HABEBALD, _the School Beadle_ DR. PROKRUSTES, _Head of the House of Correction_ A LOCKSMITH DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER, M.D. THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN MRS. BERGMANN INA MÜLLER, _her married daughter_ WENDLA BERGMANN, _her 14-year-old daughter_ MARTHA BESSEL } THEA } _Wendla’s Friends_ ILSE, _an older girl, an artist’s model_ The Scene is laid in Southern Germany or in Switzerland. The Time is from May to November, 1892. A NOTE ON THE STAGING SPRING’S AWAKENING is divided into Nineteen Scenes as follows: ACT I: SCENE 1. In Mrs. Bergmann’s House. SCENE 2. A Park. SCENE 3. The Same. SCENE 4. The School Yard. SCENE 5. In the Woods. ACT II: SCENE 1. Melchior’s Study. SCENE 2. Same as I, 1. SCENE 3. In the Rilow House. SCENE 4. A Hayloft. SCENE 5. Mrs. Gabor’s Room. SCENE 6. The Bergmann Garden. SCENE 7. A Path near the River. ACT III: SCENE 1. The Faculty Room at the School. SCENE 2. By the Wall of the Graveyard. SCENE 3. In the Gabor House. SCENE 4. In the House of Correction. SCENE 5. Wendla’s Bedroom. SCENE 6. A Vineyard. SCENE 7. The Graveyard. It will be noted that the scenes concluding the acts, long scenes all of them, are intended to occupy the full stage, and that the prior scenes in each act may be played in the foreground. Two of the scenes, II, 3, and III, 6, have nothing to do with the story and to save time may be omitted, though the latter has another importance, lightening with its idyllic atmosphere the squalor and bitterness of the last act. If it _is_ omitted, III, 4, and III, 5, might be played in reverse order. The simplest arrangement of the stage would be a neutral proscenium, six or seven feet deep, pierced with doors. Behind this, different backwalls can be lowered, and all the interior scenes played in this shallow front space. On the back of the stage should be sloping ground covered with underbrush, and a path winding down through it. In the middle-stage can be set the properties for special scenes--a bench in a box-hedge for I, 2 and 3; a huge oak-trunk for I, 5; a garden wall with grass and violets for II, 6; the graveyard wall with Moritz’s grave for III, 2, etc. The swiftest possible sequence of scenes within the act is of prime importance. ACT I SCENE I.--_A pretty little room, with a window looking out on an early spring garden._ WENDLA’S _bed in one corner, wardrobe in the other, table and two chairs between. Doors just below bed and wardrobe._ WENDLA _stands at the foot of the bed, all dressed except for her frock, which hangs on the chair in front of her. Her mother stands on the other side of the table, with a long dress in her hands._ WENDLA--Why did you make the dress so long for me, mother?