Wednesday, May 30, 2007
We Hit 100!
Still small potatoes in the global scope of things, but a nice round number to reach! This afternoon, we hit 100 total tickets sold, 87 at Theatre on San Pedro Square and 13 at Historic Hoover Theater. We are averaging $23.50 a ticket which is higher than we expected, but as the table seats sell out, this will certainly go down (overall ticket prices are between $15 and $25 for regular seats, but table seats skew things upward with a limited number of seats for each performance available in the front row for $30). However, our long-term goal of an average price of $20 a ticket seems likely to hold (or better).
Artistic License... What Does It Really Mean?
In the past few days, several people have contacted me by email about some of my blog posts and contested my view that some of the radical changes I have seen in recent HAiR productions aren't appropriate. (I wish these people would step up and comment on one of my posts, but it seems that writing publicly isn't always what people want to do).
In each of these contacts, the gist of the argument was that the reason for these changes is "artistic license", i.e., the desire/need to reinterpret the work in a different way from the original. One person also argued that the source of this feeling is that HAiR is/was essentially an improvised work and so it begs for further improvisation.
I would like to discuss each of these issues. First, the question of artistic license. The problem with using the term artistic license in this sense is that it is being used incorrectly. Artistic license is the colloquial term used to describe what an artist does to reality, i.e., to distort or ignore reality when creating a work of art. If a painter creates a horror scene out of his view of Disneyland, that is artistic license. If a playwright creates a comic farce out of events that happen in the White House, that is artistic license.
It is NOT artistic license to take the work of another artist and distort it, especially if that distortion is done without permission. That right is granted and retained expressly by the artist. If you want to do something different to reality, you are required to interpret reality on your own, i.e., writing your own musical. You aren't permitted to change (on your own) someone else's work without their authorization.
Yes, I know that "everyone does it". But that isn't really true. Indeed, most musicals that are presented in this country by amateur groups are changed somewhat, often by shortening some of a dance number, or changing a song's key, or even sometimes cutting some lines of dialogue. This is borderline modification, but in some cases it is necessary and although not strictly legal, mostly overlooked. As long as the overall show is the same, this doesn't hurt the production.
However, what if someone decided that, hey, we know that Tony is supposed to die at the end of West Side Story, but you know we want to have a happy ending, so lets just have him wrestle the gun from Chino and go off into the sunset with Maria. Would ANYONE think that a theater company would have the "artistic license" to do that? And yet, that is precisely what we saw at a recent production of Hair, in which at the end of the show, Claude was brought back to life, hugging Berger and singing Let The Sun Shine In with the rest of the tribe. How does that differ from the West Side Story scenario? Could someone explain that to me?
When a theater group produces a musical, it signs an ACTUAL license with the producing company (you might call THIS an 'artistic license' in that the author and publisher are licensing you the rights to perform the show) and that license clearly states (in every case that I have ever seen) that the work is licensed to be performed "as is" without changes or alterations. Anyone who then proceeds to change the work in some significant way and uses the term "artistic license" to justify it is not using artistic license at all but in fact is breaching the legal artistic license they are granted by the publishers. This, in our society, is called a copyright violation, and is punishable by losing your license, being sued for damages and possibly even being charged criminally (although that is extremely rare).
People often point to the reinterpretation of Shakespeare as a model for these kinds of efforts, but of course, the difference here is simple. Shakespeare's work has long been in the public domain and therefore is completely unaffected by legal licenses. Thus, it becomes a part of "reality" and can be interpreted freely by anyone who chooses to do so. Most modern musicals are still (and will for a long time be) under complete copyright protection and are therefore not permitted to be changed without the author's express permission.
On to the subject of improvisation of Hair. This is an area where I have learned a lot in the past three months. I, too, came into this process thinking that Hair had originally been an improvised musical. I now know that is almost completely the opposite from the truth. In fact, Hair had, and always had, a very very strong script, written by Gerome Ragni and James Rado over several years, then modified extensively after the original production off-Broadway. These modifications were done very quickly in the three months between the closing at the Cheetah and the opening at the Biltmore, and in fact were not completely written down into a composite final script form until after the show opened, but the script changes were always the product of the authors (yes, the tribe contributed in the process as the show was being rehearsed, as did Tom O'Horgan, and the highly non-linear staging techniques certainly had an effect on the final script, but it was still a script, just like any other show).
To think that Hair was improvised is completely misunderstanding the process. The show LOOKS improvised (that is the whole idea) but it is NOT improvised at all, and it is really important for any production/director/tribe to keep in mind that the lines are there for a reason, as are the songs. Saying that we should be able to do "our own improvisation of the show because, after all, it was originally improvised anyway" is simply a misstatement of fact.
Interestingly, Chorus Line was an example of a show that WAS almost completely improvised (or at least, created from the workshop improvisations of the original cast members' stories and lives). The story is well know that Michael Bennett took a bunch of chorus line actors and had them tell their stories in encounter groups and took those stories and worked them into a show. The script was written from the improvisation, but the improvisational technique is right there in the genesis of the production. YET NO ONE EVER REWRITES CHORUS LINE! Why isn't the argument made that "well, Chorus Line was an improvisation so we just decided to keep improvising and make a lot of changes to update the show"?
I think anyone who attempts HAiR needs to make sure they understand these two points. If you don't like the show because of the way it is written, fine, but then you shouldn't do the show. Or do as Jonathan Larson did, and write a completely NEW show based on a group of kids in Greenich Village in modern times facing different problems (after all, Rent may be a remake of La Boheme, but it also takes a lot from Hair). But, I don't think you should do HAiR "your own way". That just isn't justified.
One more point. Yes, Jim Rado has made changes to his show on many occasions. But that is his right, he is the original author (and even some people dispute this, feeling that since Gerry Ragni died, there shouldn't be any more changes to HAiR, but I will leave that one for the authors and authors' estates to work out). And if you want to make changes, you may want to contact him. You may even be able to get him to work with you on your concept (several companies have had varying degrees of success with this approach). If you do that, I would certainly agree that you are doing things correctly. But keep in mind, the vision then won't be yours, it will be his (possibly influenced by your ideas), as it rightfully should be.
Jon
In each of these contacts, the gist of the argument was that the reason for these changes is "artistic license", i.e., the desire/need to reinterpret the work in a different way from the original. One person also argued that the source of this feeling is that HAiR is/was essentially an improvised work and so it begs for further improvisation.
I would like to discuss each of these issues. First, the question of artistic license. The problem with using the term artistic license in this sense is that it is being used incorrectly. Artistic license is the colloquial term used to describe what an artist does to reality, i.e., to distort or ignore reality when creating a work of art. If a painter creates a horror scene out of his view of Disneyland, that is artistic license. If a playwright creates a comic farce out of events that happen in the White House, that is artistic license.
It is NOT artistic license to take the work of another artist and distort it, especially if that distortion is done without permission. That right is granted and retained expressly by the artist. If you want to do something different to reality, you are required to interpret reality on your own, i.e., writing your own musical. You aren't permitted to change (on your own) someone else's work without their authorization.
Yes, I know that "everyone does it". But that isn't really true. Indeed, most musicals that are presented in this country by amateur groups are changed somewhat, often by shortening some of a dance number, or changing a song's key, or even sometimes cutting some lines of dialogue. This is borderline modification, but in some cases it is necessary and although not strictly legal, mostly overlooked. As long as the overall show is the same, this doesn't hurt the production.
However, what if someone decided that, hey, we know that Tony is supposed to die at the end of West Side Story, but you know we want to have a happy ending, so lets just have him wrestle the gun from Chino and go off into the sunset with Maria. Would ANYONE think that a theater company would have the "artistic license" to do that? And yet, that is precisely what we saw at a recent production of Hair, in which at the end of the show, Claude was brought back to life, hugging Berger and singing Let The Sun Shine In with the rest of the tribe. How does that differ from the West Side Story scenario? Could someone explain that to me?
When a theater group produces a musical, it signs an ACTUAL license with the producing company (you might call THIS an 'artistic license' in that the author and publisher are licensing you the rights to perform the show) and that license clearly states (in every case that I have ever seen) that the work is licensed to be performed "as is" without changes or alterations. Anyone who then proceeds to change the work in some significant way and uses the term "artistic license" to justify it is not using artistic license at all but in fact is breaching the legal artistic license they are granted by the publishers. This, in our society, is called a copyright violation, and is punishable by losing your license, being sued for damages and possibly even being charged criminally (although that is extremely rare).
People often point to the reinterpretation of Shakespeare as a model for these kinds of efforts, but of course, the difference here is simple. Shakespeare's work has long been in the public domain and therefore is completely unaffected by legal licenses. Thus, it becomes a part of "reality" and can be interpreted freely by anyone who chooses to do so. Most modern musicals are still (and will for a long time be) under complete copyright protection and are therefore not permitted to be changed without the author's express permission.
On to the subject of improvisation of Hair. This is an area where I have learned a lot in the past three months. I, too, came into this process thinking that Hair had originally been an improvised musical. I now know that is almost completely the opposite from the truth. In fact, Hair had, and always had, a very very strong script, written by Gerome Ragni and James Rado over several years, then modified extensively after the original production off-Broadway. These modifications were done very quickly in the three months between the closing at the Cheetah and the opening at the Biltmore, and in fact were not completely written down into a composite final script form until after the show opened, but the script changes were always the product of the authors (yes, the tribe contributed in the process as the show was being rehearsed, as did Tom O'Horgan, and the highly non-linear staging techniques certainly had an effect on the final script, but it was still a script, just like any other show).
To think that Hair was improvised is completely misunderstanding the process. The show LOOKS improvised (that is the whole idea) but it is NOT improvised at all, and it is really important for any production/director/tribe to keep in mind that the lines are there for a reason, as are the songs. Saying that we should be able to do "our own improvisation of the show because, after all, it was originally improvised anyway" is simply a misstatement of fact.
Interestingly, Chorus Line was an example of a show that WAS almost completely improvised (or at least, created from the workshop improvisations of the original cast members' stories and lives). The story is well know that Michael Bennett took a bunch of chorus line actors and had them tell their stories in encounter groups and took those stories and worked them into a show. The script was written from the improvisation, but the improvisational technique is right there in the genesis of the production. YET NO ONE EVER REWRITES CHORUS LINE! Why isn't the argument made that "well, Chorus Line was an improvisation so we just decided to keep improvising and make a lot of changes to update the show"?
I think anyone who attempts HAiR needs to make sure they understand these two points. If you don't like the show because of the way it is written, fine, but then you shouldn't do the show. Or do as Jonathan Larson did, and write a completely NEW show based on a group of kids in Greenich Village in modern times facing different problems (after all, Rent may be a remake of La Boheme, but it also takes a lot from Hair). But, I don't think you should do HAiR "your own way". That just isn't justified.
One more point. Yes, Jim Rado has made changes to his show on many occasions. But that is his right, he is the original author (and even some people dispute this, feeling that since Gerry Ragni died, there shouldn't be any more changes to HAiR, but I will leave that one for the authors and authors' estates to work out). And if you want to make changes, you may want to contact him. You may even be able to get him to work with you on your concept (several companies have had varying degrees of success with this approach). If you do that, I would certainly agree that you are doing things correctly. But keep in mind, the vision then won't be yours, it will be his (possibly influenced by your ideas), as it rightfully should be.
Jon
I Know I'm Behind :-(
I don't know how all these bloggers do it! If you want to write about things, you have to do them, and if you are doing them (as we are now ;-) you don't have time to write about them. Arrgggh ;-)
An update will be forthcoming and another valiant try to keep updating the blog as often as possible.
We have new tribe members as of last night: Crystal Reitmeir and Leah Bailey joined the tribe and Katie Coleman joined us as vocal director. In just 1/2 an hour, she has already measurably improved on the work we have already done on Aquarius (one of the most important numbers in the show, of course, coming right at the beginning). Bringing Katie in is going to be a huge benefit for the show.
Jon
An update will be forthcoming and another valiant try to keep updating the blog as often as possible.
We have new tribe members as of last night: Crystal Reitmeir and Leah Bailey joined the tribe and Katie Coleman joined us as vocal director. In just 1/2 an hour, she has already measurably improved on the work we have already done on Aquarius (one of the most important numbers in the show, of course, coming right at the beginning). Bringing Katie in is going to be a huge benefit for the show.
Jon
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Looking back 10 weeks at Fullerton College Hair...
(Note: I posted this initially to Michael Butler's Hair Blog but decided it would be nice to replicate it on my own blog as well. It expresses my feelings about how Hair should generally be done. - Jon)
I just went back to the first review I posted on the Hair Blog concerning the Fullerton College production and I can't believe I wrote that review just over two months ago! So many of my feelings have changed about HAiR for so many different reasons. I wanted to add an updated comment both for others who might stumble on the post and also for myself, as a historical footnote. I decided to make it a fresh post because people who aren't getting RSS/Atom feeds might not go back and read it (but here is a link to the original post in case you want to :-) .)
When I went to see the Fullerton production in March, it was the first production of HAiR I had seen since 2002 when my own company, OpenStage Repertory Theater of Santa Cruz, did two one-week runs in the spring and summer. The production was initially directed by a guy named Ed Levy (who is extremely talented by the way but, in my opinion, didn't really "grok" Hair), but many things went awry and I ended up co-directing the first run and completely directing the second run. Our production was (a) amazing for the audience and (b) very strange, and often quite sucky, from an artistic perspective.
I digress for a paragraph: I think I have one relatively unusual trait as a director, and that is the ability to be supremely critical of my own work without letting it get me depressed. Critical reviews don't bother me, they encourage me to do better. When a reviewer says "such-and-such was pretty bad", others around me often say "Oh s/he doesn't know what s/he is talking about", but usually I am saying (at least to myself), "of course, that really WAS awful, wasn't it." If I do something good, I usually am aware of that, and if I do something that is mediocre (or even bad), I am just as aware of that. Of course, reality is that things are usually not black or white, but shades of grey, and most of the time, some parts of a show are good (possibly even really good) while other parts may suck rocks. Those are the times where you have to be honest enough to come to grips with the mistakes you made. That makes you better in the long run.
Ed rewrote much of the script of HAiR for our production, trying to turn it into the movie of HAiR (which was the version he had first seen growing up as a young boy in the late 70s). Having seen HAiR on stage prior to that only a few times (several college productions) along with the original Broadway and Los Angeles productions in 1969, 70 and 71, I knew that what Ed did wasn't really HAiR, but I had no awareness of what SHOULD be done to make it better. I tried to fix some things, but the damage was pretty severe and I had arrived at the party, so to speak, quite late. It was all I could do to get the show on stage satisfactorily with all the challenges we faced.
As I said, however, the audience reaction was unbelievably great. Does this mean we did a "great" show? No, it is much more testament to the fact that HAiR is such an amazing show that it is highly resilient to what anyone (director, author or actor) might do to it. You can put the tribe in 70's disco clothes, have your Crissy emulate someone from American Idol, make your Berger resemble Big Gay Al from South Park, or even shave everyone's heads, and it is still, in some form, HAiR. When you get to the end, and the audience can sing Let The Sun Shine In with the tribe, most errors are forgiven and forgotten, and all anyone in the audience will remember is "what a great show this is! The power of the music, both Galt MacDermot's stirring melodies, and Rado's and Ragni's marvelous lyrics, as well as the power of its message, transcend anything you can do to hurt the show (well not ANYTHING, but certainly a lot of things).
In the past 10 weeks, I (along with my wife Barb) have auditioned many people, chosen a cast/tribe, started directing the show, and we did extensive preparation for all of this! Boy, are we prepared! We visited the Hair Archives. We sought out members of the original Broadway tribes and other tribes to get advice about staging, performance, attitude, structure, meaning, etc. We read all (all four!) books published on Hair, bought countless videos about the era (even though I grew up in the 60s, I needed my own refresher course) and watched them, and learned, learned, learned! I think as a director, everything is about learning and preparation. If you know what you want to see on your stage and in your show, you have a better idea of how to make that happen.
So back to Fullerton. When I wrote the review 10 weeks ago, my frame of reference was limited. I had most recently seen what I consider to be my own relatively poor production of Hair in Santa Cruz (and that almost five years ago), which, despite my reservations, sold out every night and was universally loved by the audience. Did that make it a good production? No, of course not. I can be honest about that. The tribe was well-intentioned, and fairly talented, but they were given a schlocky version of the show to perform, and while the audience loved it, the show wasn't HAiR in any real sense of the word.
Since then, I have seen two much better productions (Bishop O'Dowd High School and Sacramento's Artistic Differences), along with a number of video archive productions at the HAiR Archives (which can only be watched there, no taking them home, sigh :-( ) Some were good, some better than others, some downright silly or even awful. We learned a lot about what we SHOULD do in our production and also a lot about what we SHOULDN'T do.
I mentioned some of the things I found problematical in the Fullerton College production in my initial review, including the weird "dramatic" ending with no sense of redemption. That didn't work for me at all, but I still thought it was a good production overall. I even used the word "Great" in the title of the post. I am not so sure any more.
Having seen two productions recently that I consider better, I think my initial enthusiasm for their production was more a kind of overreaction to just being able to see the material once again. It was that "Oh, this is HAIR! It MUST be GREAT!" reaction that some people tend to get when seeing shows for the first time, or the first time in a long while.
In retrospect, I still think Tom Proprofsky as Berger was terrific and I think their overall singing was very good. However, my sense of their choreography has changed dramatically. The production had a lot of highly structured dancing, done in a style similar to typical Broadway shows. I no longer feel that the choreography at Fullerton was excellent, at least in terms of HAiR (although it was very definitely a great demonstration of dance technique and the dancers were terrific in that sense). I have come to believe that truly great HAiR choreography is going to look much LESS like great organized technique and much more like improvisation (even as it isn't improvised at all). This was captured much more successfully by both Bishop O'Dowd High School and Sacramento's tribe. Learning about the things Tom O'Horgan and Julie Arenal did in 1968 to communicate with the original performers about how to do this was enlightening.
I also think that Fullerton's set was a blindspot on my part. My initial reaction was "wow", but my current reaction is "ow". The best set for HAiR will look like a hippy hangout, with junk all over the place, and no particular rhyme or reason to what is contained within. At least, that is my opinion. Fullerton's production tried to make itself as much about the set as it was about the hippies, and that just isn't supposed to be the case (at least not IMHO).
I also have noticed that almost no one wants to do "the show" anymore. Everyone needs to change it, add scenes, drop scenes, drop music, change the dialogue, etc. Completely ignoring the question of legality for the moment (the Tams-Witmark contract clearly says this is a violation of the contract unless you get written permission and that is almost never given), I raise a different question: is it wise? The authors wrote a script that stood the test of time on Broadway. I played in countless cities in the U.S.A. and across the world, and nobody ever said it was a bad show (in fact at the time it became the 6th longest running Broadway show in history). Why do we have to meddle with it so much? No one ever rewrites My Fair Lady or West Side Story (oh, unless they try to do the movie, instead of the stage production! ;-) ) or Sweeney Todd. So why the passion for rewriting the work of Ragni/Rado/MacDermot?
I don't know why people do this but I have some guesses. I think lack of understanding may be a principal cause. You can call me a traditionalist, but I think the show is terrific as it was presented. There are few minor weaknesses, but nothing that needs to be changed wholesale. If you don't understand it enough to feel that you need to rewrite it, maybe you need to learn more about it. Learn about the techniques of how it was created and first presented. Understand WHY some things weren't said, and some things were. Giving in to the desire to radically change the show, at least in my opinion, is ample evidence that you just don't "get it".
Will your production be good if you change or reinterpret the show? Maybe. Will it be HAiR? Probably not.
Namaste,
Jon Rosen
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
T Minus 53 Days: Getting Ready For Our Last Big Break!
The past ten days have swept by in a rush. Since my last blog entry (I know I promised to keep more up to date, but so many critical things come up every day that finding the time has been difficult - not a good excuse but the best one I have for now), we had our Kiva Retreat party which was a tremendous success, 8 more rehearsals and our first publicity photo shoot!
We also got a final commitment from Michael Butler to do several audience talkbacks during our opening weekend as well as to help participate in publicity sessions which will increase the coverage of our production. It is impossible to overestimate how this will help us. There is no doubt that celebrity has cachet among journalists (even reporters are star-struck :-) and we have already seen the effect in our initial discussions with radio and TV stations since we started telling them that Michael will be available for some interviews on local talk shows. Several weeks ago, producers of several of these shows were relatively "ho-hum" when asked whether they might want us to come on their shows to promote HAiR; now they are returning our calls!
Michael, of course, is the original producer of HAiR on Broadway and one of the five people, along with authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado and composer Galt MacDermot, and director Tom O'Horgan, who are most responsible for bringing HAiR to the world and turning it into the influential work that it ultimately became. Having Michael work with us is something truly remarkable for a small theater group like ours. He has just announced his own production of HAiR which will take place at The Met theater in Los Angeles in September and yet he is still taking valuable time from his schedule to come up to see our production in July and help us with our publicity efforts.
THANK YOU MICHAEL! YOU ARE AMAZING!
So, now, sitting here on Tuesday morning, I realize that tonight is our last rehearsal before we take a break for Memorial Day weekend, a "long" six-day stretch that is our last "down-time" before we head into the final 7 weeks of rehearsal that will culminate with opening night on July 14th. Since I started the blog almost 50 days ago, we have come so far, and yet we still have so far to go. The tribe is solidifying, but there is a lot of work to be done on all fronts. I am sure we will make it, but there are certainly bumps in the road ahead.
Now for a day-by-day update:
Friday, May 11
Barb and I, along with our daughter Ashley, went to see HAiR at Bishop O'Dowd High School. It was a fascinating experience because we didn't expect it to be very good and yet it surprised all of us. For a high school production (let alone a Catholic high school production), it was very true to the spirit of HAiR, even though it did have to make changes to accomodate using younger teenagers in the show (i.e., obviously no nude scene, and some wording changes, although not as many as one might expect; for instance, they did Sodomy intact which totally took me by surprise!) I wrote a rather long review of the show on Michael Butler's Hair blog and rather than repeat it here, I will just link to it. Have fun!
We did make contact with Bishop O'Dowd High School director Dennis Kohles after the show and he is going to provide us with a loan of many resources from his production (props, wigs, costumes). And he has graciously offered to provide us with some assistance with staging that replicates in some cases the original Broadway choreography. Thanks Dennis!
Saturday, May 12
The tribe came to our house around 6 PM and we had a marvelous dinner catered by my lovely wife, partner and producer par excellence Barbara. I grilled chicken and hamburgers and Barb made marvelous grilled veggies and tofu dogs for the non-meat eaters among us (even the meat eaters enjoyed them!) We watched three videos (Flashback to the Sixties, VH1's Behind The Music: HAiR, and In Search Of America: The Stage). The first one provided a very nice background of the sixties, and the second one was a documentary done by VH1 (someone in the tribe had recorded it off-the-air) about the making of Hair on Broadway and in the movies. The last one had Peter Jennings documenting a high school production of Hair in Boulder, Colorado, in 2001, right before and after September 11.
After the last video, we did a consciousness-raising exercise about nudity in the show, and how people felt about performing in this way. It was an amazing moment, which I can't document in detail because of confidentiality that the entire tribe agreed to, but we all opened up to each other and I think it served as the first big step in bringing the tribe even closer together. We learned that we all have fears and anxieties, even those many of us would not have expected.
Finally, we went to Kiva at midnight and had a delightful 1-1/2 hours sitting in the hot tubs and sauna, some nude, others not, but all enjoying the time together. At the end of the evening, we had our tribal naming ceremony and everyone offered something to the tribal altar. We ended the night by singing Aquarius very softly, a very moving experience.
Sunday, May 13
Rehearsal came too early for most of us after the long night! We straggled in at 10:30 (we gave everyone an extra half hour because of the previous evening's event) and Dudley started working on more movements for Donna, Aquarius and Hair. Watching how well the tribe is working together makes me feel that everything is going to be great!
By the way, we now have a Hud! Peter Griggs came to rehearsal and he is both a very good singer and actor. He has some conflicts, but he is committed to join us, so I offered him the part and he accepted!
Monday, May 14
We did an evening of music with small groups (Electric Blues, Eyes Look Your Last, Give Up All Desires, I Believe In Love) which went very well.
I particularly enjoyed working on Eyes Look Your Last which is going to be somewhat unique in this show. I took the idea from the Candlefish production in 1999. Typically, this song is sung under Claude's last reprise of Manchester England which is part of the finale. Unfortunately, both the beautiful melody and the striking words by Shakespeare (from Romeo and Juliet) are usually lost because of the duet. I am adding a sextet to sing Eyes Look Your Last over the scene between The Bed and the Finale, just before Claude sings the reprise of Ain't Got No. I found this very effective in Candlefish's production, plus it highlights this amazing song. Of course, the entire tribe will still sing Eyes Look Your Last in counterpoint to Claude in the finale as well, but now the audience will also get to hear the song by itself.
Tuesday, May 15
Christian Hadsell joined the tribe today and he looks to be both a good dancer/mover as well as a good singer. Welcome Christian!
We worked on setting the basic moves for Aquarius today. It went very well although we had some false starts trying to decide the timing of the movements in the circle of dancers around Claude.
Wednesday, May 16
We encountered a small "bump in the road" today. Last night by email, I announced the understudies for Berger (Leslie Lamcke), Woof (Dustin Velasquez) and Sheila (Ana Escobar). In the morning I received an email from an unnamed tribe member who expressed concerns that the process for naming understudies was causing dissension among the tribe. I asked the person by email to talk openly, but it was not something they wanted to do. Since the characterization had been made that the tribe felt the same way, I felt that it was important to openly discuss the situation with the entire group.
At rehearsal, I read the email to the tribe and explained why we had handled understudies as we had. I appeared that the biggest issue was that we were not naming all understudies yet, and that possibly people felt that I should only name understudies from the existing tribe who had participated in the initial audition process. I pointed out that while I had tried hard to do this, it wasn't a requirement, and in fact it was incumbent upon me as director (and the staff as a whole) to name the people who were best for the parts even if they hadn't joined the tribe yet. And in some cases, I might not choose to name an understudy at all.
This brings up one of the interesting dynamics in doing HAiR (a dynamic that has apparently existed since the show was first done on Broadway). The desire to bring the cast together as a "tribe" is an important part of doing the show. However, that can also lead to a confusion on the part of the tribe about who has what responsibilities and authority in making decisions about the show. If the director and staff of the production don't honor the implicit pact made when assembling a tribe, it can cause enough dissension to hurt the show (not a good thing). On the other hand, there simply are decisions that have to be left up to the people who are taking the production risks of producing a show.
In most shows, such an argument would never come up, because casts simply understand that the director gets to make those decisions. There is no democracy involved. HAiR alters that dynamic in subtle ways, and it is important for any director who embarks on a serious effort to mount this show to earn the trust of the tribe and to honor that as much as possible. However, it also is important to not yield all authority to the tribe, because that would make it impossible to direct the show at all.
In the end, I think we reached a very good understanding. Obviously there were a few people who wanted to at least understand what we were doing and why in more detail. I provided that explanation. However, it also seems clear that overall, people are still excited and willing to commit to this production. As long as we keep making this a unique experience, I think that will continue to be the case.
Thursday, May 17
We continued our choreographic explorations. Dudley does a terrific job in offering ideas to the tribe and they are responding. However, both of us agree that we need to start setting more things or we will quickly run out of time!
Friday, May 18
Our first break day in a while! I have to get caught up on my work, but I am also spending time with Barb making sure advertising contracts are negotiated and we continued to try to get the San Jose Pride group to offer us a spot (but it doesn't seem to be likely at this point, sigh).
At night, Barb and I go to see Thunderbabe at Theatre on San Pedro Square, Bobbi Fagone's "superheroine" musical based on her straight play of the same name. We are pleased that it is very entertaining and musically very good. I wrote a review on Artsopolis. Our ad is on the back cover of the program and although it is black and white, it is quite nice!
Saturday, May 19
We have another trio/quartet music day, this time covering White Boys, Black Boys, Air, What A Piece of Work Is Man, Dead End and Hippie Life. Great work everyone!
Right after rehearsal, Barb, Ashley and I head up the 880 towards Sacramento. We are very much looking forward to seeing Artistic Differences' production of Hair. The drive is enjoyable and the show is even more so! This is a REAL production of HAiR. It is done in a small warehouse theater, with a set that looks like a back alley in New York, junk lying all over the stage. But what is most fun is the tribe! They are really hippies (or at least excellent actors portraying hippies!) I wrote a post on Michael Butler's blog describing the entire show. Enjoy!
There are a lot of things to like in this production. It has heart, really good singers, a true Hair spirit, and some wonderful small touches. There are a few weaknesses. Dudley and I have always agreed that the choreography in the show needs to LOOK like it is totally spontaneous, although, of course, that is completely impossible, it has to be choreographed to a large extent. The Nimiipuu tribe gets it right most of the time, but there are moments when everyone's arms go up in exactly the same way, or the foot movements are strict and obviously "set". We know we need to try to avoid this. This is still a very small fault in a very good production.
Their nude scene is excellent. It does the job simply and effectively. I didn't like the addition of an expository scene between Claude and Sheila right before the finale. I thought it "took us out of the musical" for a few minutes, and weakened the ending somewhat. However, it was so good overall, that even this didn't hurt it much.
We talked to some of the actors to see if they were interested in joining our tribe. We might get one or two, but most seem interested in auditioning for the Los Angeles production and the timing is such that they probably can't do both. Sigh...
Sunday, May 20
We have an early dance rehearsal and we work on Walking In Space. Dudley has some terrific ideas involving walking on the backs of actors positioned on the floor on their hands and knees, but I am not sure they will work. One problem is that we will be using handheld mics and it looks like the logistics of balancing and safety while walking across the backs of other performers may make it impossible to use the mics properly. We may need to rethink this.
He also works on "floating, flipping" and that looks very nice. It is always exciting to see people lifted into the air and this song so calls for that.
After the rehearsal, one of my fellow workers at Coral8, Paul Neyman, comes to take publicity photos. Paul is a real photog with professional quality digital equipment and he jumps right in. Barb has arranged an assortment of costumes for the tribe to try, and we get contributions from the tribe members themselves. We are on the lawn in the sun in front of the Hoover and it is very exciting! This is the first time we have put the people in colorful hippie clothes and they look GREAT!
Summary
Well, that is almost up to date. I will fill in Monday and the rest of the this week soon. Fortunately, we have the big break coming up, and then it is mad dash for the finish line! See you all soon.
Peace,
Jon
We also got a final commitment from Michael Butler to do several audience talkbacks during our opening weekend as well as to help participate in publicity sessions which will increase the coverage of our production. It is impossible to overestimate how this will help us. There is no doubt that celebrity has cachet among journalists (even reporters are star-struck :-) and we have already seen the effect in our initial discussions with radio and TV stations since we started telling them that Michael will be available for some interviews on local talk shows. Several weeks ago, producers of several of these shows were relatively "ho-hum" when asked whether they might want us to come on their shows to promote HAiR; now they are returning our calls!
Michael, of course, is the original producer of HAiR on Broadway and one of the five people, along with authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado and composer Galt MacDermot, and director Tom O'Horgan, who are most responsible for bringing HAiR to the world and turning it into the influential work that it ultimately became. Having Michael work with us is something truly remarkable for a small theater group like ours. He has just announced his own production of HAiR which will take place at The Met theater in Los Angeles in September and yet he is still taking valuable time from his schedule to come up to see our production in July and help us with our publicity efforts.
THANK YOU MICHAEL! YOU ARE AMAZING!
So, now, sitting here on Tuesday morning, I realize that tonight is our last rehearsal before we take a break for Memorial Day weekend, a "long" six-day stretch that is our last "down-time" before we head into the final 7 weeks of rehearsal that will culminate with opening night on July 14th. Since I started the blog almost 50 days ago, we have come so far, and yet we still have so far to go. The tribe is solidifying, but there is a lot of work to be done on all fronts. I am sure we will make it, but there are certainly bumps in the road ahead.
Now for a day-by-day update:
Friday, May 11
Barb and I, along with our daughter Ashley, went to see HAiR at Bishop O'Dowd High School. It was a fascinating experience because we didn't expect it to be very good and yet it surprised all of us. For a high school production (let alone a Catholic high school production), it was very true to the spirit of HAiR, even though it did have to make changes to accomodate using younger teenagers in the show (i.e., obviously no nude scene, and some wording changes, although not as many as one might expect; for instance, they did Sodomy intact which totally took me by surprise!) I wrote a rather long review of the show on Michael Butler's Hair blog and rather than repeat it here, I will just link to it. Have fun!
We did make contact with Bishop O'Dowd High School director Dennis Kohles after the show and he is going to provide us with a loan of many resources from his production (props, wigs, costumes). And he has graciously offered to provide us with some assistance with staging that replicates in some cases the original Broadway choreography. Thanks Dennis!
Saturday, May 12
The tribe came to our house around 6 PM and we had a marvelous dinner catered by my lovely wife, partner and producer par excellence Barbara. I grilled chicken and hamburgers and Barb made marvelous grilled veggies and tofu dogs for the non-meat eaters among us (even the meat eaters enjoyed them!) We watched three videos (Flashback to the Sixties, VH1's Behind The Music: HAiR, and In Search Of America: The Stage). The first one provided a very nice background of the sixties, and the second one was a documentary done by VH1 (someone in the tribe had recorded it off-the-air) about the making of Hair on Broadway and in the movies. The last one had Peter Jennings documenting a high school production of Hair in Boulder, Colorado, in 2001, right before and after September 11.
After the last video, we did a consciousness-raising exercise about nudity in the show, and how people felt about performing in this way. It was an amazing moment, which I can't document in detail because of confidentiality that the entire tribe agreed to, but we all opened up to each other and I think it served as the first big step in bringing the tribe even closer together. We learned that we all have fears and anxieties, even those many of us would not have expected.
Finally, we went to Kiva at midnight and had a delightful 1-1/2 hours sitting in the hot tubs and sauna, some nude, others not, but all enjoying the time together. At the end of the evening, we had our tribal naming ceremony and everyone offered something to the tribal altar. We ended the night by singing Aquarius very softly, a very moving experience.
Sunday, May 13
Rehearsal came too early for most of us after the long night! We straggled in at 10:30 (we gave everyone an extra half hour because of the previous evening's event) and Dudley started working on more movements for Donna, Aquarius and Hair. Watching how well the tribe is working together makes me feel that everything is going to be great!
By the way, we now have a Hud! Peter Griggs came to rehearsal and he is both a very good singer and actor. He has some conflicts, but he is committed to join us, so I offered him the part and he accepted!
Monday, May 14
We did an evening of music with small groups (Electric Blues, Eyes Look Your Last, Give Up All Desires, I Believe In Love) which went very well.
I particularly enjoyed working on Eyes Look Your Last which is going to be somewhat unique in this show. I took the idea from the Candlefish production in 1999. Typically, this song is sung under Claude's last reprise of Manchester England which is part of the finale. Unfortunately, both the beautiful melody and the striking words by Shakespeare (from Romeo and Juliet) are usually lost because of the duet. I am adding a sextet to sing Eyes Look Your Last over the scene between The Bed and the Finale, just before Claude sings the reprise of Ain't Got No. I found this very effective in Candlefish's production, plus it highlights this amazing song. Of course, the entire tribe will still sing Eyes Look Your Last in counterpoint to Claude in the finale as well, but now the audience will also get to hear the song by itself.
Tuesday, May 15
Christian Hadsell joined the tribe today and he looks to be both a good dancer/mover as well as a good singer. Welcome Christian!
We worked on setting the basic moves for Aquarius today. It went very well although we had some false starts trying to decide the timing of the movements in the circle of dancers around Claude.
Wednesday, May 16
We encountered a small "bump in the road" today. Last night by email, I announced the understudies for Berger (Leslie Lamcke), Woof (Dustin Velasquez) and Sheila (Ana Escobar). In the morning I received an email from an unnamed tribe member who expressed concerns that the process for naming understudies was causing dissension among the tribe. I asked the person by email to talk openly, but it was not something they wanted to do. Since the characterization had been made that the tribe felt the same way, I felt that it was important to openly discuss the situation with the entire group.
At rehearsal, I read the email to the tribe and explained why we had handled understudies as we had. I appeared that the biggest issue was that we were not naming all understudies yet, and that possibly people felt that I should only name understudies from the existing tribe who had participated in the initial audition process. I pointed out that while I had tried hard to do this, it wasn't a requirement, and in fact it was incumbent upon me as director (and the staff as a whole) to name the people who were best for the parts even if they hadn't joined the tribe yet. And in some cases, I might not choose to name an understudy at all.
This brings up one of the interesting dynamics in doing HAiR (a dynamic that has apparently existed since the show was first done on Broadway). The desire to bring the cast together as a "tribe" is an important part of doing the show. However, that can also lead to a confusion on the part of the tribe about who has what responsibilities and authority in making decisions about the show. If the director and staff of the production don't honor the implicit pact made when assembling a tribe, it can cause enough dissension to hurt the show (not a good thing). On the other hand, there simply are decisions that have to be left up to the people who are taking the production risks of producing a show.
In most shows, such an argument would never come up, because casts simply understand that the director gets to make those decisions. There is no democracy involved. HAiR alters that dynamic in subtle ways, and it is important for any director who embarks on a serious effort to mount this show to earn the trust of the tribe and to honor that as much as possible. However, it also is important to not yield all authority to the tribe, because that would make it impossible to direct the show at all.
In the end, I think we reached a very good understanding. Obviously there were a few people who wanted to at least understand what we were doing and why in more detail. I provided that explanation. However, it also seems clear that overall, people are still excited and willing to commit to this production. As long as we keep making this a unique experience, I think that will continue to be the case.
Thursday, May 17
We continued our choreographic explorations. Dudley does a terrific job in offering ideas to the tribe and they are responding. However, both of us agree that we need to start setting more things or we will quickly run out of time!
Friday, May 18
Our first break day in a while! I have to get caught up on my work, but I am also spending time with Barb making sure advertising contracts are negotiated and we continued to try to get the San Jose Pride group to offer us a spot (but it doesn't seem to be likely at this point, sigh).
At night, Barb and I go to see Thunderbabe at Theatre on San Pedro Square, Bobbi Fagone's "superheroine" musical based on her straight play of the same name. We are pleased that it is very entertaining and musically very good. I wrote a review on Artsopolis. Our ad is on the back cover of the program and although it is black and white, it is quite nice!
Saturday, May 19
We have another trio/quartet music day, this time covering White Boys, Black Boys, Air, What A Piece of Work Is Man, Dead End and Hippie Life. Great work everyone!
Right after rehearsal, Barb, Ashley and I head up the 880 towards Sacramento. We are very much looking forward to seeing Artistic Differences' production of Hair. The drive is enjoyable and the show is even more so! This is a REAL production of HAiR. It is done in a small warehouse theater, with a set that looks like a back alley in New York, junk lying all over the stage. But what is most fun is the tribe! They are really hippies (or at least excellent actors portraying hippies!) I wrote a post on Michael Butler's blog describing the entire show. Enjoy!
There are a lot of things to like in this production. It has heart, really good singers, a true Hair spirit, and some wonderful small touches. There are a few weaknesses. Dudley and I have always agreed that the choreography in the show needs to LOOK like it is totally spontaneous, although, of course, that is completely impossible, it has to be choreographed to a large extent. The Nimiipuu tribe gets it right most of the time, but there are moments when everyone's arms go up in exactly the same way, or the foot movements are strict and obviously "set". We know we need to try to avoid this. This is still a very small fault in a very good production.
Their nude scene is excellent. It does the job simply and effectively. I didn't like the addition of an expository scene between Claude and Sheila right before the finale. I thought it "took us out of the musical" for a few minutes, and weakened the ending somewhat. However, it was so good overall, that even this didn't hurt it much.
We talked to some of the actors to see if they were interested in joining our tribe. We might get one or two, but most seem interested in auditioning for the Los Angeles production and the timing is such that they probably can't do both. Sigh...
Sunday, May 20
We have an early dance rehearsal and we work on Walking In Space. Dudley has some terrific ideas involving walking on the backs of actors positioned on the floor on their hands and knees, but I am not sure they will work. One problem is that we will be using handheld mics and it looks like the logistics of balancing and safety while walking across the backs of other performers may make it impossible to use the mics properly. We may need to rethink this.
He also works on "floating, flipping" and that looks very nice. It is always exciting to see people lifted into the air and this song so calls for that.
After the rehearsal, one of my fellow workers at Coral8, Paul Neyman, comes to take publicity photos. Paul is a real photog with professional quality digital equipment and he jumps right in. Barb has arranged an assortment of costumes for the tribe to try, and we get contributions from the tribe members themselves. We are on the lawn in the sun in front of the Hoover and it is very exciting! This is the first time we have put the people in colorful hippie clothes and they look GREAT!
Summary
Well, that is almost up to date. I will fill in Monday and the rest of the this week soon. Fortunately, we have the big break coming up, and then it is mad dash for the finish line! See you all soon.
Peace,
Jon
Saturday, May 12, 2007
T Minus 63 Days: Kiva Time!
Our second week of rehearsals is over and we are now just nine weeks from opening night. Tonight is a big event for the Muwekma tribe. We are meeting at my house for a tribal dinner and videos, which will be followed at midnight by a trek to Kiva Retreat in Santa Cruz for a private "after-hours" party.
Kiva is a fascinating place. It is the only day spa in the area that is communal in nature and provides a clothing-optional environment with hot tubs, a magnificent sauna and a beautiful lawn and garden. They also provide therapeutic massage therapists for hire during normal hours. After closing (midnight on weekends, 11 PM on weekdays), they offer private rental of the entire facility for after-hours parties.
Kiva is totally spiritual (they aggressively enforce the non-sexual nature of their facility) and is a perfect environment to immerse a HAIR tribe into the experience of group nudity. Since it is clothing-optional, it is perfectly acceptable for people to wear bathing suits, robes, or whatever makes them feel comfortable, but my experience is that most people will usually disrobe after spending even a short time around others who are nude. Most people seem to be more uncomfortable remaining clothed in the presence of people who are relaxing in the nude, than to get naked. Once the normal taboo of seeing others in the nude around you is broken, it becomes a much less threatening thing to experience yourself.
We have a delightful evening planned. During and after dinner, we will be watching several very interesting videos we have accumulated about HAIR and the 60’s including:
At Kiva, we will all get acquainted with each other (hopefully most in the nude) and at the end of the evening, we will perform our tribal naming ceremony. We are going to have an altar and each tribe member is responsible for making an offering (a small object, either serious, humorous, or otherwise) in honor of the tribe. The altar will travel with us for rehearsals and performances.
Rehearsals are coming along well. Our last rehearsal of the week on Wednesday started with an exercise that we have taken from Tom O’Horgan’s playbook, an exercise is sensory overload. I will not describe it in detail here, because we will still be using it on members of the tribe who haven’t experienced it yet, but it definitely caused a variety of reactions from different members of the tribe. We then proceeded to a complete music review and concluded by learning Sodomy and Donna. In four music rehearsals, we have now gone through the following songs in the show:
Peace to all!
Jon
Kiva is a fascinating place. It is the only day spa in the area that is communal in nature and provides a clothing-optional environment with hot tubs, a magnificent sauna and a beautiful lawn and garden. They also provide therapeutic massage therapists for hire during normal hours. After closing (midnight on weekends, 11 PM on weekdays), they offer private rental of the entire facility for after-hours parties.
Kiva is totally spiritual (they aggressively enforce the non-sexual nature of their facility) and is a perfect environment to immerse a HAIR tribe into the experience of group nudity. Since it is clothing-optional, it is perfectly acceptable for people to wear bathing suits, robes, or whatever makes them feel comfortable, but my experience is that most people will usually disrobe after spending even a short time around others who are nude. Most people seem to be more uncomfortable remaining clothed in the presence of people who are relaxing in the nude, than to get naked. Once the normal taboo of seeing others in the nude around you is broken, it becomes a much less threatening thing to experience yourself.
We have a delightful evening planned. During and after dinner, we will be watching several very interesting videos we have accumulated about HAIR and the 60’s including:
- Peter Jennings’ In Search Of America - the making of a HAIR production at a Boulder, Colorado high school in 2001 (right before and after September 11)
- Berkeley in the Sixties - a documentary on radicalism in Berkeley, California
- Flashing on the Sixties: A Tribal Document - a documentary on hippies
At Kiva, we will all get acquainted with each other (hopefully most in the nude) and at the end of the evening, we will perform our tribal naming ceremony. We are going to have an altar and each tribe member is responsible for making an offering (a small object, either serious, humorous, or otherwise) in honor of the tribe. The altar will travel with us for rehearsals and performances.
Rehearsals are coming along well. Our last rehearsal of the week on Wednesday started with an exercise that we have taken from Tom O’Horgan’s playbook, an exercise is sensory overload. I will not describe it in detail here, because we will still be using it on members of the tribe who haven’t experienced it yet, but it definitely caused a variety of reactions from different members of the tribe. We then proceeded to a complete music review and concluded by learning Sodomy and Donna. In four music rehearsals, we have now gone through the following songs in the show:
- Aquarius
- Donna
- Hashish
- Sodomy
- Ain't Got No Grass
- Initials
- Hair
- Walking in Space
- Our Eyes Are Open (Walking in Space Reprise)
- The Bed
Peace to all!
Jon
Friday, May 11, 2007
We Will Perform at the San Francisco Gay Pride Celebration!
The Muwekma Hair Tribe of San Jose has just accepted an invitation to perform on Saturday, June 23rd, on the Main Stage of the San Francisco’s 37th Pride Celebration! We will be performing several selections from HAIR in concert and we will be sharing the Main Stage with a number of other professional performing arts groups including the San Francisco Opera. This is very exciting for all of us, in providing exposure for our upcoming show, as well as permitting us to spread the message of HAIR to a wider audience during this very important year!
Kudos to Sammy Rodriguez (Berger) for making the connection to get this set up! Thanks Sammy!!!
Namaste,
Jon
Kudos to Sammy Rodriguez (Berger) for making the connection to get this set up! Thanks Sammy!!!
Namaste,
Jon
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
T Minus 67 Days: We Are Muwekma!
Last night, at our first dance rehearsal, the tribe finally voted on a name, and I am proud to say that we are now officially the Muwekma Hair Tribe of San Jose. Muwekma is the name that the nation of Native Americans who live in the San Francisco Bay area use to refer to themselves.
It is interesting to note that the original San Francisco Hair tribe in 1970 which performed at the Orpheum Theater was the Ohlone tribe. That is the name used by most Americans to refer to the Native Americas of the Bay area, but it is actually the name of their principal language and indeed encompasses groups of Native Americans as far away as San Juan Batista and Big Sur. In the Ohlone language, Muwekma means "Our People".
The tribe considered a lot of names including Costanoan which is the third name used to refer to the Muwekma people. Costanoan was the name given by the Spanish missionaries to the Native Americans of this area. Another name we considered was Costenos (the Native American derivation of the Spanish-given name Costanoan).
We also considered names of some of the regional tribes in the area (all part of the Muwekma) including Solchequis (the name of a local tribe that was located near the Santa Clara Mission), Chochenyo (an East Bay tribe), Ramaytush (San Francisco to San Mateo tribe), Tamyen or Tamien (a tribe in the area of Coyote Creek near San Jose), Awaswas (Santa Cruz) and others.
During our discussion, tribe member Esther Selk pointed out that while there are many local tribe names, our tribe consists of members from all over the Bay area and she thought that Muwekma was the most appropriate name. Most of the rest of the tribe agreed.
An interesting sidenote is that the Muwekma tribe is currently attempting to secure recognition from the Federal government of their status as a surviving Native American tribe. Their status was stripped from them in the early 20th century by bureaucrats in Sacramento at the Bureau of Indian Affairs who were trying to reduce the number of different tribes they had to deal with. You can learn more about the Muwekma and their efforts to be recognized at their website.
Rehearsal progress update:
May 7
We had another great music rehearsal, covering the title song Hair and Walking In Space. We also went back and reviewed most of the previous songs we had learned. Great progress on the music front and the tribe sounds awesome!
May 8
Choreographer extraordinaire Dudley Brooks took the helm last night and started with a variety of physical exercises intended to prepare the tribe for some of the things he will be asking of them during the music numbers. Some of the exercises included supporting each other's weight, moving while on top of someone else's back, then having the person underneath move also. He also initiated jumping exercises which then transitioned into full body lifts and pyramids. He also did some free-form dance involving upper body movement (head, shoulder and hair, an essential element of this show!), and also did something called the waterfall in which people moved over others and it looked just like, well, a waterfall! We will process some video that we took of the exercises and put it up on the blog soon.
We are still looking for a few more tribe members, including a Hud, but it looks like we may have some progress on all fronts. Hopefully, we will announce the rest of the tribe by early next week.
Until next time, namaste!
It is interesting to note that the original San Francisco Hair tribe in 1970 which performed at the Orpheum Theater was the Ohlone tribe. That is the name used by most Americans to refer to the Native Americas of the Bay area, but it is actually the name of their principal language and indeed encompasses groups of Native Americans as far away as San Juan Batista and Big Sur. In the Ohlone language, Muwekma means "Our People".
The tribe considered a lot of names including Costanoan which is the third name used to refer to the Muwekma people. Costanoan was the name given by the Spanish missionaries to the Native Americans of this area. Another name we considered was Costenos (the Native American derivation of the Spanish-given name Costanoan).
We also considered names of some of the regional tribes in the area (all part of the Muwekma) including Solchequis (the name of a local tribe that was located near the Santa Clara Mission), Chochenyo (an East Bay tribe), Ramaytush (San Francisco to San Mateo tribe), Tamyen or Tamien (a tribe in the area of Coyote Creek near San Jose), Awaswas (Santa Cruz) and others.
During our discussion, tribe member Esther Selk pointed out that while there are many local tribe names, our tribe consists of members from all over the Bay area and she thought that Muwekma was the most appropriate name. Most of the rest of the tribe agreed.
An interesting sidenote is that the Muwekma tribe is currently attempting to secure recognition from the Federal government of their status as a surviving Native American tribe. Their status was stripped from them in the early 20th century by bureaucrats in Sacramento at the Bureau of Indian Affairs who were trying to reduce the number of different tribes they had to deal with. You can learn more about the Muwekma and their efforts to be recognized at their website.
Rehearsal progress update:
May 7
We had another great music rehearsal, covering the title song Hair and Walking In Space. We also went back and reviewed most of the previous songs we had learned. Great progress on the music front and the tribe sounds awesome!
May 8
Choreographer extraordinaire Dudley Brooks took the helm last night and started with a variety of physical exercises intended to prepare the tribe for some of the things he will be asking of them during the music numbers. Some of the exercises included supporting each other's weight, moving while on top of someone else's back, then having the person underneath move also. He also initiated jumping exercises which then transitioned into full body lifts and pyramids. He also did some free-form dance involving upper body movement (head, shoulder and hair, an essential element of this show!), and also did something called the waterfall in which people moved over others and it looked just like, well, a waterfall! We will process some video that we took of the exercises and put it up on the blog soon.
We are still looking for a few more tribe members, including a Hud, but it looks like we may have some progress on all fronts. Hopefully, we will announce the rest of the tribe by early next week.
Until next time, namaste!
Monday, May 7, 2007
T Minus 70 Days: Where Does The Time Go?
Arrghhh, I am falling down on the job! Its been almost 8 days since I last recorded a blog entry and so much has happened! I am going to try to make sure I post three times a week from now on, the daily goal may be unachievable for me and better to set a realistic goal and hit it (or at least close).
Here we are on May 6th, and the first week of rehearsals just flew past! A daily recap:
April 29
Casting decisions were finally announced and posted. I contacted all people with principal roles and we posted the rest. I wished I could have called everyone but it takes a lot of time especially when people don't always answer. Fortunately, we had already sent out email to the entire tribe that was cast so everyone knew they were selected for the show.
As of the moment of casting, we were still looking for a Hud and possibly one more black male actor, but all other roles were filled.
April 30
A few bumps in the road. Several people who were cast dropped out (I won't mention specific names here). One of the women who I had cast in a principal role called me to tell me that she had been offered a lead role in a major musical in San Francisco (Equity contract!) Arrghhh! I told her it was okay, I fully understood, and I probably would do the same thing. One of the costs of delaying our callbacks was just this kind of risk. It is hard to ask people to wait and they have to keep auditioning (after all, they don't know if they will get cast in our show until we tell them!) She goes with my blessings, although I have a nagging suspicion even she isn't totally sure she will enjoy this other job better than she would have enjoyed HAiR! The other person is someone I think may have really wanted a principal role and when it didn't happen, decided that they weren't interested in the ensemble. Sigh... This show is ALL ABOUT the tribe, but I understand.
May 1
First rehearsal! We gathered at Historic Hoover and everyone was accounted for except for Cy (who was excused because of a conflict) and one other women who I think is probably a drop-out also (although this still hasn't been confirmed by an email or phone call, but she hasn't shown up to any rehearsals so I expect that's it ;-) So we are now missing 4 people: Hud, one black female and two more actors of no particular ethnicity. We will start the hunt immediately!
Our first rehearsal went great. We spent a half-hour talking about some administrative stuff, Barb took some costume measurements and then we plunged into the read-through. Everyone read their lines and I played the tracks from the original Broadway cast album (and a few from other albums where the OBC didn't have the music, such as Dead End and the Ain't Got No reprise in Act II). A lot of the tribe sang along with the album which was very cool to watch. Obviously a lot of people already know some of the music!
One thing I noticed which was very good was the number of people in the tribe who hung around at the end of rehearsal. Sometimes everybody just packs up and leaves. While this isn't always true, it is often an indication that there is no real affection for the show or the rest of the cast. When people don't want it to end, that is a really good sign!
May 2
Our first music rehearsal. We did some more administrative work, and Barb took some more measurements. We bring in the keyboard and decide to tackle Aquarius first.
BUZZER!
Aquarius is one of the songs in Hair with the most difficult harmonies for the tribe (there are some other songs with tough harmonies too, but they tend to be smaller groups which are easier to manage). My naivete in not being totally prepared for this was obvious. For one thing, the harmonies in Aquarius aren't always written as to make it clear who should sing what, and so I fell back on asking people where they felt most comfortable singing (a great vocal director would have had each person in the tribe already picked out for their part). Lesson learned: I will make sure before other rehearsals to have this worked out in advance. Fortunately, most of the other tribal numbers don't have this complication ;-)
We stumble through the first 16 bars of the group singing (after the initial solo measures) and it takes us a while to figure out the harmonies. Fortunately, everyone recognizes my tentativeness and jumps in to help. In particular, Dennis Beasley (our Woof who also has experience as a chorus director) gives me some good advice and we finally get a few of the trickier part assignments worked out. We move forward through another dozen measures and then go back to review. WOW! Its been less than an hour, and despite my own errors in preparation, the tribe sounds like, well, a TRIBE!
Another half-an-hour and the song is sounding very very good (especially for a first rehearsal with me as vocal director). We move from the keyboard to the Hairaoke CD that we have and run through the song with full accompaniment and it sounds amazing! This is going to really be good!
I decide that for the second number of the night, we will try something easier. Hashish ;-) No harmonies at all, just slow, rhythmic pulsed singing (almost moaning :-) This one goes much much easier and in about 30 minutes, we have it done. We run through it a few times and then go back to Aquarius. Only a few minor glitches.
I am very very pleased with this first music rehearsal, despite the false start.
Again, everyone hangs around a while talking about the show. There is obvious concern for filling the role of Hud, although I am less concerned. I would, of course, love to have Hud here from the beginning, but we still have plenty of time, 10 weeks to be exact, which is much longer than most shows have from the beginning.
May 3/4
These days are a blur. Lots of stuff to do at work, and a lot of sleep to catch up on. We (Barb and I) have been going almost non-stop since we left for New York, with callbacks starting as soon as we got back, and then rehearsals almost immediately after the decision-making process was done. We had planned to see a show on Friday evening, but I was so tired, we just went straight to bed.
May 5
Our second music rehearsal is another success! We start with some non-singing exercises just to get everyone "in the mood" and then move on to vocal warm-ups. Thanks to Dennis for jumping in and helping here again! I decide to try one of the songs that is difficult to learn not because of harmonies (it has almost none) but because (a) it is a patter song to rival Gilbert and Sullivan and (b) most people haven't ever heard it.
The song is The Bed and I start out by explaining what I consider to be the significance of The Bed. Most directors cut The Bed. I think they don't understand it. First of all, The Bed is a very important number to show once more Claude's gradual separation from the tribe before he ultimately submits to the Army. It comes after The Trip and Good Morning Starshine, and sets up the Aquarius Goodnights where the tribe leaves Claude just before he transitions to being a soldier.
Even more important is that this is a classic "show" number and removing it actually is one of the reasons people wrongly think Hair "isn't a true musical". In fact, Hair is very much a musical and in many ways, follows quite traditional form ans structure. Of course, a completely different style of staging and music is superimposed on top of that, but to say it has no structure is simply wrong.
Consider that The Bed, which is a playful, funny song, is precisely at the same point in the show (near the end) where many other dramatic musicals have a similar comedic song. The immediate example that comes to mind is West Side Story (the theatrical musical, not the movie, which screwed it up by switching songs around ;-) In the stage version of West Side Story, right after the rumble and just before the scenes where Anita is raped in the drugstore and Tony is killed, there is a pressure relief number, Officer Krupke. This also happens in other musicals. There is a real need to lighten the spirit after the set-up and before the final climax, or the audience has no real chance to recover. And it also makes the final climax even more clear. (By the way, in true musical comedy, this is often switched, with a more serious number coming at this same point, sandwiching two comic moments, usually a set-up and then the final comic climax).
In any case, we started to work on The Bed and it went very well indeed. Fortunately the music itself is simple with only a few notes of simple chord harmony almost precisely where you would expect it. The middle of the song is a very difficult patter with weird rhythms. But the tribe got it (in fact, I tried to simplify it for them and they resisted, wanting to do it they way it was written!)
The Bed is a fun song and I think everyone had a good time learning it.
Just before we moved on, we had a brief moment of fun ;-) My cell phone rang and I had no idea who it was (private number). I decided to answer it, and it was a good thing because it was Michael Butler! He had called to talk to me about our upcoming press release. I told him I was in the middle of rehearsal. The whole tribe yelled "Hi Michael!" and he laughed on the other end of the phone. (Barb later told me I should have had them sing The Bed for him! Damn, I just don't think fast enough on my feet sometimes!) Fortunately, we agreed to talk on Sunday and he urged me to get back to the rehearsal.
Next we did Initials. This one is a simple song, with only three notes of harmony at the end. The melody is simple and the range is limited so we had no difficulty learning it. We worked a bit on the staccato "initials" and it sounded very good for a first effort.
We moved on to the reprise of Walking In Space (Our Eyes Are Open Wide) and finished it quickly. It is really fulfilling to listen to the amazing music that MacDermot, Ragni and Rado put together being developed by live singers all over again. This song is always one of my favorites and the tribe is doing it tremendous credit.
Finally, we tackled Ain't Got No Grass. Another patter song, this one has the tricky middle section ("A bombs/ H bombs/ P bombs/ Q bombs/ Chinese/ Czechs/ Hindus/ Bindus/ Italianos/ Polacks/ Germans/ Youse/ Jews/ Ups and Downs" and more!) that moves like a runaway train. With no threat of harmony to intrude ;-) this one became mostly an exercise in learning the rhythms correctly and working through the tricky syllables. I emphasized to everyone the need to "not be a hero" and to take a breath somewhere in the middle as long as everyone doesn't do it at the same time!
Our time was almost up and we reviewed all the numbers pretty successfully, and went back and did Aquarius, too. Fortunately, not too much had been lost since Wednesday!
I got home Saturday late afternoon pretty tired, but we had opera tickets and I am glad we went. Opera San Jose did a magnificent production of Madame Butterfly. I'm glad we got to see it.
Sunday was a work-at-home day for me (although I ended up in the office for a while because I had some things to pick up). I finally talked to Michael about our press release which will be going out this week and he gave me a few comments which I incorporated. We are working on plans to have Michael conduct some press interviews on our behalf and also to do several audience talkbacks during the production run.
Oh, and I think I may not have mentioned this yet, but we finalized our plans with Jonathon Johnson to come talk with the tribe in June and also do several audience talkbacks in July during the second week of the run! Jonathon is a terrific man who wrote the recent book Good Hair Days about his journeys through several productions of Hair. He played Claude on Broadway during the final months of the production including the last performance. We are very excited to have him work with us!
We are heading into Week 2 of rehearsals and our first dance rehearsals. Things are moving along well and I am very excited. See you next time!
Let The Sun Shine In!
Here we are on May 6th, and the first week of rehearsals just flew past! A daily recap:
April 29
Casting decisions were finally announced and posted. I contacted all people with principal roles and we posted the rest. I wished I could have called everyone but it takes a lot of time especially when people don't always answer. Fortunately, we had already sent out email to the entire tribe that was cast so everyone knew they were selected for the show.
As of the moment of casting, we were still looking for a Hud and possibly one more black male actor, but all other roles were filled.
April 30
A few bumps in the road. Several people who were cast dropped out (I won't mention specific names here). One of the women who I had cast in a principal role called me to tell me that she had been offered a lead role in a major musical in San Francisco (Equity contract!) Arrghhh! I told her it was okay, I fully understood, and I probably would do the same thing. One of the costs of delaying our callbacks was just this kind of risk. It is hard to ask people to wait and they have to keep auditioning (after all, they don't know if they will get cast in our show until we tell them!) She goes with my blessings, although I have a nagging suspicion even she isn't totally sure she will enjoy this other job better than she would have enjoyed HAiR! The other person is someone I think may have really wanted a principal role and when it didn't happen, decided that they weren't interested in the ensemble. Sigh... This show is ALL ABOUT the tribe, but I understand.
May 1
First rehearsal! We gathered at Historic Hoover and everyone was accounted for except for Cy (who was excused because of a conflict) and one other women who I think is probably a drop-out also (although this still hasn't been confirmed by an email or phone call, but she hasn't shown up to any rehearsals so I expect that's it ;-) So we are now missing 4 people: Hud, one black female and two more actors of no particular ethnicity. We will start the hunt immediately!
Our first rehearsal went great. We spent a half-hour talking about some administrative stuff, Barb took some costume measurements and then we plunged into the read-through. Everyone read their lines and I played the tracks from the original Broadway cast album (and a few from other albums where the OBC didn't have the music, such as Dead End and the Ain't Got No reprise in Act II). A lot of the tribe sang along with the album which was very cool to watch. Obviously a lot of people already know some of the music!
One thing I noticed which was very good was the number of people in the tribe who hung around at the end of rehearsal. Sometimes everybody just packs up and leaves. While this isn't always true, it is often an indication that there is no real affection for the show or the rest of the cast. When people don't want it to end, that is a really good sign!
May 2
Our first music rehearsal. We did some more administrative work, and Barb took some more measurements. We bring in the keyboard and decide to tackle Aquarius first.
BUZZER!
Aquarius is one of the songs in Hair with the most difficult harmonies for the tribe (there are some other songs with tough harmonies too, but they tend to be smaller groups which are easier to manage). My naivete in not being totally prepared for this was obvious. For one thing, the harmonies in Aquarius aren't always written as to make it clear who should sing what, and so I fell back on asking people where they felt most comfortable singing (a great vocal director would have had each person in the tribe already picked out for their part). Lesson learned: I will make sure before other rehearsals to have this worked out in advance. Fortunately, most of the other tribal numbers don't have this complication ;-)
We stumble through the first 16 bars of the group singing (after the initial solo measures) and it takes us a while to figure out the harmonies. Fortunately, everyone recognizes my tentativeness and jumps in to help. In particular, Dennis Beasley (our Woof who also has experience as a chorus director) gives me some good advice and we finally get a few of the trickier part assignments worked out. We move forward through another dozen measures and then go back to review. WOW! Its been less than an hour, and despite my own errors in preparation, the tribe sounds like, well, a TRIBE!
Another half-an-hour and the song is sounding very very good (especially for a first rehearsal with me as vocal director). We move from the keyboard to the Hairaoke CD that we have and run through the song with full accompaniment and it sounds amazing! This is going to really be good!
I decide that for the second number of the night, we will try something easier. Hashish ;-) No harmonies at all, just slow, rhythmic pulsed singing (almost moaning :-) This one goes much much easier and in about 30 minutes, we have it done. We run through it a few times and then go back to Aquarius. Only a few minor glitches.
I am very very pleased with this first music rehearsal, despite the false start.
Again, everyone hangs around a while talking about the show. There is obvious concern for filling the role of Hud, although I am less concerned. I would, of course, love to have Hud here from the beginning, but we still have plenty of time, 10 weeks to be exact, which is much longer than most shows have from the beginning.
May 3/4
These days are a blur. Lots of stuff to do at work, and a lot of sleep to catch up on. We (Barb and I) have been going almost non-stop since we left for New York, with callbacks starting as soon as we got back, and then rehearsals almost immediately after the decision-making process was done. We had planned to see a show on Friday evening, but I was so tired, we just went straight to bed.
May 5
Our second music rehearsal is another success! We start with some non-singing exercises just to get everyone "in the mood" and then move on to vocal warm-ups. Thanks to Dennis for jumping in and helping here again! I decide to try one of the songs that is difficult to learn not because of harmonies (it has almost none) but because (a) it is a patter song to rival Gilbert and Sullivan and (b) most people haven't ever heard it.
The song is The Bed and I start out by explaining what I consider to be the significance of The Bed. Most directors cut The Bed. I think they don't understand it. First of all, The Bed is a very important number to show once more Claude's gradual separation from the tribe before he ultimately submits to the Army. It comes after The Trip and Good Morning Starshine, and sets up the Aquarius Goodnights where the tribe leaves Claude just before he transitions to being a soldier.
Even more important is that this is a classic "show" number and removing it actually is one of the reasons people wrongly think Hair "isn't a true musical". In fact, Hair is very much a musical and in many ways, follows quite traditional form ans structure. Of course, a completely different style of staging and music is superimposed on top of that, but to say it has no structure is simply wrong.
Consider that The Bed, which is a playful, funny song, is precisely at the same point in the show (near the end) where many other dramatic musicals have a similar comedic song. The immediate example that comes to mind is West Side Story (the theatrical musical, not the movie, which screwed it up by switching songs around ;-) In the stage version of West Side Story, right after the rumble and just before the scenes where Anita is raped in the drugstore and Tony is killed, there is a pressure relief number, Officer Krupke. This also happens in other musicals. There is a real need to lighten the spirit after the set-up and before the final climax, or the audience has no real chance to recover. And it also makes the final climax even more clear. (By the way, in true musical comedy, this is often switched, with a more serious number coming at this same point, sandwiching two comic moments, usually a set-up and then the final comic climax).
In any case, we started to work on The Bed and it went very well indeed. Fortunately the music itself is simple with only a few notes of simple chord harmony almost precisely where you would expect it. The middle of the song is a very difficult patter with weird rhythms. But the tribe got it (in fact, I tried to simplify it for them and they resisted, wanting to do it they way it was written!)
The Bed is a fun song and I think everyone had a good time learning it.
Just before we moved on, we had a brief moment of fun ;-) My cell phone rang and I had no idea who it was (private number). I decided to answer it, and it was a good thing because it was Michael Butler! He had called to talk to me about our upcoming press release. I told him I was in the middle of rehearsal. The whole tribe yelled "Hi Michael!" and he laughed on the other end of the phone. (Barb later told me I should have had them sing The Bed for him! Damn, I just don't think fast enough on my feet sometimes!) Fortunately, we agreed to talk on Sunday and he urged me to get back to the rehearsal.
Next we did Initials. This one is a simple song, with only three notes of harmony at the end. The melody is simple and the range is limited so we had no difficulty learning it. We worked a bit on the staccato "initials" and it sounded very good for a first effort.
We moved on to the reprise of Walking In Space (Our Eyes Are Open Wide) and finished it quickly. It is really fulfilling to listen to the amazing music that MacDermot, Ragni and Rado put together being developed by live singers all over again. This song is always one of my favorites and the tribe is doing it tremendous credit.
Finally, we tackled Ain't Got No Grass. Another patter song, this one has the tricky middle section ("A bombs/ H bombs/ P bombs/ Q bombs/ Chinese/ Czechs/ Hindus/ Bindus/ Italianos/ Polacks/ Germans/ Youse/ Jews/ Ups and Downs" and more!) that moves like a runaway train. With no threat of harmony to intrude ;-) this one became mostly an exercise in learning the rhythms correctly and working through the tricky syllables. I emphasized to everyone the need to "not be a hero" and to take a breath somewhere in the middle as long as everyone doesn't do it at the same time!
Our time was almost up and we reviewed all the numbers pretty successfully, and went back and did Aquarius, too. Fortunately, not too much had been lost since Wednesday!
I got home Saturday late afternoon pretty tired, but we had opera tickets and I am glad we went. Opera San Jose did a magnificent production of Madame Butterfly. I'm glad we got to see it.
Sunday was a work-at-home day for me (although I ended up in the office for a while because I had some things to pick up). I finally talked to Michael about our press release which will be going out this week and he gave me a few comments which I incorporated. We are working on plans to have Michael conduct some press interviews on our behalf and also to do several audience talkbacks during the production run.
Oh, and I think I may not have mentioned this yet, but we finalized our plans with Jonathon Johnson to come talk with the tribe in June and also do several audience talkbacks in July during the second week of the run! Jonathon is a terrific man who wrote the recent book Good Hair Days about his journeys through several productions of Hair. He played Claude on Broadway during the final months of the production including the last performance. We are very excited to have him work with us!
We are heading into Week 2 of rehearsals and our first dance rehearsals. Things are moving along well and I am very excited. See you next time!
Let The Sun Shine In!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
