Hair at MSU

I'm currently serving as dramaturg for MSU's upcoming production of the musical Hair.  Here are some links I sent to the cast a while back, to give them some resources for immersion in the 1960s counterculture. 

General 1960s History:

There’s some good stuff here:  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/us/the-sixties 

Also: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/1964/player/

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1965.html

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/opinion/hayden-sixties-political-change/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

Literary/Spoken Word Sources:

Timothy Leary: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMAH1vwSu7I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i979CTkj5k0

Alan Ginsburg, reading “Wichita Vortex Sutra” over music by Philip Glass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Di1zoVFQo

Ginsburg’s poem “Howl” also seems relevant: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381

Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIz8f3b1KqQ

1960s Music:

Here’s a playlist someone created on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmAPYkPeYU&list=PLuK6flVU_Aj5EJ9Pp-C9N7XA0YJr_GrJI

You could also create your own 1960s station on Pandora or Spotify.  Some things to consider:

Harmonies in groups like We Five; The Mamas and the Papas; Simon and Garfunkel; Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Folk-rock singer-songwriters: Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins. 

British Invasion: The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits

Girl Groups: The Angels (“My Boyfriend’s Back), The Shangri-Las (Leader of the Pack), Lesley Gore, the Shirelles, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas.  Here’s a documentary about Girl Groups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyzL6D-5znY

Also check out http://hairdramaturgy.blogspot.com/ which was created for a production at UC Santa Cruz in 2010.

Films to Consider:

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

8 ½ (1963; dir. Federico Fellini)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Blow-Up (1966; dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Graduate (1967)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Barbarella (1968)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968; dir. Roman Polanski; Polanski’s 1971 Macbeth is also interesting, as is  The Ninth Gate)

Wild in the Streets (1968)

Yellow Submarine (1968)

Easy Rider (1969)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Hair (1979); dir. Milos Forman

Hairspray (1989)

A Mighty Wind (2003)

Across the Universe (2007)

Some of these are suggested by Scott Miller’s book Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of Hair (2003); others are just things I thought might be interesting.