Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Area of Concentration

Theatre Dance and Performance Studies

Abstract

Inspired by my unique experience working on the musical Spring Awakening by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, this thesis asks the question: what type of cultural meanings do adaptations of the story of Spring Awakening create and transmit? In order to answer this question I first investigate the cultural context of Frühlings Erwachen , the original play by Frank Wedekind the musical is adapted from, in Chapter One. Chapter One also allows me to discuss translation as a form of adaptation by analyzing different English versions of the play. Chapter Two focuses on the debut Broadway production of Spring Awakening in order to identify cultural change between the translations of Wedekind’s play and Sater’s libretto. Chapter Three analyzes the Deaf West Revival of the musical, directed by Michael Arden, and how the libretto of the musical facilitates integration of distinctive cultural experience during production. Together, all three chapters culminate in a personal understanding of how the theatrical process interacts with individual cultural experiences and why acknowledging this phenomenon is important.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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