Spring Awakening on the cover of Metro Weekly

Chani and the cast of Spring Awakening are featured in the Metro Weekly cover story this week!

“Other cast members have been gratified to see that Spring Awakening seems to be catching on among today’s adolescents — or at least among Maryland high schoolers. “Seeing teenagers…coming to the show, and getting to talk to them afterwards has been really rewarding,” says 24-year-old Chani Wereley. “To know that our work playing these young people on the stage is resonating with people who are in that time of their life is really cool.”

After a recent performance Wereley met a girl who identified with her character Martha, whose father abuses her, and the song she sings, “The Dark I Know Well.”

“She came up to me and told me that she was a survivor, and that song was everything she can’t say out loud, and just started crying,” Wereley says. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is why I do theater.’ It was so rewarding, in the worst way.”

Duncan Sheik's Tony-winning "Spring Awakening" finds relevance in the burgeoning sexuality of teenagers.”