Active Hair

Hey Folks!

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the revival of Hair on Broadway.

I had a lot of trouble getting into it at first, the show was decked out in hippie regalia, a complete immersion into the era it was written in. I was frustrated by Diane Paulus’ (the Director) lack of innovation with what I thought was a completely outdated period piece. Why had she chosen to recreate the PAST so precisely?

As the show went on, it began to grow on me. There was a creeping feeling I had that there was something greater at work than I could see. And the actors were tremendously charming, which helps, a lot.

They sang songs about sexual repression, sexual experimentation, the draft, Black Boys vs. White Boys, the dawning of a new age, the true apathy of activists, and about the looming death in Vietnam. This play premiered in 1967. It took no prisoners. It was a rallying cry, a beacon of hope, a forward push to a movement that was already hugely underway. It was a sign to the “old folks” of the day, that the Hippies (or at least the progressive young Americans) were here and here to stay. What a monumental show it must have been!

So what is it now? It’s still monumental. It begs the important question: what happened to the Hippies? Have we made progress as a nation? YES. We have MUCH MUCH MUCH in the way of excellent progressive Policy. But what about our Policy-Makers? Our Industry Leaders? They are largely, the SAME OLD BOYS as they were in 1967. So what happened to the Hippies?

Ms. Paulus presents us with the essential truth that the need for “hippies” is as strong today as it was in 1967. The fact that apathy and greed, and the Cult of Self-Importance has taken over our national culture (since the 80’s) does not mean it can’t change. And the election of Obama, while fantastic, doesn’t mean we have any more of an active citizenry as we did before 2008. It just means that David Plouffe was the first guy to realize that if you can catch America on their Electronic Devices, they’ll vote for you.

At the end of the show, Ms. Paulus goes as far as to have the Curtain Call littered with banners advertising the National Equality March on Oct. 11th in DC. WHY NOT? This was one of the first pieces of theatre I’ve seen that actually may have gotten SOME portion of the audience to DO SOMETHING after they left. Wonderful.

What does this all mean for ensemble113? It means at least we’re being exposed to this work, which can’t help but enrich our own. It means we value the importance of theatre as a cultural event, and we hope to find more ways to bring that energy to our work in Skokie. Are you likely to see us performing polemical, activist works down on Oakton any time soon? Probably not. Unless they’re REALLY funny. But who knows? You very well might. At very least, I hope you’ll be seeing some work that aspires to add to the discussion.

Looking forward to what’s next.

Clayton Fox, Artistic Director