Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
For those performing in and producing the tribal love-rock musical “Hair,” it could not be a better time. Riding on last year’s exciting Broadway success, the musical’s revival has been adapted for a University of Maine audience. Despite differences in generation and perspective, all involved share an intense love for the musical production and its message.
“[It’s] anything but a relic,” Director Marcia Douglas said. She explained that the 2009 revival was merely a continuation of the show’s original international success, having more than 35 tourings within its first decade.
“Sometimes you have to do a show like that, especially in a time like right now,” said UMaine student actor Justin Zang, “We’re in a time of a despair; we’re at war with different countries. It’s an eye opener, it really is.”
Zang acknowledged the mature thematic nature of the show, citing nudity and depictions of drug use.
Debuting in 1967, the show focuses on Claude — played by Zang — a college dropout who has just received his draft card for the Vietnam War.
“There’s that constant tearing going on,” said Zang of the decision his character must make, to follow the revolutionary youth ideology of the era and avoid conscription, or to conform to the wishes of his parents and traditional American patriotism.
The crux of the plot — Claude’s decision to join his “Age of Aquarius” friends in burning his draft card or to comply with his conservative parents’ beliefs — is truly told through the tribe, a group of 31 peers exemplifying the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the era.
“It’s loosely based on his decision at the time,” Zang said. “Everyone’s burning their draft card. [They’re] being called to the draft and not showing up.”
He explained that there was a five-year prison sentence, as well as the possibility of a fine for draft-dodging.
“The real main character is the tribe itself,” Zang said. “We all really work as a unit. It’s been the most interesting show for me.”
Zang said he enjoyed the lack of clichéd characters, like the bad guy or the unattainable girl, in comparison with past productions he’s performed in. “Hair” is Zang’s first UMaine production. A Wiscasset native, he performed with the Heartwood Regional Theater Company in high school and has always loved theater, despite being a music education major at UMaine.
The holistic feeling of the tribe pervades the entire production, winding between the cast, orchestra and audience — cast members prance down Hauck Auditorium aisles, pausing to jump on a chair, pelvic thrusting to the beat in front of the nearest audience member.
“Since I’ve been doing music direction, this is the show I’ve always wanted to do,” music director Danny Williams said. “I think it’s a great show for college students to both perform and to see.”
Williams is a big fan of the production himself, having seen the Broadway show twice — in March and September of last year. “Hair” won both a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and a Drama Desk Award last year.
The “stupendous music,” as described by Williams, frames the brightly swirling lighting and era-appropriate costumes, transforming Hauck Auditorium into the tribe’s world, controversy and all. The tribe irreverently folds the American flag during the twangy “Don’t Put it Down” and lets loose during the ritualistic burning of draft cards to the “Hare Krishna” mantra. The UMaine production will even include the infamous nude scene at the end of act one.
Williams acknowledged the variability of the show, saying that the lack of structure and rigidity reflects the times.
“The orchestra is given the basics, and they make up the rest,” Williams said. “Really it’s up to the actor to breathe life into the characters. In some shows, that would be very inappropriate, but in this show, it is exactly what is required.”
According to Williams, approximately 85 percent of the musical is song. He stressed the importance of the ensemble performance, saying that the show is not a usual “book musical.”
“The music, score, singing really are the heart and soul of the piece,” Williams said. He feels the production was well-conceived and well-written, and that the music is the message.
“I love it, I really love it,” Douglas said. Hair “comes from a time period when I was growing up and turning into who I’ve become. It speaks to me because I’ve experienced what is in the play at the time it was actually going on.”
Douglas explained an unanticipated challenge she faced during preliminary rehearsals: a lack of cultural understanding. Realizing that none of the actors were alive during that era, she cultivated the necessary understanding by asking actors to interview family members over holiday break, who were alive during the late 1960s.
Actors reported their findings to the group when they returned a week early to UMaine for intensive trust-building and improvisational exercises, in addition to regularly scheduled rehearsals. Zang spoke of the chemistry between cast members, and the original hesitation between theater and music majors to commingle. This hesitation did not last long.
“I think that helped make it personal for them, hearing it from their own family members,” Douglas said. “If we’re ever going to grow up as a human race, [we need to understand that] there are different ways to deal with conflict. Violence is not the only way — that’s what this musical is about.”
“We’ve developed a kind of trust and a group ethos that is really at the heart of the show,” Douglas said.
“Hair” opens Friday in Hauck Auditorium and runs Feb. 12, 13, 14, 18, 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 14 and 21 at 2 p.m.
Bangor Daily News