Some films are pure entertainment of course, but what interests me and what I want to do are projects that really make you think, that move you, that will bring you something that will stay with you for a while. I think films are essential to the intellectual awakening of people.
I’ve been praying that we might have a spiritual awakening. But I think that becomes possible as individuals surrender their lives fresh and anew to Christ.
My awakening to the fight for women’s votes came when I was 13, and the BBC screened a drama called ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ about the suffragettes, with the great Sian Phillips as Emmeline Pankhurst. It made a huge impression on me – not just the history, but because of the debates it triggered at home.
Awakenings occur when we lose faith in the viability of our institutions and the authority of our leaders. Religious and spiritual awakening gives people a new vision of themselves, which is then transplanted into social action.
It’s been a journey of great stress and awakening. I have given my blood sweat and tears to ‘Padmavati.’
A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.
After decades of systematic plundering of state property by corrupt oligarchs, the country needs a collective awakening.
The first role that I played as a musical – I was 14 years old, and I played Birdie in ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ That was an awakening of, ‘Wow, I’m good at that. People are responding.’ And I hardly knew what I was doing back then, but there was something that people were seeing.
Adversity will only sharpen our wits and make us more strong-willed, resulting in the political awakening of more Hong Kongers, not to mention the international community’s support.
Of course the case of the Christian Church planted among the nations must differ, in various ways, from that of any sect forming in connection with religious awakening in a territory of professing Christianity.
I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I’d seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.
I don’t want to be daft and say I had some spiritual awakening or something, but I really did come of age in Los Angeles, where we recorded the album. I had my own little house and my own little circle and I really got to feel how the city ticks.
When I was on Broadway, my most recent Broadway show was ‘Spring Awakening,’ and every night I did a topless scene.
My political awakening, if I can be as grand as to call it that, was all about what was happening around me. It wasn’t some romantic, patriotic vision of Scotland going back to what it had been 300 years previously.
The most important thing when you study hypnosis is that you learn that humans are irrational. Until you understand that, hypnosis is hard to do… For me, it was this great awakening to understand that humans are deeply irrational, and it’s probably the greatest influence on me in terms of my writing.
I like that ‘Pitch Perfect’ is one of my first forays into film and just being seen in that kind of light, aside from some people who know me from ‘Spring Awakening’ or the other things that I’ve done. I think in so many ways it’s kind of like my own ‘Glee’ or ‘Smash’.
I really believe that, as an artist, my opportunity to help to bring about awakening is one that should come from a personal process that someone has, and not from me telling somebody that this is the way it is.
I know that some people think differently about pilots, but I really enjoyed shooting ‘Awakening’.
Recent action in Syria and Palestine also tell us that the awakening voices of democracy in those regions are occurring, and that those in that region are able to pursue it without being stifled by terrorists that are despotic.
‘The Awakening’ is meant to be listened to in its entirety. Every song ultimately explores a character dealing with life, making mistakes, fighting, trying. But we also live in a singles-type world, and it works on that level, too.
My first film that I got right after ‘Spring Awakening’ was called ‘Taking Woodstock,’ and Ang Lee was the director.
The Arab Awakening or Arab Spring has transformed the geopolitical landscape.
I was born and grew up in Phoenix, and I left there when I was 17 to go to Interlochen Arts Academy – a boarding school in Michigan – for a year, and then I went to college for a year at The Boston Conservatory and landed the ‘Spring Awakening’ tour midway through my freshman year, which was pretty cool.
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