatively supporting the director’s vision so that intimate moments serve as effective storytelling devices. She compares herself as a dance choreographer; someone who helps shape scenes into something that becomes set and repeatable based on actors needs.
“Everybody working on this show is fantastic,” Cuskey said. “If I wasn’t here, everyone would absolutely have had their consent listened to. They don’t need me to be safe. They’ve brought me in because I’m a choreographer and I have an artistic lens. Intimacy choreographers aren’t babysitters. We’re artists.”
Cuskey also won’t ignore the basic means of supporting student actors. She said she still gives students “clear ways to opt in to what works for their boundaries.”
“Being able to share that responsibility so that I, as the person in charge of the room, don’t feel like I have to read everybody’s minds, but instead, know that everyone has tools to set their own boundaries… encourages the people I’m working with to take bigger risks, which makes more fun art,” Cuskey said.
This comfortableness that can lead to taking bigger risks is a large factor of intimacy work, according to Cuskey, and it comes from students being able to define their own boundaries. Although she provides the tools for students to give consent, she lets students decide when they want to use these tools.
Once these boundaries are set by students, Cuskey makes sure to take a step back so that she can “honor everyone’s agency as artists.”
“I really want to make sure that the actors and the director and myself as a creative artist are all feeling heard in the process, because the actors are the experts on their characters,” Cuskey said. “They know their characters better than I ever will.”
Given the musical’s content, Cuskey said that it’s been “a more involved show for intimacy,” but also that it’s been “a really fun process.” Additionally, she isn’t normally enlisted to work on a production for more than a couple of rehearsals.
“It’s really nice to be able to be in enough geographic proximity that I can come in and do a scene and then come in another day and do a different scene,” Cuskey said. “It’s been really luxurious to have all of the time I have available to come in and iterate on things with actors.”
Although spending time making sure actors are comfortable with what they are portraying, both Cuskey and Morooney believe that many of the intimate scenes in the show are crucial to the story, and necessary attention also needs to be given in order to portray them effectively.
“Especially in Spring Awakening, it’s a world where touch isn’t a lot of what they experience with each other,” Morooney said. “These moments that are about interconnectedness paint moments of intimacy and they represent curiosity and questioning and freedom, and also the terrible things that happen when you don’t give space for a life outside of rigid control. I think we need that visceralness of the moment to really feel why it’s important and different and matters.”
Beyond the importance these intimate moments have to the story, Morooney also emphasized that they play a valuable role for the student actors. In some ways, Morooney said that the students are excited to dive into something that is more challenging and has “more teeth.”
“For our students who are trying to broaden their skills and their experiences while they’re here, it is really important for them to be able to dip their toes into different styles and different kinds of stories and different kinds of characters,” Morooney said.
As the actors portray these characters, Cuskey said that the students will be OK.
“Sometimes, especially when we’re seeing family or friends in shows with intimacy or violence, we can worry about the actor a little bit, and it can take us out of the story,” Cuskey said. “The reason I am here is because Denison takes such care of its students to make sure that they have the support that they need, so that they can tell a story that is visceral and difficult in a way that is psychologically and physically safe and sustainable.”
The Spring Awakening show dates are:
April 30, at 7 p.m.
May 1, at 7 p.m.
May 2, at 7 p.m.
May 3, at 2 p.m.