Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening bills itself as a "contemporary musical adaptation of one of literature's most controversial plays." Indeed, the play, written by Frank Wedekind in 1891, was banned for 70 years for its frank — and ultimately tragic — take on the sexual awakening of a handful of teens. Hormone-fueled fantasies, masturbation, budding homosexuality, incest, and abuse all come into play, but one of the central events in Spring Awakening is one couple's first intercourse and its aftermath. More than a century later, refashioned into a rock musical, the plot is still the same: a dozen boys and girls on the brink of adulthood all thirst for knowledge and experience — of sex in particular. What they run up against is silence and shame. That the play so easily bridges 1890 and today speaks volumes about what has and has not changed around the subject of teenage sex.

plannedparenthood.org spoke with actor Mary McCann, from the original off-Broadway production, and producer Tom Hulce, about the play, teens, sex, and Planned Parenthood.

Although it was written more than a century ago, Spring Awakening still feels modern. What's similar, whether it's 1890 or the 21st century?

Mary McCann (MM): I think our society is repressive in a different way, but we still have all of the same things. Teen pregnancies and suicide and all the same issues that [Wedekind] was writing about in 1890 are still huge issues today.

Tom Hulce (TH): [The play] takes place... in a provincial, conservative, fairly repressive setting. There is an extreme agenda to withhold information from the young people. As horrifying as it is, 100 and however many years later, there is still great interest in our society in withholding information from young people.

I love that five minutes into the play, someone is asking for information. And then [in the next scene] it's to the boy's school, and within five minutes in that scene, one boy is expressing his consternation to another boy about sex, and then five minutes later asks for information. The crime in this play, as perceived by the establishment, is that giving information is dangerous.

In a lot of ways, the teens in the play could have used Planned Parenthood — particularly the education Planned Parenthood provides around sexual decision-making and prevention. How would the play have been different with that kind of education?

TH: Think of it — if they had all had access to good parenting and good information, then every event that happened in the play might have happened differently.

MM: There are two things about [building] awareness around sex. One is that it helps people to have good sexual experience and two, obviously, to prevent pregnancy.... I think if they had Planned Parenthood, they could've had both things — which is, really, a wonderful sexual experience that was safe.

What does Planned Parenthood mean to you?

TH: All the things that we're talking about — the fact that there is an organization dedicated to answering the needs of young people ... that can enable people to take responsibility for their lives in a proactive and positive way.

MM: [Planned Parenthood] provides people ... a place to go so they can take preventative measures or, if they do get pregnant, they have a place to go for guidance. That's such an important thing in our society.

Any final thoughts?

TM: [The play] is about that time when we go from being children through that complicated, thrilling, scary, confusing process of coming into our own in the world and becoming adults. No matter what society we find ourselves in, those same things will happen.

MM: It's funny, being around all these kids [in the play], we talk a lot about sex and who's had sex and who hasn't and what the experience was like. I feel like it's so important to have your first sexual experience be something that you're ready for, so that you're prepared for it in a preventative way and that you're also ready for it emotionally, so that you can feel really good about yourself and the person you're with.

The Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Spring Awakening is at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York City.