JustArts: What motivated you to join the production of Spring Awakening?

Alex Faye: I’ve always loved the show—it’s always been one of my favorite shows, and I think the score is absolutely fantastic. It seemed like a really fun show to do and a really great group of people who were going to do it, and I just knew I couldn’t pass it up.

JA: What did your role as music director entail?

AF: As a music director, my job is twofold. I have to teach the entire cast all of their music, all of their harmonies, all the rhythms—I’d just sit at the piano for hours and hours at rehearsals and just teach all of the music to the cast. Which was really great [to do] for this show because the cast was so talented and so into it, which was wonderful. The other part is the pit. I have to rehearse the pit, I have to find [musicians for] the pit—that takes quite a lot of time, too. And then I conduct the pit. For this show, since it’s not a really big pit, instead of having to conduct with a baton, I was able to conduct from the piano and play piano and conduct for the show. So music director, in short, teaches the music to the cast, rehearses the pit and then conducts the show.

JA: Did you have any challenges as music director?

AF: The show is actually not challenging, really. There was some incredibly challenging music and some really difficult things to teach, but the cast really took it in stride and was so dedicated to making it the best it could be. Of course, there’s challenges with any show you do, but this show really was as flawless a production as I’ve ever been involved with.

JA: What was your favorite piece to direct?

AF: I have two favorite songs in the show. There’s a song in Act One—“Touch Me”—which is this beautiful ensemble number with incredible harmonies, and the cast sang it so well. It’s got a really fun piano part to play, and it’s just so beautiful. Conducting it, hearing it, playing it and [having] it all come together—it’s just one of the most beautiful things. The cast, the soloists and the whole ensemble were just amazing with it. I also love a song in Act Two called “Left Behind.” It’s a very sad song, but it’s really, really beautiful. Our guitarist, Mike [Hirsch ’18], and Jason [Theoharis ’17], the soloist who played Melchior, was also amazing. It’s just the most beautiful song—one of the most beautiful songs, I think, ever written really.

JA: Was there something that the musicians were most excited for?

AF: I think that the musicians really liked that it was a small pit and that everybody was really integral to it. I’ve done a lot of shows at Brandeis as a musical director, and most of them have had pits of about 10 to 20 peoples, and this show had seven, including me on piano. [There are] no doubled instruments—there’s one violin player, one viola player [and] so on. Everyone loved how they were very integral to it and that we were really in tune with each other musically and mentally. They just loved playing the music [because] it’s beautiful music and everyone had their moments to shine. We get to really rock out sometimes, which is fun, and kind of bounce around backstage or onstage with this show. And then there were some really beautiful moments where it’s just like an awesome experience to make that music.

JA: Was there one thing you wanted the audience to take away from the show?

AF: I don’t want to tell the audience what I want them to take away because I think that that’s one of the cool things about theater—that its up to you, as an audience member, to leave thinking what you want to think and with a certain message in mind. I think that Rachel [Liff ’16], our director, probably has some ideas, and I have some ideas, and the choreographer has some ideas, but really it’s about what the audience member gets out of it. Not what we’re telling them to get out of it.