FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACT: Jasmine Jiang, 240.670.8798 [email protected] ROUND HOUSE THEATRE CONTINUES SEASON WITH GROUNDBREAKING ROCK MUSICAL SPRING AWAKENING January 22 – February 23 at Round House Theatre Bethesda, Md. (December 19, 2019) – Round House Theatre continues its 2019-2020 Homecoming Season with Spring Awakening, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s Tony®- winning musical adaptation of the play by Frank Wedekind. Directed by Alan Paul, Spring Awakening runs January 22 – February 23, 2020 in the newly renovated Round House Theatre. Please see below for complete program details and ticket information. Praised by the New York Times as “exhilarating … a fresh breeze of true inspiration,” Spring Awakening follows a group of repressed and restless adolescents grappling with the onset of adulthood. With music by American singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, the bold musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s provocative 19th- century play illuminates the anxieties, agonies, and ecstasies of growing up with an electrifying mix of poignancy and rock and roll. A groundbreaking Broadway hit that won eight Tony® Awards in 2007—including Best Musical, Book, Original Score, and Orchestrations—Spring Awakening‘s exploration of the gulf between teens and adults has only gained relevance in the past decade. Alan Paul will make his Round House directorial debut at the helm of this production, which he hopes will resonate with audiences in 2020 just as much as it did in 1981. “I love this show because it is such a human exploration of growing up and discovering who you are,” says Paul. “The original play was explosive in its time as one of the first works about children told from the perspective of children, and the musical similarly captures what it means to be young—which I can say, after directing Romeo and Juliet and having just opened Peter Pan and Wendy, is a deceptively difficult task. To wipe the slate clean of everything that we know as adults and wind back to the challenges and 1 excitement and angst of being a teenager is not an easy thing to do, but I look forward to capturing the purity and enormity of all of that.” “I am excited about the entire creative team behind this production,” Paul adds, “because Spring Awakening is a work of total theatre. There is a fluidity about the show, so while there will be wonderful dance by up-and-coming choreographer Paul McGill (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Broadway/tour) and musical direction by James Cunningham (Camelot and Kiss Me, Kate at STC), my real hope is that the audience will never feel where our collaboration begins and ends. This is also a show that’s very much about the tension between the past and present, which will be reflected in the striking and operatic set by Adam Rigg, as well as Sarah Cubbage’s costumes, which will capture the romantic vision of 1891 Germany but also break that apart with more modern sensibilities.” The cast includes Tonya Beckman (previously in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Jane Bernhard (The Wolves at Studio Theatre), Katie Rey Bogdan (Three Cheers to Grace at Young Playwright's Theater), Carson Collins (The Bridges of Madison County at Keegan Theatre), Evan Daves (Nine and Scotland, PA at Roundabout Theatre Company), Michael J. Mainwaring (previously in In the Heights), James Mernin (Cabaret at Olney Theatre Center), Christian Montgomery (Little Shop of Horrors at Constellation Theatre Company), Kalen Robinson (Grease at Toby’s Dinner Theatre), Cristina Sastre (In the Heights at North Carolina Theatre), Bobby Smith (previously in A Year with Frog and Toad), Sean Watkinson (Billy Elliot and Miss Saigon at Signature Theatre), and Chani Wereley (Earthrise at The Kennedy Center and Love’s Labor’s Lost at the Folger Theatre). The cast is joined by a creative team that includes music director James Cunningham, choreographer Paul McGill, scenic designer Adam Rigg, lighting designer Colin K. Bills, costume designer Sarah Cubbage, sound designer Matthew Nielson, and intimacy director Lorraine Ressegger-Slone. Tickets may be purchased by calling 240.644.1100, ordering online at RoundHouseTheatre.org, or in person at the box office. Round House Theatre is located at 4545 East-West Highway, one block from Wisconsin Avenue and the Bethesda station on Metro’s Red Line. ARTIST INFORMATION Steven Sater (Books and Lyrics) is an award-winning lyricist and writer, with original and collaborative works enjoying long runs both on and off Broadway. In 2007, Steven earned several accolades for the score and lyrics of his updated rendition of Spring Awakening, including two Tony® Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award. 2 Sater and his creative partner, Duncan Sheik, also received a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album in 2007. In 2010, the pair received the Laurence Olivier award for Best New Musical in London. Beginning his career upon graduating from Washington University, Steven Sater has had numerous critically acclaimed plays produced, including Perfect For You, Doll, which won the Rosenthal Prize, and Umbrage, which received the Steppenwolf New Play Prize. Sater’s reconceived musical version of William Shakespeare’s Tempest toured throughout Great Britain and played London’s Lyric Hammersmith theater, which focuses on innovative and groundbreaking works. Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik have joined forces to create numerous other works such as Nero, The Nightingale, and Sheik’s album “Phantom Moon.” Steven Sater’s original plays also include the long-running Carbondale Dreams, A Footnote to the Iliad, Asylum, and In Search of Lost Wings. Steven Sater’s music and lyrics can be heard in movies as well as on stage, including Michael Mayer’s feature film A Home at the End of the World and Mary Stuart Masterson’s The Cake Eaters. Steven Sater divides his time among numerous projects, including a new version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for Sony Pictures, a film adaptation of Spring Awakening, a new stage musical with recording legend Burt Bacharach, and a collaboration with System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian on a musical version of the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. Duncan Sheik (Music Orchestration) is a Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter and composer. In addition to writing the music for Spring Awakening, which received a critically acclaimed Lincoln Center American Songbook Concert staging, Duncan collaborated with Playwright Steven Sater on The Nightingale, a musical based on the Hans Christian Andersen classic which premiered during the 26th annual O'Neill Music Theater Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Sheik has composed original music for the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night and for The Golden Rooms of Nero, which recently debuted at Cornell University and opened at the Magic Theater in San Francisco earlier this year. His self-titled debut album introduced the hit singles "Barely Breathing" and "She Runs Away," and spent 30 weeks on the Billboard 200. Other albums include "Humming," "Daylight," "Phantom Moon" with lyrics by Steven Sater and his latest, "White Limousine." Film Soundtracks include Great Expectations, The Saint, Three to Tango, What a Girl Wants, Transamerica, and A Body Goes Down. Duncan has teamed up with Sater and Waitress librettist Jessie Nelson on the new musical Alice By Heart, making its debut at MCC Theater in New York City in January of 2019. He is also collaborating with Pulitzer and Tony®-winning playwright Lynn Nottage on a musical adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, which began performances at the Atlantic Theater Company in May of 2019. 3 Alan Paul (Director) is currently the Associate Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC). His STC credits include the world premiere of Peter Pan and Wendy by Lauren Gunderson; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha; A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Helen Hayes Award winner, Best Director); "Free For All" Revivals of Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale; and Camelot, which became the highest grossing show in STC's history. Recent credits include Cabaret at Olney Theatre Center; The Pajama Game at Arena Stage; Silence! The Musical and The Rocky Horror Show at Studio Theatre; and Kiss Me, Kate at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. In 2013, Alan was the only American finalist for the European Opera Directing Prize in Vienna, Austria. Opera highlights include The Pirates of Penzance at Palm Beach Opera (starring Stephanie Blythe); Man of La Mancha at Portland Opera; and Penny at Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. Alan has collaborated extensively with The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and with conductors Edward Gardner, Juraj Valcuha, and Gianandrea Noseda. Alan has taught scene study at the University of Maryland’s Opera Studio and acting for the Washington National Opera’s Young Artist Program. CAST INFORMATION (ALPHABETICAL) Tonya Beckman (Adult Woman) returns to Round House, where previous credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, A Wrinkle in Time, Alice, and Crime and Punishment. DC credits include Love’s Labors Lost and Twelfth Night at Folger Theatre; Love’s Labor’s Lost and Lady Windermere’s Fan at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Fickle and Rancho Mirage at Olney Theatre Center; The Internationalist at Studio Theatre; Jewish Queen Lear and Mikveh at Theater J; and Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center, as well as appearances at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Mosaic Theater, Solas Nua, Forum Theatre, 1st Stage, and Imagination Stage. Tonya is also a company member at Taffety Punk Theatre Company. Regional credits include Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse, Fulton Theatre, and Totem Pole Playhouse.