The musical “Spring Awakening” – to open in downtown Rock Island Oct. 9 – is already freighted with lots of emotion, and heavy topics like physical, emotional and sexual abuse, teen sexuality, abortion and suicide.
The Center for Living Arts (CLA) is now carrying even more on its shoulders for the new production.
A 2006 rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater, it’s based on the 1891 German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. Set in late 19th-century Germany, the musical tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of adolescent sexuality.
Following its conception in the late 1990s and various workshops, concerts, rewrites and its Off-Broadway debut, the original Broadway production of Spring Awakening opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Dec. 10, 2006.
Its cast included Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, and John Gallagher Jr. while its creative team comprised director Michael Mayer and choreographer Bill T. Jones. The original Broadway production won eight Tony Awards, including Tonys for Best Musical, Direction, Book, Score and Featured Actor.
Duncan Sheik died suddenly Sept. 17, 2026, at 56, from heart and organ failure, and CLA is carrying on a tradition of performing the show it began in 2012 at its former location at 2008 4th Ave., then done again in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022.
Director Dino Hayz said they wanted a break from doing it two years ago. “At first, it was every two years, and then after '22 we thought that may be it, but we just may be done. And then so '24 came and it went, and we just didn't have the desire or the pull to tell the story,” he said in a WVIK interview at the theater (220 19th St., Rock Island) on Sept. 25. “And then some more years passed, and there was a cast that was interested. So the cast found us.”
Despite its 19th-century setting, the issues around youth are always timely and relevant, Hayz said.
“The show was written in 1891, and the message then is the same as it is now. We need to teach our kids about what it means to become an adult and what it means to experience, and that message was back there then, and I think the message still needs -- we need to listen to our children and answer their questions,” he said. “And the whole Duncan Sheik aspect of it, his music brings all of their stories into the modern day.”
“His music shows their emotions from that time, but it's modern music,” Hayz added. “It kind of pulls the past and the present together through his music. Nothing's changed from my worldview that people need to listen, and the kids have questions, and they would like to be told. Rather than not be told what it means to grow up and experience that change.”
Like many people, he only knew Sheik in 2006 from his 1996 pop hit “Barely Breathing,” and “Spring Awakening” was his first of several musicals.
“So when I heard ‘Spring Awakening,’ I loved the music. I thought it was poetry, mesmerizing, haunting, all that stuff,” Hayz said.
This year’s version will be especially haunting, since the CLA’s original Moritz, Aaron J. Lord, died at 33 in June 2025, and another show adult veteran, Tim Cook, died at 45 in late September 2018, shortly before that year’s opening. Doug Johnson (who played adult male before) stepped in with just two weeks notice, and is returning again this time, with Dino’s wife Tina again in the adult female roles (for her fifth time).
“We've talked about when we started this process about how pulling in the memory of Tim, pulling in the memory of Aaron for this show, just bringing their memories into the room with us,” Dino aid. “So we can read their dreams to the stars. And now we have a third. You know, we were going to make this a little in honor of Tim and in honor of Aaron, our ‘Spring Awakening’ family over the years. And now we get to also honor the creator of it.”
These deaths bring more meaning and heart to a show already bursting with emotion, Dino said.
“The last time I did it, I read this little bit that they were saying that they had discovered after the show had grown on them that there's an aspect of the show that's really just about learning, dealing with letting go,” he said. “Letting go and acceptance…I'm hopeful that we can take that, that memory of Tim Cook and that memory of Aaron Lord and now the memory of Duncan Sheik and just put that into our heart and let us experience that peace.”
‘Almost like a curse’
Chloe Knobloch, 19, is playing Wendla, the role made famous 20 years ago by Lea Michele (“Glee,” “Funny Girl”).
Chloe (who saw all six “Spring Awakening” performances at CLA in 2022) said she heard about Sheik’s death while learning a “Spring Awakening” song on guitar. They started rehearsals Aug. 25, 2026, and typically have met twice a week.
“Another one of our cast members who plays Ernst had texted me and his mom, that he had passed, and he was— had been in critical condition earlier. And it was just— it almost felt like a curse,” she said. “Like, it felt like every time the show had popped up here, there was some loss that was connected to it. But it almost makes it 10 times more beautiful that we get to, as Dino said, read their dreams and share that. And that's an honor in itself, let alone just being a part of it.”
Chloe said she didn’t try out for it four years ago because she felt too young.
“I didn't really grasp it yet. I didn't understand it. And it took me not just watching it, but also being a little bit older and going through my own Spring Awakening to be able to handle the material, honestly,” she said. “It's intense, and it takes a lot of emotional intelligence to be able to share that. And same for the audience. It takes a lot of, you know, just not being scared.”
“There's a lot of intense material in this that I think is shied away from, and there's a good reason why a lot of theaters in this area don't do it,” Chloe said. “It's a risk, and theater's supposed to be risky, and I believe that that's the most important kind of art, and it's just so necessary to have that. But you also have to have an audience for it. You really do.”
Natalie Anderson, 24, is playing Thea. She’s about 10 years older than the character she plays.
“When I was really first starting to get into the musical, I was around that age. I was like a young teenager, and that kind of stuck with me,” she said. “That's when it really opened my eyes. It was really— I'm feeling these, this is what I'm going through. And as I grow up, and knowing it's been so controversial, and like people are like, oh, that you can't show that on stage.
“But I know somebody in my real life who has gone through all of these situations. So it's like, why is it so bad to show people's experiences and let other people live through it, feel those emotions, tell a story?” Natalie said. “It's all very tasteful. It's all very emotional. It's telling a real-life story.”
“I just resonate with it because it's one of the most raw musical theater pieces I feel like that are out there, and I feel like that's why it stuck with me for so long,” she added. “And I've only ever seen it in the Center, but it's always such a beautiful show. Seeing my friends in it, seeing people I know in it tell the story, and now we get to tell it together. I think it's a very beautiful piece.
“We all just get very close because of how emotional we get when we're doing it,” Natalie said. “It's like a core memory, core life event to be part of it. And also, I feel like more people should definitely go see it. I've been telling everybody around me, like, yes, it's, it's heavy, but it's real, and it's going to make you feel things. I think it's important because there's not a single event in the show that I don't know somebody that has had something like that happen to them.”
Natalie said she’s been interested in the show since she was 11.
“When they did it in 2014, I was a student at the Center already. I didn't see it, but I saw the set and I was curious,” she recalled.
“I would always look stuff up on the internet, so I started listening to it. It's been with me for a long time, so of course I knew Duncan. My mom would listen to his music, then when I heard that he passed away, I was like, oh my goodness. Like, I saw it on the internet and then my mom told me.
“I was at work and I was like— and then I of course saw the age. I'm like, he's younger than my parents,” Natalie said, noting she went to see the show in 2018 and twice in 2022. “Obviously his music has affected both me and my mom's life. Me for towards more the musical, her towards his pop music. But it was sad because it's like we're doing the show right now. We need to make like a beautiful remembrance to bring his legacy forward.”
A son grows up with “Spring”
Dino and Tina’s son Eli Hayz, 18, is playing Moritz (a lead role Aaron Lord played several times). He was in the 2022 cast, and ran lights in 2018, when he was 9.
“It took me a long while to understand it, but I think when I first started to grasp the meaning of this show, at least what it meant to me, was in 2018 after Tim Cook's passing,” Eli said.
“And the final performance, they did a tribute to him at the ending for the ‘Song of Purple Summer.’ And my 9-year-old self, really, that's the first time I really felt something that deeply with theater and the music around it. And it all just kind of hit me then.”
At the end of that production, all the cast comes out in modern street clothes, and unbeknownst to Dino, they all wore Captain America T-shirts, since that was Tim’s favorite superhero.
Eli in 2022 played Otto, a more innocent role, whereas now he’s in the weightier part of Moritz.
“It's a lot more of a heavy part, but I carry it now with a lot more understanding than I did ever before,” he said. “I think playing this part has brought a lot of different aspects to the show that I've never really have seen before. And I've been in the show, but I think it brings a new light to a lot of different parts of it.”
“Just to myself and what it means to me. I've always loved the last time we did it, I loved the feeling of discovering myself,” Eli said. “And because at that age, that's what I was doing. So I honestly felt like that was a way as an— I could use it as an outlet to help me do that. And obviously I'm still very young and I'm still discovering myself, but now that I'm starting to step into who I'm going to become, I think this show and being Moritz, it brings out a lot of just community and being together through it all and really cherishing the ones you have around you.”
Tori Kaesbauer, who’s a swing for a number of roles and in ensemble, said she grew up in a progressive, welcoming household.
“My parents were very open with me, so I was kind of like open to all of these things. But like going on stage and watching everybody else's character, because I don't speak at all, but watching everybody else act it and go through it, it really impacts,” she said. “My mom always educated me on everything. So it was kind of really like, wow, this is somebody else's life. Like, they're not educated on this.”
“They don't know what they're doing,” Tori said of “Spring Awakening” characters. “It's just so crazy to watch all of these people act it out, and I'm just there witnessing it all. It's really impactful. I've cried so much doing this musical here. Like, I've cried so many tears.”
Chloe grew up in a very conservative Catholic household, so the show hits her differently.
“I found a lot out on my own, and I learned a lot of things the hard way. Which this story also talks about,” she said. “These kids learn so many intense, difficult things the hard way, and rather than just being spoken to about it. And yeah, I really resonate with that a lot.”
Emotional ties to cast
Tina Hayz (who plays several adult roles) said this year’s production is certainly heavier on the cast.
“I think that it really colors it, that we all, we are all having emotional ties to it in different ways,” she said. “With Aaron's passing last year, that's really, that's really hitting me hard because, I mean, he was with us for all of them except for the last one.”
“And he was our original Moritz, and so that his passing is really hard,” Tina added. “And it's also hard, I mean, now that he's Moritz, I have to see him die on stage and be at his funeral, and that's very emotional just being his true mother.”
Sept. 27 was the eighth anniversary of Tim Cook’s death, and his daughter Cassidy is in the current cast as well.
“She came up to us at the end of ‘Superstar’ and she said, I don't know if you're ever going to do ‘Spring’ again, but if you do, call me. I want to be a part of it,” Dino recalled. “And I said, well, we got a group of people trying to make it happen, so I think we'll be calling you."
Morris Nunn, 19, plays Hanschen, and wanted to be part of it because he’s been close friends with Eli.
“I was kind of thrown off because it's not like other musicals, you know what I mean? Like they're listening to like ‘The Bitch of Living,’ and it's like this punk rock,” Morris said. “Just on my own watching it and different versions and listening to it, I'm listening to the lyrics. And the music, it has its own kind of energy and, like, vibe to it that's just— I just can't shake. Like, I just had to do it. And that's why every time I'm walking in their house, I'm asking them when's the next time we can do it, because it's just an opportunity I wouldn't want to miss.”
Chloe said the community just needs to see it again.
“It’s the risk factor. A lot of people, you know, can take offense to it in some ways, like my family, or certain religions or things like that, but it needs to be talked about more,” she said. “We need to have these hard conversations, and you have to be uncomfortable to get comfortable, I believe.”
“Especially in theater. And it kind of puts a spotlight on who you are and who you're going to be and your own— everyone’s own ‘Spring Awakening,’ no matter if you're still an adult,” Chloe said. “Especially with the last song, ‘Song of Purple Summer,’ I think of it as like a wound. And like the color purple and just how even though you're wounded, isn't that such a beautiful thing that you get to feel?
“You know, you're at least feeling. Like some characters go numb,” she added. “And some people don't get the beauty of experiencing, aren't allowed to feel openly. And that's the beauty that the show has and that people who get to watch it get to experience. My life changed after coming here and watching it every night. It altered my brain chemistry for sure.”
The pull of the Center
Most of the cast has done CLA shows before, as well as Center classes, though this is Natalie’s first show here.
“I kind of stopped doing other shows in the community once I came here because it was so freeing, but also working with two adults that aren't afraid to talk about things that people don't talk to youth about and we're not allowed in on,” Chloe said, crediting Dino and Tina. “And getting to work on this material, darker-themed shows, like, we're just hungry for that. That's what's interesting to us, to do things that are actually relevant and not the same.”
“Not everyone wants to do the same ‘Sound of Music’ and ‘Legally Blonde.’ Like, we want to dive deeper,” Morris said, noting his favorite past CLA show was “Hadestown. “What's amazing about the Center is that it's just such a home. I've done theater at a few other places in the community and it always feels like, I have rehearsal tonight, or sorry guys, I can't hang out, I have rehearsal tomorrow.
“But this at Center is the hangout. I'm ecstatic to go to rehearsal,” he added. “We're asking to stay longer or come an hour before, or we're all walking down to El Patron or Center East to spend more time together. It's the bond that gets created in this building is, is lovely. It's amazing. Especially with shows like this where we can all connect and be emotionally vulnerable with each other.
“And we all have the same love for the same art, and we love creating here,” Morris said. “And Dino and Tina do such a great job with letting us create. It's not, you do this here and you do this there. They give us these moments in most of the musical where it's like we get to take from what we see and what we feel with the— that's how acting is supposed to be.
"With these characters and what is happening within the scenes and the songs, we get to have our own ideas and put in on what happens on stage," he said. "It's not all blocking and all choreo given to us by the directors. It's something we all created together, which makes it more powerful to perform knowing this is our show and that we get to share this message.”
“There's something about the energy here. It's just so— you come here for a reason,” Morris added. “You're not just here doing it because your best friend's doing it, or you're here doing it because you have free time. You're here for a reason. It's like anyone who walks through those doors, it's like it's meant to be.”
“You're treated as equals. No one's higher or lower than anyone else,” Chloe said. “And you have room to grow. I'm a completely different person than I was when I was 13 walking in those doors, and thank God for that. Yeah, it's like you can grow here rather than at school and your household. Like, you can— it's just so freeing.”
Natalie agreed that Dino and Tina make her feel special.
“Like, every time I come in, you guys always appreciated me and everyone else around us always appreciated our talents, were grateful we were there, and we were grateful to have you guys in return,” she said. “It just felt like a beautiful little family. I met some of my best lifelong friends that I still talk to here. Like, it just feels— it's a different kind of feeling. I've done a couple of shows at Circa, I did a show at Music Guild, but— and of course I love those experiences, wonderful— but it's like there's something about being at the Center.
“I was so happy to be back because I was like, there’s just something like in my heart that yearns to be here,” Natalie said. “I just like to say that my heart was calling me home, and now I plan to get more involved in theater again because I— even my boyfriend and my mom, they're like, we've never seen you so like full of life as you are right now. I'm like, yeah, I'm having such a good time.”
“It’s truly like the show has magic,” Morris said. “This cast was meant to be this cast. Each and every one of us were free at the time we were, and it all just worked out so perfectly.”
Though Eli is literally working with his parents there, this feels like a different family.
“Even though I'm related to them, I can say the same things. It's been the place where I've been able to grow the most as just in every single way, not just as a performer but also as a person,” he said. “It's a place where, in the best way possible, where you get to deal with all these topics and feel uncomfortable. And that eventually makes you feel comfortable with all of these different topics and all of these scenes.
“I think that's what gets everyone so close, especially in this show. I think in a lot of other places, like, no shade being thrown, but like, I think the feeling of being uncomfortable is a very undiscovered emotion in a lot of places,” Eli said. “And I think in this place it's more welcomed, you know. It's a controlled place, but you can really express.”
The CLA typically serves students in grades 1-12, and its website says “…we believe that theatre is just the beginning. Our focus is on creating a community of artists who inspire, challenge, and support each other, bringing the power of storytelling to life in new and meaningful ways. We believe that everyone has the potential to be an artist, and at the Center, we offer the tools and resources to help you tap into your creative potential.”
“Spring Awakening” will be performed at 7 p.m. Oct. 9-10, 16-17, and 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 and 18. Tickets are $18, available HERE.
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