Under the direction of Broadway performer and choreographer Noah Racey, CSU’s audition-based musical theatre concentration presents ‘Spring Awakening’
CSU may not be known widely known for its theatre program yet. However, it won’t be that way for long if Noah Racey, assistant professor at Colorado State University and award-winning New York actor, director and choreographer, has anything to say about it. Racey came to CSU five years ago and was tasked with creating a musical theatre program for the school. After five years of development and planning, Racey’s new musical theatre concentration is about to open its first musical, Spring Awakening, at the CSU School of Music, Dance, and Theatre.
CSU’s 2022 ‘Spring Awakening’ poster
While this isn’t the first musical the school has done, it’s the first since Racey was able to implement the audition-only musical theatre concentration within the theatre BA program. When he was first hired, he wasn’t sure what form the musical theatre program would take. Racey spent three years researching other school program designs and curricula to determine what would be best for the unique community that CSU serves.
In a Zoom interview, Racey spoke of the program along with the theatre department head, Dr. Megan Lewis. Racey said that the department was looking for “someone who was not an academic. They wanted someone who had lived in the theatre industry.” Racey has worked on Broadway productions of Curtains, Never Gonna Dance, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Follies and worked within the television industry on the series Boardwalk Empire, Person of Interest and Are We There Yet? Racey says he came to Fort Collins to teach because “I was ready for a change and ready to give back in a big way.”
Along with Racey, CSU has been building on the work of predecessors Walt Jones and Laura Jones, to attract other theatre artists at the top of their industry to grow CSU’s theatre department. The program has a new head of performance, Saffron Henke; a new head of tech and design, Erin Carignan; a new production stage manager, Matt Grevan; and, most recently, a props instructor, from the Public Theatre in New York, Jay Duckworth. At the helm of CSU’s theatre program is the new Director of Theatre, Dr. Megan Lewis, who joined the faculty two years ago.
‘Cabaret’ directed by Noah Racey. Musical direction by AaronGandy November 2019 | Photo by John Eisele
“Since Megan has gotten here, things have taken off,” Racey said. “She gave me the framework for CSU’s musical theatre concentration.”
Lewis joined the program in the middle of the pandemic because she was excited to build upon the thing that CSU already excelled at. From her analysis, she determined that the program design and tech.
“Undergraduates are given grad-level experience from the minute they get here in technical theatre,” Lewis said. However, she noticed that they weren’t creating the types of opportunities that their acting students were demanding.
“Students want musical theatre,” she said. “Musicals are becoming the place in which Americans discuss social issues. They are entertaining, emotionally riveting and have a political edge. Through singing, dancing, and acting, musical theatre is a beautiful combination of the best thing that theatre has to offer.”
Musicals as a training tool
Though Dr. Lewis initially resisted musical theatre early on in her career because that wasn’t her entry point into the art form, she acknowledged that when she is out recruiting prospective students the first question students ask is if they have a musical theatre program. Musicals are not just entertaining, they are technically challenging; this makes them the perfect vehicle for the instruction of future theatre artists.
Racey concurred.
“Musical theatre has quickly become the leading training for artists,” he said.
Though Racey originally considered offering a BFA in Musical Theatre, Dr. Lewis suggested that a closed concentration within the program’s current BA would be a better fit for students.
“A BFA would separate the students from everything that CSU has to offer from being a land-grant university,” Dr. Lewis said. “A BA allows students to explore other areas of study and pick up other degrees.”
A more diverse education has other benefits for theatre students.
Colorado State University’s School of Music Theatre and Dance presents “A Man of No Importance,” a musical by Terrence McNally, Directed by Noah Racey. April 25, 2019
“Interesting people make interesting actors,” Racey said. “By exposing our students to more subjects, we are making betters storytellers.”
Putting it on stage
Racey’s students have been getting to put their storytelling skills to the test with their upcoming production of the 2006 musical Spring Awakening. Dr. Lewis calls it a “punky, rock ‘n’ rock musical about what happens when young people aren’t given information.”
Racey has been running the Spring Awakening rehearsals, along with his student assistant director/choreographer Arina Bratkovska, like a real Broadway rehearsal room.
“It’s beautiful seeing students demand professionalism from each other,” Racey said. “They are so excited to work hard, and nothing beats that energy.”
Spring Awakening is a challenging musical which, in the face of the Supreme Court repeal of Roe v. Wade, has made the play’s abortion plot more timely than ever.
“It’s been inspiring to see the current generation willing to ask hard questions, and I’m excited to help create artists who make art that matters,” Racey said.
Spring Awakening opens Nov. 4 and runs through Nov. 13 in CSU’s University Theatre. Dr. Lewis encourages community members to come “watch these young people singing and dance their hearts out while speaking truth to power.”
For tickets and more information, click here.
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