(soft music)
- [Sawyer] We're just normal theater kids
and we've always been normal theater kids.
(soft music)
We're weird and we like singing and dancing
and doing all the weird stuff that theater kids like doing.
(soft dramatic music)
A part of me wants to go back
to being a normal teenager again,
but I just feel like how can you go back
when all of this is happening?
(soft dramatic music)
♪ Ah, uh, ah, uh, ah, uh, ah ♪
♪ Ah, uh, ah, uh, ah ♪
♪ Ah ♪
- I think I love about theater just the fact
that for a little while you can be someone you're not.
I could do "I Could Be Jewish For You,"
I haven't sang this in forever.
Should I act it for you?
Give you a little show. - Yes, act it all out.
(laughs)
- Oh, so funny. - That's very good.
(piano music)
♪ I'll admit it's a little bit out of the blue ♪
♪ But I might as well try ♪
♪ I think I could be Jewish for you ♪
♪ I'll stop baking gingerbread ♪
♪ Start baking challah ♪
I've been in over 20 shows.
I usually do like four shows a year,
because I would do one show in the spring,
one show in the fall and then two over the summer.
And I've been doing that for a while. (laughs)
♪You're always a day ♪
♪ Bye, bye, birdie ♪
♪ Will you be some human's property ♪
- We had really wanted Sawyer to be an athlete
and we knew that we had an issue,
because every time she'd hit the ball
and go run to first base,
she would blow kisses and wave to everyone in the bleachers.
(laughs)
- There was a lot of spinning involved
(laughing)
in her sports.
- All right, let's start.
(students chatting)
- From the beginning of act one?
- [Christine] Yes.
Places.
- I think it was like late December, early January,
I learned that a local theater company
was putting on Spring Awakening.
- Yes.
♪ Yeah, you're fucked all right and all for spite ♪
♪ You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye ♪
- [Sawyer] It was a book written in the 1890's
and it was turned into a musical.
It was a big hit on Broadway
and won like eight Tony Awards.
♪ One last kiss ♪
- I think a lot of teenagers are drawn to Spring Awakening
'cause we're all so angsty and hormonal
that we just kind of relate to it.
Oh, this is my opening number costume.
I'm in my nightgown, feeling my boobs.
- Walking through you.
- You know, normal everyday girl stuff.
♪ Mama who bore me ♪
♪ Mama who gave me ♪
♪ No way to handle things ♪
♪ Who made me so sad ♪
- In January, I cast Cameron and Sawyer
and all of these students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas
in these leading roles.
Sawyer, you have buttons up the back of your dress.
- [Sawyer] I do indeed.
- Great, okay.
- [Sawyer] Me and Cameron and Ethan and Kirsten, like
we all decided to do it.
- There's only powdered left.
- So?
- They're the worst kind.
(laughing)
- [Sawyer] And then Alex joined in later on.
I'm playing the role of Wendla
and Cameron is playing Melchior.
- I'm also not taking AP review
so I can come in at 9:00 a.m.
- [Sawyer] Okay, 11:30 and 1:00.
- 'cause I am not a good student.
- When I met Cameron,
he was just this kid who had a lot in him.
I describe him as like an overly corked champagne bottle
that was waiting for its opportunity.
Cameron, I want you to look Jason dead in the eyes
like you would say 5,000 things,
but you're just not going to yet.
- Do I kiss him?
- No.
After the show.
And then just calmly sit down,
go back into the scene.
Once Cameron is set, then start.
- [Jason] Do you have any idea of what you're saying?
- If you please.
- [Jason] Pardon me?
- If you please, Herr Sonnenstich.
- [Jason] The boy has made an error.
- Yes sir, but an understandable error.
Spring Awakening is a lot about young people
paying for the negligence
and dishonesty of their elders.
- Herr Gabor,
(slap) do I make myself clear?
- Yes, sir.
- [Sawyer] When we started rehearsing
we had no idea how much it would connect
with what we were about to go through.
(soft music)
(light suspenseful music)
(beeping)
- [Female] Attention all units in district 15,
possible shots fired at 5901 Pine Island Road
at Stoneman Douglas High School,
possible shots fired at Stoneman Douglas High School.
- [Male] 1784, we definitely have shots being fired.
- [Female] 10-4, 23
there is an active shooter working at Douglas,
multiple gunshots are being fired.
We can hear them in the background,
our 911 lines are blowing up.
- [Male] We're locking down the school right now.
Make sure there's no pedestrians crossing
anywhere on Albert Road.
(soft somber music)
- We were around the Walmart area...
(somber music)
- Yeah.
- It's very hard to retrace the day. (sniffs)
(somber music)
There were about 60 of them that were in a closet together.
We just were texting her just pretend you're dead,
just pretend.
- To think that I was literally
losing my kids was terrifying.
- Parkland, consistently voted one of the safest
communities in America until today.
- [Male] 17 people are now confirmed dead.
We know at least three people still in critical condition.
- It was just such a dark time
and it seems like how are we ever
going to move forward from this?
Like there's no way to go forward.
(somber music)
- [Students] Hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA has got to go.
Hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA has got to go.
Hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA--
- [Female] Hundreds of thousands of these amazing
young people are converging on the nation's capital
right now to demand action on gun reform.
- [Sarah] Hi, my name's Sawyer.
- [Andrea] My name's Andrea.
- And we are survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas
and we also wrote the song Shine.
♪ We're done with all your little games ♪
♪ We're tired of hearing that we're too young ♪
♪ To ever make a change ♪
- They wrote an anthem for what was going on
and it spoke to everybody.
It's how everybody was feeling.
Like yeah, we're pissed,
but we're gonna prove you wrong
and we are gonna make changes and you can't stop us.
♪ We're not gonna let you win ♪
♪ We're putting up a fight ♪
- It was hard because I wanna help in every way I can,
but I also I am still a teenager,
I still go to school,
I just wanna be like a normal kid
and just living my normal life.
But we have to talk about it,
like it's something we can't ignore because it happened.
Someone who isn't even allowed to buy alcohol legally
is allowed to buy a war weapon?
Like where does that make sense?
- This is the only country where
this kind of things happens.
This is something that can be stopped
and this is something that will be stopped.
- Theater kids have always been taught
to express their voice,
take the message that they have inside
and exude it to everybody else.
Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now
that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?
(audience cheers and applauds)
- Quiet.
All right.
I love you all very much,
I've missed you guys.
You're teenagers, you've been through hell and back.
Whether it's because you know went through it at the school
or you've been through it holding down the fort,
or you're going through normal teenage shit
that has nothing to with what happened in February,
I understand.
- We got back after everything happened,
it was about two weeks later
and we were just all thinking
like are we even gonna do this show anymore?
Like should we do the show?
Can we even do the show?
- It's good to be back in the room with all of you
and I'm incredibly grateful for those of you
who have been juggling the world
that you have prioritized the show.
- But I think we all unanimously felt like yeah,
we have to do the show,
because we need this show now more than ever.
- For the last time
- Did you write this?
- Yes.
♪ Yeah, you're fucked all right and all for spite ♪
♪ You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye ♪
- [Female] It's an angry bounce,
it's not I'm dancing right now.
(rehearsing)
- [Female] You're fucking mad.
♪ Some big ass lie ♪
- Every person that's ever pissed you off
is right there, right now.
♪ Not enough for them to watch us quit ♪
- [Female] Get it out, move your bodies.
- When we all agreed to continue doing the show,
that's the moment that I
was most proud of the kids, frankly.
'cause they knew they were gonna be tackling
something that was so close to home.
- Just put your hand like on her grave
and just be like holding it like you're holding her,
she's down there.
Unfortunately, I don't need to direct you
through this moment too much.
- You're good, I got it.
- Okay.
There's one scene in a graveyard
and we're all mourning the loss of our friend.
♪ Your heart knows sorrow ♪
♪ There are those who still know ♪
♪ Still know ♪
♪ Those you've known and lost still walk behind you ♪
♪ All alone ♪
- It's good to have that sense of reality
going to rehearsals and just being a normal teenager
and realizing okay, this is what normal is.
And then in a way it kind of hasn't,
because every night,
every time we perform the show
it just kind of cuts open those wounds
that you're trying to heal.
- Yes, I'm ready now.
I'll be an angel.
So dark, so dark.
- Okay, take a moment, breathe.
At that point you're gonna take the gun,
you'll put it into your mouth
with your eyes just straight out at the audience
and you'll pull,
the image of pulling the trigger.
We are negotiating use of a gunshot or not, okay?
No decision has been officially made.
It's been hard to watch them give up their innocence.
(soft dramatic music)
- It's such a provoking show,
like there's topics that people feel
uncomfortable talking about,
but I think overall it's very important that we do it
because it's what we needed right now, especially now.
(people chatting)
- Thank you.
- The bag.
(people chatting)
Go ahead.
- Thanks.
(students rehearsing)
- It's a lot of energy, lot of stuff happening right now.
(students rehearsing)
- Guys, let's circle up.
- [Female] Yeah, circle.
(students chatting)
- [Male] Stand on that chair, it'll be good.
- We have friends to welcome into our circle here.
(cheering)
- Hello. - Hey.
- This is Steven and Duncan
and they are here to support us.
So this is our cast and some of our crew.
- We're thrilled to be here. - Thank you.
It's a real honor to be here.
When I learned that six of the students
including a couple who were so involved in Never Again
were part of a production of Spring Awakening,
I was deeply moved.
It felt like something had really come
full circle in my own life.
(laughing)
It's a little racy for me.
(laughing)
I wrote the play very much in reaction to Columbine.
What I felt in the wake of those terrible shootings
was how much we were still failing
to listen to what was going on
in the hearts of our children.
We're still not hearing.
Duncan and I had this dream
and we made this determination
in 1999 to touch the troubled heart
of youth around the world.
And I think we just never would have had
any idea that this show
could have the kind of resonance that it's had
and kind of enduring life that it has.
- [Duncan] I'm Duncan.
- I'm Joe, so nice to meet you.
- Hi, I'm Wendy, Sawyer's mom.
I mean for Sawyer just being in theater is healing,
it's doing what she loves
and being on stage and that's her escape.
- Her closest next to normal that she can find.
- Exactly.
- Hello, I am picking up two tickets.
- Our phones are ringing off the hook,
we sold out the first show very quickly,
the second show sold out.
We had to add a third and that sold out in one day
and we just put a fourth show on.
It has made this community come together
and show their support.
- My name is Christine Barclay and I'm the owner
and artistic director of Barclay Performing Arts.
(audience cheers and applauds)
- Thank you, thank you.
We picked this show in January
far before any of our community's struggles
that we have recently suffered together.
The incredible bravery of the students
and the cast members and my company members
that has gone into producing
and making sure that this show happened tonight,
is something astounding.
That being said, there were some disclaimers
that were posted that were would be a gunshot in the show.
And I am here to tell you that as a creative team
we have decided that there will not
be a gunshot in the show.
(audience applauds)
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Spring Awakening.
(audience applauds)
♪ Mama who bore me ♪
♪ Mama who gave me ♪
♪ No way to handle things ♪
♪ Who made me so sad ♪
(light music)
This whole entire play is about kids speaking up
against adults who are trying to hold us back.
(light music)
There are so many adults telling us
that we're not going to make a change
because we're teenagers.
The reality is that we are what
is gonna make the world different.
(light music)
(somber music)
(audience applauds and cheers)
(soft music)