"True People"

Auditions came and went. Rehearsals came and went. Opening night came and went. And now it is day two in our eleven show run (plus two previews) and there is a part of me that still can’t believe that Hair is happening to me. One of the most astonishing things to me is that I was this close to not auditioning. I honestly didn’t know whether or not I was going to until the moment I stepped through the door. Auditioning for this show was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made.  

I’ve always heard that being in a production of Hair is life changing. I never was sure why exactly (in fact I’m still not positive why). But it’s truth. The piece isn't perfect. Our production certainly isn't either. It isn’t as polished or as clean as it could be. It’s imperfect. But it’s beautiful in its imperfection. It has definitely been life changing for me.

So what makes Hair so different? The piece itself is unusual. When it opened in 1968 it was ground breaking to the American Theatre world. It completely changed the way people saw and made theatre. The piece leaves room for its creators to improvise and play. To discover. This means that no to productions of Hair have been or will ever be the same. No two “tribes” (for in Hair we are a TRIBE not a cast, another notable difference) ever says the same thing. No two tribes want the same thing. And no two tribes ask the same thing.

Our production in particular been different as well; from the way it was auditioned, to the way it was rehearsed and now to the way it is being performed (you’ll have to come to find out exactly how). We found and created the piece completely organically. Never did the director say “I think this scene should go like this” or “I think by saying this line you mean this.” Everything the audience sees on stage is completely organic and fresh. The love that the audience feels coming from the tribe is not synthetic. It is pure and real.

Truth is something we have striven for from the beginning. Our goal has been to never “show” the audience anything. We do not preach, or teach. We share. We invite each audience into our “home” and live with them for two hours, taking them on a journey with us. Broadway diva Patti LuPone said that “If I [as an actress] am taken to a place honestly the audience is going to receive that, and it will happen to them.”  Though the piece is disconnected, nonsensical and confusing, the audience simply has to feel what we are feeling to understand the message of our piece. We haven’t always hit our target. Finding the truth in the show has been a struggle. But I think we’ve found it. It is tradition for each tribe to choose a name for themselves. Because we have fought so hard to find truth, we chose the name Hach Winik. It means true people.

This has been a growing and learning experience for me both as an actor and as a person. And I think all good theatre does that. As my good friend and fellow tribe member Tia Galanis said, “It was always in the stars.” This tribe has become my family. Three months ago I knew not a single one of them, and now I feel that they have a piece of me that I could never give to anyone else. We became a tribe through a mutual goal of finding something special. And in the end we found was each other.