Going to the theatre is great because I can’t look away during the whole play and I discover talent is real and right in front of me and there’s something much more raw in having the actors just meters ahead instead of seeing them through a screen and at the end of the play I feel so giddy regardless of if it was a tragedy because talent is real and it’s bowing in front of me and it immerses me every single time in the story in the way movies only do every once in a while and the sun always shines a little brighter when I leave
oh, hanschen rilow, my fave. they did you so dirty
quick warning, i have a huge hyperfixation on spring awakening. i analyze the smallest things about it, especially when it comes to my favorite characters 🥲 i hope this post is at least coherent, sorry if it isn’t your kind of thing
lets establish hanschen’s role in the play. he maintains his “don’t rock the boat” mentality and is the least sexually repressed of the boys. in the play, you have to note that hanschen doesn’t stand out as particularly cold hearted or unempathetic, since all the boys are competitive and not as friendly to each other. hanschen is actually one of the only boys who is relatively kind to moritz, though he appears a little disingenuous at moritz’s funeral. compared to other people's attitudes at the funeral, though, hanschen is pretty respectful.
play hanschen doesn’t go out of his way to confront authority, but unlike in the musical, this doesn’t mean that he has no morals. at his core, he appears to be a fairly kind person who is just doing what he has to succeed.
his gentle side especially shows in his relationship with ernst. yes, he still teases him for wanting to be a pastor in the play, but it’s more affectionate and less humiliating. this factor is helped by their friendship being pre-established, since earlier, hanschen asks moritz if ernst also passed the midterms.
hanschen’s whole “ernst, THIS is all a part of the SYSTEM” monologue comes off as less pretentious and more like he views ernst as an equal.
i promise im getting to the homophobia soon 🙏(don’t clip that)
anyway, hanschen kissing ernst in this scene is a romantic gesture, an unavoidable culmination of their friendship and implied sexual encounters. ernst is given more agency here, VERY enthusiastic about skimming that “cream”… okay freak
ernst gets vulnerable here because he admits he tried to convince himself nothing like this would happen between them. hanschen tells him “let’s not be sad”, something he repeats a few times in this scene. first at the beginning, when ernst laments about being tired, and now recontextualized after their kiss.
when ernst says he loves hans, hans interjects with another “let’s not be sad”, telling him that the present is beautiful and ernst shouldn’t worry about the future for now.
this bittersweet and tender scene was made into homophobic comedy relief in the musical, where hanschen is an unemotional asshole to ernst and we’re made to think “awh poor innocent ernst actually thinks hanschen loves him too? hanschen obviously just wants to make out with anything that breathes!” and honestly, i wouldn’t be mad at somebody who came away from that scene with this conclusion.
the way i see it, hanschen’s original kindness is less apparent when put next to the rewritten, supportive friend group of the musical. so, he was reduced to somebody with little empathy who mainly thinks about out performing his classmates and jacking off. niceee
it’s very disappointing to see that what was the most arguably wholesome pairing in the story was changed to go-to comedic relief. ernst was made more innocent to contrast hanschen’s new indifferent, sex-driven personality.
so funny, right? it’s not like that was essentially the original dynamic of melchior and wendla…
it’s like sater and shiek wanted to keep the idea of melchior and hanschen foiling each other, but still wanted to make melchior easier to root for. so they swapped many of their traits, mashed it all up with some of moritz’s original lines, and called it a day.
still, i think that musical hanschen has potential for nuanced and great performances. for example, i really like joey haro’s portrayal of him. (99 seat dwsa version) i just think that the writers had a huge misunderstanding of his character, especially in how hanschen foils melchior.
Comedy (F) Play,Author,Year,Language Style,Character,Age Range,Scene,Start Line,End Line,Apprx. Length,Popularity,Tags,Notes,Doc/pic link
Bad Habits,Terrence McNally,Contemporary, Conversational,Dolly Scupp,25-60,Act I, pg 24 ,His hobby is tropical fish,How do you hate a tropical fish?,1-1.5min,...
More monologues!! I would still definitely love more male monologues, though I am quite happy with my new female selections. I would love whatever selections you can give, as I will continue to update this every once in a while. Have fun!!
I’m starting a straight play club in my school this year and we have a budget of approximately $0. Okay we have no budget.
What I wanted to do was plays, but we’d focus on prolly Shakespeare or other public domain shows. The issue is we would have to cast kids who might not be strong with Shakespeare and then also find shows that we could do (probably more one acts) with however many kids we had.
What do we do outside of this time though? Does anybody have their drama club meeting outside of show rehearsals? What do you guys do!!!
