Oct. 30, 2008
‘Hair’ to rock the UWSP stage
UWSP Theatre and Dance Department students will perform in
“Hair, the Grammy Award-winning rock musical, at UWSP’s Jenkins
Theatre on November 14-16 and 19-22.
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The rock musical ‘Hair,’ which gave a voice to the hippie generation
of the 1960s, will be performed at the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point by students in the Department of Theatre and
Dance on November 14-16 and 19-22.
With an electrifying and Grammy Award-winning score that includes
the songs “Aquarius,” “Let the Sun Shine In,” and “Easy to Be Hard,”
“‘Hair’ offers a unique theatrical experience as well as insight
into the political parallels between the late 60s and our current
political environment,” said Tim Howard, the show’s director and a
UWSP assistant professor of theatre.
Performances will be offered in Jenkins Theatre at the Noel Fine
Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14 and 15, and
Wednesday through Saturday, Nov. 19-22. A matinee performance will
be offered at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16.
Tickets are $17 for adults, $16 for senior citizens and $12 for
youth. UWSP students with ID may buy tickets in advance for $4.50 or
be admitted free if seats remain. Tickets may be purchased at the
UWSP Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University
Center, by calling 715-346-4100 or 800-838-3378 or ordering online
at
www.uwsp.edu/centers/uit/ordering.asp. Visa, MasterCard and
Discover are accepted.
Due to the nature of the story and its music, the show is not
recommended for young audiences.
Howard directed an official 20th anniversary version of “Hair” in
Boston in 1988, working with the show’s original co-writers and
lyricists, Gerome Ragni and James Rado. Now, 40 years after the
Broadway debut, he has used parts of that production as well as
parts of the original off-Broadway and Broadway productions in
creating this version of the show.
“It’s such a thrill for me to revisit this musical and share some of
these ideas, thoughts, and hopes with my students,” said Howard. “I
also want to share this with the community, and I hope the audience
will look back in time and recall their own fond memories.”
The play revolves around a tribe of Hippies, including Claude (Alex
Van Handel, Hartford) who must decide whether he’ll resist the
draft, his roommates Berger (Matt Cooke, Germantown) and Sheila
(Megan McHugh, Apple Valley, Minn.) and their friends Hud (David
Murray, Kenosha), Dionne (Megan Utech, Hartford), Woof (Derek
Prestly, Minnetonka, Minn.) and Jeanie (Katie Debs, Middleton).
Jenkins Theatre has been transformed using tie dye, beads and
blacklights, and the audience becomes part of the show through the
use of a thrust stage -- actors who enter and exit from the sides
and scaffolding placed alongside audience members. The nine-piece
orchestra is on stage with the actors and will perform from the back
of a psychedelic pickup truck. The group is conducted by Roger
Nelson, professor of theatre and dance.
Jeannie Hill, a member of the UWSP dance faculty, collaborated with
Howard to create choreography driven by the concept and
storytelling. “She has a strong sense of the organic movement that
is necessary for this show,” he said. “We don’t want it to look too
choreographed; instead it should often appear as organized chaos.”
While the end of Act I has been done in the nude in the past, Howard
has left the decision to do so up to his actors. “I’m giving them
the freedom of expression by giving them the choice,” he said.
Howard realized that his 26 student actors saw the 60s as ancient
history, so to help them understand the play he assigned each of
them a topic from the era, from the sit-ins to the assassinations of
John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout
rehearsals, when their topic came up, each student had to explain
its relevance to the action or song. They also watched the
documentary “1968,” and were awed when they realized all these
monumental events happened at the same time.
“It means more when they participate in the learning than for me to
just tell them about what happened,” he said.
“I feel the show has awakened them to their own personal voice,”
added Howard. “The students realized that collectively and
individually they can let their voice be heard and make a
difference. That is what the show is all about.”
