A Conversation With Spring Awakening’s Steven Sater

Playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter Steven Sater says he decided to adapt Spring Awakening—Frank Wedekind’s late-19-century play about a group of disaffected teenagers—into a musical because he wanted to “touch the troubled hearts of youth around the world.” Here, in two different interviews (one filmed in New York’s Central Park, the other conducted over the phone), the cocreator of the award-winning musical discusses the struggles of adolescence, and what it was like to see his creation performed by Parkland students at a community theater in Boca Raton, Florida, this past May.

When did you first hear about the production of Spring Awakening involving a few of the Parkland students?