K and E Theater Group’s upcoming production of the Tony Award-winning rock musical “Spring Awakening” will be at 33 Hawley in Northampton the weekends of March 28-30 and April 3-5.

“Spring Awakening” is a coming-of-age musical about a group of teenagers in 19th-century Germany and their struggles with adolescence, including abusive parents and a lack of sexual education. Some of its most famous songs – minus the ones with names we’re unable to print in a family newspaper – include “Mama Who Bore Me,” “The Word of Your Body,” and “Those You’ve Known.”

One of the show’s overarching themes is about the human needs of connection and communication, plus the consequences that come with the absence of both – which, at a climactic point in the show, includes a character’s suicide. That character’s death, said director Eddie Zitka, who is also the company’s artistic director, co-founder, and president, is “a catalyst for the other characters to search themselves and realize that the system is broken and the system has basically left them to flounder.”

To Zitka, what has given “Spring Awakening” its staying power since its debut nearly two decades ago is the way that it speaks to a sense of intergenerational disconnection.

“The show is so much about how these kids are not talked to by their parents; they’re not given the information that they need; they seek the information from each other; they seek the information from books … With social media and technology nowadays, I feel like kids are getting more information from that than from their actual family,” he said.

Of course, any show that involves such weighty subject matter needs a cast that can handle the vulnerability and intimacy it requires, and this one is no exception, Zitka said. Multiple actors and Zitka said that through the rehearsal process, which has involved extensive character work, the cast has grown into a found family that trusts each other to collaborate through difficult material.

“You never know what you’re getting in the room before you start,” Zitka said. “And I just got very lucky that in my room, I’ve got people who started as seeds and have now created this beautiful garden of characters.”

Carina Savoie, who plays Wendla, said, “The love we have for each other as a cast is pretty remarkable, and we are just constantly joking and holding each other, and it’s one of the most supportive groups I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.” She and her castmates check in often to make sure they’re okay during rehearsals. Even with the show’s intimacy scenes, which she said some people may find shocking, “It’s truly just choreography,” she said.

Michael DeVito, who plays Melchior, said working with difficult subject matter had helped the cast build a strong sense of camaraderie: “We’re in this together, so let’s be vulnerable together.”

“I swear,” he added, “everybody in this cast is a powerhouse in their own right, whether it’s acting chops, vocal ability, physicality with elements of humor all over the place. It’s been very fulfilling, and I really can’t wait for people to see this.”

K and E’s current season has the theme “Color and Light,” which is fitting given that their fall production is “Sunday in the Park with George,” the Stephen Sondheim musical about the painter Georges Seurat, which includes the song “Color and Light.” But how does “Spring Awakening” – a dark show that includes teenage suicide, abortion, and sex – fit into that?

Light in this show is both literal and figurative, Zitka said – different lighting styles serve as replacements for the handheld microphones that the original Broadway production used to separate the storyline, which is set in the late 1800s, from the contemporary music. Figuratively, though, it represents a sense of hope that the teenagers find at the end of the show, one of the musical’s big takeaways.

Savoie agreed: “I think people should take away that change is possible, that we are responsible for the future we want, that communication and education are vital, to our development as a society, and for our own personal journeys as well,” she said. 

“And that in scary and dark moments there is always – even if it’s a sliver – a presence of light.”

“Spring Awakening” runs Friday, March 28, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 29, at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, March 30, at 4 p.m.; Thursday, April 3, at 8 p.m.; Friday, April 4, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, April 5, at 2 and 8 p.m. at 33 Hawley in Northampton. Tickets are $29.49, fees included, at ketg.org/spring-awakening.html.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.