Thursday, June 14, 2007

beads flowers freedom happiness

Directing this woolly mammoth of a show is the greatest kamikaze director/producer experience of my life so far. Thank God a month ago I opted for semi-poverty and did not take a bread job. Every waking hour (with the exception of a few minutes here and there where I maybe, possibly talk about something else) is devoted to combing this tangly Hair.

Woof, formerly known as White Rabbit, calls me on rehearsal days for check-in. His call today made me laugh a lot. When I told him we were adding him into "White Boys," with Sarah & Kim, he said okay. A few minutes later he says:

"Oh, KIM! I thought you said Tim. And I first I was like, who the hell is Tim? But then I figured it's just one of those people that gets added in last minute like in every Maggie Levin production."

It's too true. I am the queen of "Of course you can be in it! Yes! Come in! No acting experience? No music experience? Never been to a theatre before? Ah, fuck it, the more the merrier."

Although I have been a bit more selective, and gathered quite a talented bunch for this show, the nature of No-Pay Theatre is...sometimes you take what you can get. Another aspect of No-Pay Theatre - a lot of people are bound to flake. So back up people are muy importante.

But I didn't wanna talk about the pitfalls. There's so much good, and there's two weeks left. I wake up with Easy to Be Hard in my head, and go to sleep with the Electric Blues. To be perfectly frank, there's a lot of um...BALLS...in this show. Our girls are awesome, and gorgeous (and rather well endowed in the rack department), but normal in the modesty department. The boys? Ridiculous. Woof in particular - I'll turn around to give someone a note, and when I turn back, WHAM! Where'd his pants go? Who knows? And he won't put them back on unless I tell him he's distracting me. I know I should be able to just adjust...it's just a body...but with a cast that is all clothed, but for one...well, it pulls one's eye, for sure.


We have a fundraiser party, and a rehearsal tonight. I must go hang tapestries in our party room, and prepare for the draft card burning scene.

HAIR



Directed by Maggie F. Levin
Choreographed by Wilhelmina Frankfurt
Musical Direction by Peter Saxe

Starring: Adam Schneider, Anthony Stanford, Crystal Price, Emma Canalese, Geoffrey Bryant, Helen Highfield, Jake Hartmann, Jefferson Rogers, Jessica Walck, Kai Chapman, Katie Venezia, Kimberley Mitchell, Laura Sessoms, Lauren Schacher, Lindsay Bleier, Logan Hall, Mack Exilus, Ryan Stone, Sarah Jones, Stephen Winburn & Steve Lundberg.

The Neighborhood Playhouse
340 East 54th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue

June 29th at 8 PM
June 30th at 2 & 8 PM
July 1st at 8 PM