St. Clair College Performing Arts has been awarded the rights to produce Spring Awakening, an avant garde rock musical, and one of the hottest properties to come out of Broadway in the past five years.

Winner of the Tony for Best Musical, the Drama Desk for Best Musical and the Olivier award for Best Musical, Spring Awakening is a provocative ground-breaking musical based on the 1891 play by Frank Windekind which explores the sexual and emotional rites of passage of teenagers caught in a world of societal oppression.

A driving alternative rock/folk score featuring several well known hits including “Mama Who Bore Me” and “The Dark I Know Well”, propels both story and characters forward at an edgy pace. “Spring Awakening is a musical story told from a teen-aged perspective, which is what has made it so popular with audiences of that age and what makes it such a perfect piece for our own students to perform” says Katherine Kaszas, Artistic Director for the program. “The story, ideas and themes of Spring Awakening relate directly to their own lives, and the music is brilliant”.

Dr. John Strasser, President of St. Clair College is enthusiastic about the opportunity presented to students both as participants and as audience members. “The performing arts programs have grown tremendously since their inception seven years ago, with the addition of a state of the art theatre in downtown Windsor. Traditional musicals like Fiddler on the Roof or Carousel are very important, but they need to be partnered with the most current music theatre creations so that the students themselves are up to date on the industry.”

The college has produced many successful music theatre shows on the Chrysler Theatre Stage, including the wildly popular Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel, as well as five original Christmas productions. Students from the Music Theatre Performance and the Entertainment Technology programs collaborate under the banner of the Performing Arts. Now in its seventh year, with many alumni active within the industry, St. Clair graduates are working on music theatre tours in Germany, on films, in production houses, festivals, dance companies, children’s theatre, as well as being actively involved in local events and performances.

Performances for this ground breaking musical will be presented in April 2012 as part of the spring theatre season for next year’s performing arts students. Tickets will go on sale at www.chryslertheatre.com or by telephone at 519-252-6579 in September.