‘Spring Awakening’ Dives Deep in the Turbulence of Being a Teen, Being Queer, and Everything In Between
For nearly two decades, Spring Awakening has returned to the Metro Manila stage at moments when its questions felt newly urgent. First introduced to local audiences by Atlantis Productions in 2009, the Tony Award–winning rock musical went on to be staged by Ateneo blueREP in 2013 and again in 2019.
Now, The Sandbox Collective mounts Spring Awakening as the opening production of their season, directed by Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan with musical direction by Ejay Yatco. The staging also marks the first production to be presented at The Black Box at the Proscenium Theater, Rockwell.
A TIMELESS (CAUTIONARY) TALE
“Spring Awakening was like the Rent of my generation. It made us feel seen and listened to,” shares director Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan. “The themes that are being tackled in the show in 1890s Germany are still unfortunately happening today.”
The director cites that his sister, a medical doctor, has patients in the delivery room, going through labor, and yet are completely unaware of their pregnancies. “That was very eye-opening to me in terms of what is still lacking here in the Philippines and the barriers to having these conversations,” he says.
Sab Jose, The Sandbox Collective’s artistic director and mother of two, points out that the original title of the musical was Spring Awakening: The Tragedy of Childhood. “It was written as a warning to parents that this is what can happen if you don’t have open discussions with your children. Innocence does not mean ignorance. I want parents and their children to come together, see the show, and have an open conversation, not just about their bodies but also about their identities.”
Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and Ana Abad Santos share the role as the Adult Woman, while Audie Gemora plays the Adult Man. They share that as parents, they understand the complexity and awkwardness of having these conversations, but also stress the dangers and consequences of not having these tough talks. Through the show, they hope parents can learn from their characters’ mistakes and shortcomings.
CASTING FIRSTS AND CHALLENGES
Leading the cast are Nacho Tambunting, a homegrown, now New York–based actor, and Alex Diaz, alternating as Melchior Gabor; Nic Chien and Omar Uddin, alternating as Moritz Stiefel; and Sheena Belarmino as Wendla Bergmann.
“This is my first time being intimate in a musical, this intimate,” shares Belarmino. “The innocence, the curiosity of being a woman, and to fully embrace that part of me as a human being is something that is challenged within me.” As Wendla, she realized how hard it was to be a woman then and how the struggle persists today. “But if you’re with the right company that’s willing to give you the right information so you can decide for yourself, you are in a safe space,” she shares.
Diaz and Uddin, both Bar Boys alums, share that they’re expressing a different range of skills in this musical from what they’re used to. “This requires a much more intimate staging. I’m very excited for the role, but it’s also quite challenging,” he shares. But he also thanks the whole creative team for their guidance and care as they navigate the risque bits of the material together as professionals.
For Tambunting, Spring Awakening has long been close to his heart. He first saw the original Broadway production with the original cast at age 11, with his mother covering his face with a cardigan during more explicit scenes. The beginnings of a full-circle moment emerged in 2018, when he landed a role on the NBC TV Show Rise, which follows a high school drama club attempting to mount Spring Awakening as a conservative PTA pushes back against the production.
“We got to work with Steven Sater. It was a whole Hollywood production, but even then, I don’t think I fully understood the musical until now,” he says. “Revisiting the material with more life experiences, it just hits deeper. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about Spring Awakening, as you go through your life, it means something different.”
As for Chien and Uddin, who play Moritz Stiefel, both agree that the hardest part of the role is making sure that they are distanced from the character once the curtain falls. “A lot of the preparation for Moritz is that we, Nic and I, are trying not to be one with Moritz because his story gets really dark,” shares Uddin. “Without spoiling it, there’s a scene that was really hard for me because you’re so alone, you’re so vulnerable,” adds Chien.
Making his Philippine theatrical debut is Singaporean-based performer Angelo Martinez (he played the titular role in Pandemonium’s Dear Evan Hansen and played an ensemble member opposite Lauchenco-Yulo in Kimberly Akimbo) as Hänschen Rilow. While no stranger to intimate scenes, Martinez cites that this is the first time he’s doing it with a person of the same sex. “When we were workshopping this with Andrei, we felt a huge responsibility to pay tribute to representation, by highlighting the conditions in the community. At the end of the day, Spring Awakening, especially in this particular scene, transcends the Philippines; it unfortunately transcends the region. I felt a huge responsibility to come into that role, and I sort of felt awakened by it as well,” he points out.
The cast members share that while the show tackles a lot of mature and sensitive themes, The Sandbox Collective has provided them with a safe space to explore and work out the scenes with safety and professionalism in mind. Missy Maramara takes the helm of the cast’s safety as the intimacy director.
CREATIVE CHOICES & CHANGES
Pamintuan shares that Ernst and Hänschen, who are generally seen as the show’s “comedic relief,” are given a more “sensitive and honest depiction” in this version. “I really wanted to put a queer lens in terms of centering the oddness to make sure that marginalized voices can be heard,” the director points out.
“Spring Awakening is a protest,” choreographer Nunoy Den Burgh shares. “It’s awareness, it’s highlighting the traumas and triggers we are going through. I really wanted to keep the same history of protesting discrimination, being judged wrongly for things you don’t understand, and to incorporate that in the movements,” he shares.
As for the set, designer Wika Nadera teases us with his creative process: “I’m trying to explore darkness, as in deepness. So I’m trying to explore dichotomy, or the space in between darkness and deepness, and how we find or try to find enlightenment through the darkness. And also through vulnerability and innocence, and how these kids and adults try to explore that space, that in betweenness. I am definitely working on the poetry of space, elements that explore depth, and also the underground.”
Musical director Ejay Yatco is once again attached to Spring Awakening, having revisited the show thrice (the first two in different productions of the show with Ateneo blueREP in 2013 and 2019) in different points of his life. “I did it when I was 22, then 28, and now I’m 35, and as I keep doing it, I realize that I understand the adults,” Yatco shares. “When I started, I understood the angst of the children, but now I feel more like a teacher.” He points out that every generation he has worked with has handled the material differently and that this is the first time he is working with a cast this young. “Their hunger for work is beautiful,” he says about the whole cast.
Spring Awakening by The Sandbox Collective will be showing at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center, Makati City, from February 13 to March 22, 2026.
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