The second and final show for the 2025 Emporia State Summer Theatre season is “Spring Awakening,” an angsty rock musical adaptation of the seminal play about the trials and tribulations of growing up. The Tony Award-winning play from Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater is described as an electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality and rock and roll. The musical is for mature audiences only.
“Spring Awakening” features four shows. It opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 27, then continues at both 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 28, with the final performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 29. All shows will be in the Ronald Q. Frederickson Theatre in Roosevelt Hall.
Tickets for each show cost $18 for adults and $13 for seniors, ESU employees and Theatre Guild members.
Order tickets at emporia.edu/tickets.
About ESU Summer Theatre
The 2025 company for ESU Summer Theatre features 28 people. Of those, 25 are ESU students, one is an Emporia community member and two are students from community colleges in Des Moines and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
They are chosen through auditions and are assigned their roles for all summer productions at the beginning of the season. These roles include on-stage characters as well as work on technical crews such as costume, props, lighting and sound.
Aubrey Wilson, ESU director of theatre, is an alum of the ESU program and remembers well the hard work and thrill of presenting four consecutive shows during the summer with just 10 days between one show closing and the next opening. Her goal is to return to that schedule.
“Working on summer theatre is a wonderful experience for ESU students interested in careers in the performing arts,” Wilson said. “In addition, community members have told me over and over that they would love to support a four-show season, which provides entertainment every other weekend.”