Take Trips, Get High

This is such a different experience than the other two times I did Hair. Partly because I have such experience with the show this time and I came into the process with an incredible head-start. Partly because I could give this cast a much better idea of where they were headed than I could the other times. Partly because I think I'm a better director seven years later.

But a big part of it is this Tribe of ours. Everybody is so terrific to work with, the atmosphere in rehearsal has been wonderful, and they're all really working hard to find their place in the crazy quilt that is Hair.

We've run both acts separately, and they're both looking really good already. And on Monday night, newly ensconced in our new theatre for the first time, we'll run the whole show. Which will be so much fun to see the whole thing -- and for them to finally have the real space in which to play. We'll see what still needs work, what needs focus, etc. And the tribe will start to get an idea of the flow of the show, how all these pieces really fit together. I think it will be particularly helpful for a few of the actors who really have complex character arcs over the course of the show.

Today, we load in the set. Todd (Claude) is our set designer and he's already over at the theatre with our Trusty Stage Manager Trisha, getting everything ready to build. Several of us will be there shortly to help. Today we build, tomorrow we paint. Then Monday we finally get to play on the real set!

I can hardly believe it's already load-in day. It doesn't seem like we've been working on this show very long. But when I think about having a six-week run again, I'm reminded that this is one of those rare, cool experiences that's actually going to last a while. With most shows, even though we usually run four weeks, it's still hard to close the show, and it always feels like we could run longer. This time, we do get to run longer, for almost twice as many performances as usual. And that's a real gift. Tickets are already selling pretty good and people seem to be as psyched about the show this time as they were the other times. The first two times we had houses of 125 and 150 seats; this time it'll be 210 seats. But I still think we'll sell out most of the run. We'll see...

Well, I've gotta get my carcass into the shower and get over to the theatre, so I'll end my update here...

On with the Groovy Revolution!
Kerouac