By: Logan Peterson, petersonlo@mnstate.edu
“HAIR in Concert” is coming to the Hansen theater on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. The show was originally scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 7, but was moved due to weather. This will be a one-time performance by the MSUM theatre arts program.
The concert, a rendition of the famous musical first performed in October 1967, focuses on the sixties counterculture and all of its, “barefoot, long-haired, bell-bottomed, beaded and fringed glory,” according to the campus theater arts release.
“It’s not necessarily a musical in the normal way you think of it,” Bradley Banken, a performer in the play and junior integrated advertising and public relations major, said. “It’s kind of like we’re taking pieces from the musical and making it more in a concert-style so it runs straight through, so the only lines are just kind of transitions to make it make sense.”
The total run time of the concert is around an hour and a half. It will feature a set stage with minimal moving pieces as opposed to a traditional musical. It will also have a backing band similar to the Music Theatre Ensemble concert last semester
A grant from the Minnesota Remembers Vietnam organization is partially funding the performance.
“The primary impetus for our concert version of HAIR was the awarding of the Minnesota Remembers Vietnam Grant,” Craig Ellingson, Director of Theatre Arts, said. “The war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia left an indelible mark on millions of people. In order to collect and preserve the stories of those affected by the war and its aftermath, the Minnesota Humanities Center chose six host communities—including MSUM—to convene gatherings to honor the stories and experiences around the Vietnam war.”
“Minnesota Remembers Vietnam” is an initiative put forward by the Twin Cities PBS, and supported by the Minnesota Humanities Center. The program is funded by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund voted into Minnesota law on Nov. 4, 2008.
Tickets are available online at MSUM’s ticket website. Students can reserve their tickets for free, while entry for the general public is $5.