August 8, 2025 • 39 mins
Last year, The Ringwald Theatre stepped outside the proverbial box and tried something new with the Ringwald Reprise production of Applause. The idea behind this piece of experimental theater was exciting for all parties involved: a week of rehearsals leading to a weekend of performances. It was fast-paced and intense for the creatives involved, but the final result was a show unlike anything I've ever seen before. So imagine my excitement when this local Ferndale, MI, theater announced that the Ringwald Reprise was returning with a production of Hair! The cast and crew have been hard at work this week, rehearsing and preparing for their sold-out run of performances, but two of the actors, Melanie Grund and Jeff McMahon, took some time out of their intense schedules to speak with us about Hair!
In this exclusive Box Seat Babes Interview, Grund and McMahon discuss what it's like to be a part of experimental theater such as the Ringwald Reprise! These two talk about the advantages and challenges of such an intense rehearsal schedule and how they are preparing for a weekend of Hair. Grund, who was involved with Applause, talks about how they've prepared for this show, such as picking out their costume early and watching the film version of Hair to remind themselves of the content. While this show covers many heavy topics, its message of love resonates with all those involved and audiences alike.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Thank you so much, Jeff and Melanie for joining me today.
(00:02):
How are you two doing?
Good, yeah.
Still have energy.
Still have energy.
few more hours of rehearsal today, so we're going to save as much as can and keep itgoing.
Yeah, we were just kind of talking about this.
You're in the middle of your day two of rehearsal for Hair.
How's that going?
it's funny to be a third of the way through rehearsals and it's only day two.
(00:23):
Yeah, it's definitely fast-paced.
The first weekend is long, it's eight hours each Saturday and Sunday and then we go toevening rehearsals six to ten, so four hours every night.
And then we have a show on Friday.
mean, that's such a different pace, I'm sure, than other shows that you've been in, whereyou're in rehearsal for months and months and months before you go live.
(00:45):
Wildly so.
Yeah, I know that Melanie did it last year, but it's my first experience in something thatquick.
um I think one of the fun slash challenging bits, I come in with very little knowledge ofthe show.
It's not one that I have known very well.
um So the short time is fun, but also requires me to put down a lot of my perfection.
(01:09):
um I know like a lot of us or some of us will have books.
you know, with us on stage, which is very atypical, you know, of shows.
So I'm trying to become okay with the mess and the fun of the show and the chaos of it,where I usually like to be so studied.
So it's a fun challenge in that way, just to have fun.
(01:30):
you know, like we say, it's like, we're having fun, we're doing a show.
It's not, it doesn't have to be rocket science.
Although it is pretty heavy show compared to last year's show.
Sure.
Applause last year.
We didn't know what to expect last year.
Last year, Joe Bailey just put out em a Facebook something, like anyone want to do someexperimental theater, and I don't know, about 15 of us, I guess, showed up.
(01:54):
um I went to school with Joe Bailey at Oakland University.
So, well, you know, I have a full-time career that keeps me pretty busy and I can findeight days, right?
Like I can set my schedule so that I can do eight days.
I can't usually do shows, but um and then we just had fun as you saw, right?
This one, there's, we've done a lot of bonding as a cast because it's heavy.
(02:19):
It's a heavy topic.
A lot of us have attachments uh to Vietnam and to the storyline.
My mom was a protester.
My dad is a Vietnam vet.
um So, you know, there's, yeah, I would say this is a heavier show and more, the music ismuch more technical.
So.
Just we haven't done any blocking.
(02:39):
We've just been assigned some solos and quartets and duets that we're working through, butit's a tremendous, it's an experiment.
It's an experiment.
It's interesting to be doing something, not being fully aware of what it's going to looklike at the end.
ah You know, I feel like when you have months, you kind of know what you're going to putout at the end of your rehearsals.
(03:00):
three quarters of the way through, you have it on its legs and then it's just like gettingthe chew on it.
Where this one is just like, think we'll find out Friday, whatever it looks like.
The best performance to see is Monday night.
Yeah, because we had a few more.
But it's sold out actually.
Sunday is, I think one to get left up for Sunday.
it's exciting that so many people excited about it in such an odd format.
(03:25):
I think what is exciting about the Ringwald Reprise Prize is just this idea, Melanie, youkind of mentioned that last year you did applause, and that was, again, not a show that
many people are probably familiar with.
And the same with hair, because I have to admit, I've never seen hair.
I didn't even know what it was before I started trying to make questions to talk to thetwo of you.
And so it's cool to of revisit some of these things.
(03:48):
my friends I was doing hair, they were, oh, hairspray?
So there was a lot of that too.
Yeah, yeah, not quite.
But I agree with you there.
It's a really intergenerational.
So I'm 54.
I don't know how old you are.
I'll be 35, but I think the youngest.
Is 22?
Just turned 21 recently.
Yeah.
So it's very intergenerational, which I think has been interesting too for...
(04:13):
Again, my parents, I was the baby born in 1971.
This show was 1968, my dad went over in 69, and I felt the effects my whole life ofgrowing up as a Vietnam Vets kid, right?
We have some people in the cast who've been in four or five productions of Like someveterans that just like, oh, let's do it again.
(04:33):
They just love Hair, so they do a lot of them together.
that maybe helps us a little bit, right?
Because they know the flow of the show.
Yeah, I love, I mean, I'm already thinking about next summer.
I would do every show that Joe Bailey does if it was eight days.
Yeah, and we pondered over that the first time we spoke.
I work a pretty typical nine to five, and while I love doing theater, I usually can't givetwo months of time without planning it out.
(05:04):
And this was very much Joe just calling me, saying, hey, what do you got going on in thesummer?
I said, it depends.
You know, so it should be 10 days, you know, I'm like, yeah, I have 10 days.
If it would have been more weeks, I'll be out of the country doing other things with work.
But it's fun to be able to kind of get your shot of live theater and performance in asmall format like this at the Ringwald And not have to be perfect.
(05:24):
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't have be perfect.
mean, yeah, getting rid of that perfectionism part of it's probably very difficult to kindof like pull down the wall and just be like, okay, we're gonna do this live no matter what
happens.
And we may not know the material as well as maybe we want to.
and I'll say it's my first, I've done a few, two, three musicals over the time I've beenacting and this is my first lead role or at least any, ever having a solo and I got five.
(05:51):
Really?
You're doing great.
Yeah, so.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, added on top of that is like, know, being somebody I want to be on top of everythingand be able to lead the tribe well in the songs we have.
So yeah, it's a really fun trust experience and.
I think that's been, if you're in the room, think that's been one of the biggest topics isjust doing your best and bringing what you have and everybody, it's not a one man show.
(06:18):
There's an entire tribe of people that are carrying everything, carrying the energy andthe topics.
And I think the tribe concept, which is a big part of Hair is the tribe, that's whatthey're called.
We do have three leads who have more solos.
Named characters.
Named characters.
you know, they've broken it up and Rachel Rose is our music director from Wayne State.
(06:40):
She's absolutely tremendous as brought out new parts of me from last year and then thisyear.
But, you know, just the reminder that this is fun and that this is a moment in time thatHair's message maybe resonates more than if we'd done it, you know, last year, frankly.
So.
(07:00):
So what is hair about?
Because again, I don't really know what it is, and I'm kind of assuming that maybe there'squite a few people that don't know what hair is kind of about.
So what's that story?
You want to it?
I'll try.
You're more familiar.
I'll fill in.
He looked very questioning of himself for a moment there.
He was like, uh...
(07:20):
edit me out.
I'm still really digging in and learning a lot about the show.
But generally speaking, it's a group of friends with Claude, Berger, Sheila as the mainthree characters, but then a tribe of people who kind of live communally with free and
open love towards one another, going through the experience of seeing their country sendoff so many.
(07:48):
children functionally to war and the intersectional impact of that, what it looks like toturn away from what your government is doing and what that looks like and kind of the
vitriol that you can get from that but then also what it means to go off and take part ina war that you are seeing on TV as being so brutally violent and damaging.
(08:14):
What is it?
What is it like to be somebody in a space that has love for people and the world?
while being drafted and the difficulty of choice between you know certain Yeah, it sits inthat middle ground.
Yeah, it's the you did a very good job But it's it's very you know, I I mean I can't helpbut see my father in in this story because he
(08:42):
was a middle-class guy.
went to college right after high school, but wasn't particularly driven to it.
Just did it because it kept him out of the draft.
that's what Claude is facing, right?
I don't know if he's been drafted.
Oh, he has been drafted.
Yeah, in the story, all the men in this tribe receive draft cards, are drafted.
And it's what will they do?
(09:04):
What decisions will they make?
Will they go and fight?
Will they serve?
Or will they choose to basically put themselves
under the sights of the government and possible punishment for not going in for theirdraft call.
And maybe creating a new society would be a term I would use, right?
Because that's where the hippie movement really took off, of course, and in many ways wasits own society and own community nationally, right?
(09:34):
California hippies and Boston hippies were driven by the same message and the same...
beliefs system.
So yeah, so that's it.
And a lot of singing and dancing.
There's a lot of love, a lot of consternation, a lot of sort of sarcasm and sassiness tothe government.
(09:57):
I'm also talking about um the influence of consciousness expansion through different drugsand psychedelics and um sex and nudity and freedom.
yeah, freedom more
as expression and learning and openness versus something to be demonized or criticized orpunished.
(10:18):
So two very like warring ideologies of the way people see the world.
Normalized love.
It's interesting because you're right, Melanie, this is kind of become timely again.
We're back at a moment where a lot of this stuff is coming to a head in the very similarways.
Yeah, think I don't think I'm speaking out of turn.
Tell me if I am.
But I would say everyone in the room is really disturbed and frustrated and angry aboutwhere we are in the country right now.
(10:48):
Helpless, a little bit of helplessness.
And I keep saying they're probably tired of hearing it.
But for me, joy is resistance.
And we know arts is art is resistance and community is resistance.
These are.
I was a peacekeeper, so I literally have seen this in my career.
And those are things not to forget in this moment in time, if you are on the side that isfrustrated and scared and feeling helpless, is there, you can resist in a lot of ways.
(11:18):
And so that's maybe what a lot of us have chosen to do here.
Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts in this space.
Somebody who tries to be very aware politically and whatnot, but also,
how to express.
Yeah, I mean with the genocide in Gaza uh and even protesting domestically where you someprotesters are like our free speech is gradually being taken away by the actual you
(11:49):
government administration facing similar challenges of how much you know what can I do howmuch can I protest how much can I push back against this government but also uh
And for me, I've been very lucky.
love how diverse our cast is racially, age-wise, gender orientation, name it.
(12:15):
And I experienced in my friend groups, I'm very lucky to be decently.
I don't know what middle-class would talk about.
I have enough, right, to get by.
I don't have worries, especially as like a straight white dude.
But I know so many of my friends are directly impacted.
by this current administration.
(12:35):
So trying to figure out, like, I'm sitting on a side of relative safety for now, but wantto be impacting the world to help myself, my friends, and everybody who deserves this
care.
I don't know how to express it well, but it's a similar point where...
you're kind of on the fence.
know, lot of my friends work in tech.
So it's like, how do you work for Amazon to make your money, but then also go and proteston the weekends?
(13:01):
Which is kind of similar to the, the, the main problem here, right?
Like how do you stay a part of your family?
Right?
Cause families were not generally supportive of the hippie movement.
Right.
Um, how do you remain an American?
How do you even define American?
Right?
yeah, I mean,
(13:21):
Truly, Brian, we could go on.
think the, I don't think it's a mistake that this play was chosen or this musical waschosen to do this year.
Yeah, yeah.
And then she mentioned, I'll finish with that.
We've had a conversation earlier today about what does it mean to be an American and thedifference between standing behind America no matter what she does versus being an
(13:43):
American by calling and demanding that America be doing the right thing.
Right.
What we think is kind.
and just in the world and to protest often meaning to be labeled as un-American oranti-America um when in reality it's a fight to make it as beautiful and strong as it can
(14:04):
be.
As we know it can be.
As we know it can be, right.
uh People do not need to be suffering at this level.
It is within our control and it's difficult to sit with the dichotomy right And if it'snot, then we sing.
Then we sing and dance, yeah.
because that's always what makes people feel lighter and more free, you know?
And this sounds like such a musical that I would totally expect from both the Ringwald andfrom Joe Bailey, who balances art with activism, which in this time, those are kind of
(14:33):
sometimes mutually exclusive, you know?
that's a lovely thing to have said.
I've known him, like I said, since our 20s.
And I'm super proud that he does what he does.
And it doesn't surprise me at all.
also just, I mean, personally, just such a thrill to get to work with him.
I was texting some friends from college.
I was like, I'm doing a show with Joe Bailey.
they're like, oh my god, say hi.
(14:55):
The fact that we can still be connected is pretty lovely.
And I would follow him pretty much anywhere.
That's high praise though too, because it means that not only is it a pleasure to workwith him, but it just also speaks to the volume in which he isn't afraid to use his voice
here at the Ringwald.
So Jeff, you're playing Claude.
So who exactly is Claude within this narrative to you?
(15:19):
I know we've talked about a lot of themes here and they know they probably all intersectwith him, but like, I'm just kind of wondering.
definitely intersects.
One of the part it intersects with is like, I don't have this as fleshed out as I think Iusually would in a multi-month process, right?
So I'm kind of learning it as we go.
today though, I noticed.
We're getting there.
Yeah, we're getting there.
(15:39):
You know, from...
I've had a similar trajectory, I suppose, in my life going from...
you know, pretty safe and normal white suburbia.
And then finding out how stifling and then, you know, being in a church environment andthat doesn't necessarily need to be a church.
(16:00):
It'd be any environment that kind of imposes a certain set of structure and rules aroundhow you act, are, you know, in any kind of way.
And it took until my late 20s to start shedding a lot of what that put on and...
figuring out like who I am and how much love I have to give myself, my friends around me.
um hi mom, experimenting with like different drugs, you know?
(16:25):
um And just, yeah, like what does life look like living without all of the shackles thatwere put on us that we didn't necessarily consent to or didn't know were being placed on?
So coming back to Claude, think Claude is in an era where
He has found that community where he sees himself and is able to be a part of it.
(16:47):
He can be silly and big and charming and a main character with 20 other people that heloves and lives with and is around.
But when it comes to receiving his draft card and his family background, really justdoesn't know how to handle that.
So yeah, for me I think it's very relatable in that he's probably somebody that isgenerally safe, but also now kind of has to make a choice if he's going to go along with
(17:17):
um something that he specifically finds awful or choose against it when there areconsequences to both.
I think, honestly, that was something I didn't know until you had mentioned it, that itwasn't necessarily easy to just say,
no to the war effort if I didn't like it, just no.
Or vice versa, there's consequences on both sides of how your friends and family mightview you if you went to war.
(17:43):
ah So there really was no easy choice there.
And there never is when it comes to something as heavy as this, you know, not even in thisinstance, but like, like you said, even today, like there's times where you are going
against what you were raised in against what your family believes.
And that takes a lot of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Yeah, there you go.
(18:05):
I don't know.
I couldn't think of that word.
Yeah.
It takes a lot of courage to do that.
Yeah.
And the consequences can be small and large.
Like you mentioned, whether it's, you know, losing friends or family or being ostracizedfrom some of the systems that you grew up with all the way towards, you know, people being
placed in jail for speaking up.
And especially for communities uh of immigrants or anybody who's not just a whiteAmerican.
(18:30):
We see that today with with
Even congresspeople being arrested for just doing their job and speaking up for theirconstituents And especially in communities of color is so much significantly, you know You
can be arrested for speaking Spanish because somebody might think you're an illegalimmigrant just because you're bilingual which immigrants Humans can't believe I think yes.
(18:52):
Sorry.
Thank you for thank you.
Yes.
Sorry.
I work in immigration
And you're right, though, that humans can't be illegal.
yet here we are, we live in a society that 56 % of the population voted that that was OK.
And so I do agree that that's, again, all of this, you're taking, you're exploring thestory.
(19:16):
But also, we're walking back out into a world that's reflective of the same story thatyou're kind of living 50 years later.
One of the things they, I say they, there's some members, you saw more of it obviously.
I saw none of Vietnam.
But talking about that, was one of the first televised conflicts.
(19:38):
And I think about our generations now where not only are things so televised, but you'reable to create narratives that don't exist and miss and disinformation on the facts.
and obfuscate so much of the horrors that are going on.
um I don't know, it's difficult to go on Reddit, Instagram, and gosh, it's a weird timewhen you can wake up in the morning and go onto a piece of social media and see a child
(20:09):
that has starved.
That could have, for no reason, right, other than violence and greed, and know that yourcountry played a part in it.
Like what world would be...
Well, there are moments where, you know, and I wonder sometimes with in my day, you know,getting ready or something.
And I do work in government.
So, ah so I have a very different perspective uh as well.
(20:33):
Sure.
You know, having to work within a system that I don't think is functioning very well andfeel a little betrayed by in my career because it isn't it isn't what it was when I was
growing up, which is why I got into this work.
Right.
But ah
I wonder if you just think of the characters in particular, if there were times that theyfelt...
(20:55):
like I do when I look in the mirror and go, am I like, have I lost my mind?
Am I the only one having this experience because it feels like it should be an easy andsimple change.
So has my mind the problem?
And to an extent, I think that they did based, if I speak with my mother, you know, someof the, again, the conversation of it was hard to believe that your country was lying to
(21:20):
you.
And that their innocence was really broken.
um And these veterans who came back missed huge chunks of their lives, right?
And that generational trauma that Vietnam left, and I would argue not just on the men andwomen who served in Vietnam, but their families, their future children, and the country as
(21:45):
a whole has a giant scar through it because they learned they couldn't trust theirgovernment.
And I just, you know.
I mean, I do, definitely take this to another level because of my role and probably myage.
But ah I think about that as I watch these young people in the tribe thinking about, know,they haven't quite figured out that the government has totally lied to them yet.
(22:10):
you know, they will figure that out by the end of the war, of course.
I was going to say you have a very interesting perspective, I'm sure, because I'm apsychologist during my day job.
And so I've worked with people who've been in Vietnam, know, families who have been on theother side and it was never the same, you know, the people that were in it, but also the
(22:31):
people living through it from a family perspective, they were never the same.
to bring that, like you have a personal perspective to bring into here of being the childof somebody who was in that war.
that has to
I use the word re-traumatized, you know, kind of like, it's like you're reviewing thisthrough a new lens and that has to add another layer to it.
Yeah, I sobbed yesterday during our bonding.
(22:53):
I just wanted to share a little bit of what, you know, understanding of the generationaltrauma of Vietnam.
And I didn't know I had all those tears inside of me, actually.
I mean, I just didn't.
um And they just flowed like crazy.
I think my mom might struggle a little bit when she comes to see the show.
I think it will be very personal for her.
(23:15):
And he's going to be wearing my father's um
uniform from Vietnam as a costume.
And I cried when he put it on yesterday to see if it fit.
But I know my mother, that will make her cry, right?
uh Because my dad did lose a big chunk of his life along with other veterans.
I'm not singling him out, but in my experience.
(23:36):
then there's physical things too.
there's the emotion of not understanding you had PTSD until you're 75 years old, right?
Like that's what you probably experienced, as you just said, right?
He calls it his anger issues, by the way, not PTSD, but that is what it is.
you know, and they didn't get the benefits that they deserve.
(23:57):
They've had to fight for those.
have to pay attorneys to get those now.
Yeah, it's it's a long generational path from from the, you know, the Central Park wherethis is taking place basically to today.
And then like spoken like very anonymously just through her sharing.
Like today, learned other members of the cast spoke with their families and realized howmuch their childhoods were impacted by their grandparents.
(24:26):
So if...
That was pretty beautiful, actually.
Several of the much younger cast members had gone home and apparently talked to family andfound out, my gosh, my grandfather was in Vietnam or my uncle.
And I just didn't know.
They just didn't even know.
Or somebody who was widowed.
that's why one of their grandparents...
is the way they are or you know had to be.
(24:47):
She was widowed at 26.
Yeah.
She had to find a strength that most 26 year olds didn't have to have right and so yeahshe was today because of that.
They're finding out that a lot of their childhood or the way that they are is because of atrauma that their grandparents.
Yeah that was pretty beautiful.
generational trauma.
mean, like, and we don't think about those things as like the why, you know, we alwaysmade sure we always growing up, we always had more peanut butter than we ever needed.
(25:12):
But, you know, having my mom's grandparents lived through Great Depression and her fatherbeing in World War Two, you know, there there was things that you held on to.
And there was things that like when you look at it, you're like, there's reasons why allthis stuff happens.
But we're not looking at it because you didn't talk about it back then either.
You just kind of survived.
uh
Melanie, so you are a part of the tribe.
(25:34):
kind of what is the tribe?
Like, how would you describe the tribe and how it factors into the narrative of hair?
Um, tribe is love, man.
Tribe is...
No, you're going to be better at this.
Yeah, go for it.
The tribe is love.
It's, you know, again, they've built a community for themselves out of nothing, um, otherthan a belief that, things should be different.
(25:56):
Um, it's about beauty.
It's about love.
It's about expression.
It's about, um, kindness.
Um, it's about pretty much anything goes.
Stay out of my business.
but we're gonna support you, you know, that kind of a concept.
Yeah, it's quite beautiful.
It's in stark contrast to the individualism that I think many or most of us grew up justkind of knowing.
(26:22):
Yeah, sure.
People talk about like nuclear family and whatnot and this, but like capitalism,consumerism, I always laugh.
How many lawn mowers does my block at home need?
How many do we all need?
two, maybe three, but how many do we have?
Every single house has one because we all are like trying to make sure that we can handleour own needs where the tribe needs are met by the community.
(26:49):
It's a very American way of functioning this, you know, we're not a collectivist nation,right?
And I have the privilege and absolute wonderful experience of working with so manyimmigrant communities here in Southeast Michigan.
ah
much more collectivist, right?
um One of them may purchase a car and everybody pays $5 a week and that person helps getthem to get everybody else to work because they can't all afford a car straight away.
(27:18):
You they may build a garden.
You know, you do see community gardens a lot more these days, which I think has become amore collectivist approach to things, but it is pretty, you really have to seek out
collectivism in America.
I think um when it comes to at least the white
Anglo-Saxon Protestant type people like I was raised.
(27:38):
for mean, it really is, you know, everybody's kind of fending for themselves, you know, orlike your little tiny unit.
But um it sounds like
tribe has chosen family.
Yeah, the terms today and more today speak.
Yeah, it's it's they've chosen each other because the families around them either havedon't want them around or they feel completely disconnected from them.
(28:02):
And they are they're very sincere in like anyone's welcome.
Right.
So Claude just arrives there.
They didn't know Claude prior to his arrival there and from Manchester.
He's from Flushing.
Yeah, he's not.
But he, you know, he just sort of falls in with them and they really are very sincere inthat they don't want his spirit, his soul, his person to be destroyed by going and serving
(28:29):
in this war, right?
So they're basically the tribe is trying to convince him not to, they want him to burn hisdraft card and, you know, and then stick with the love.
His inner monologue is very much, but this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
So going to like the Ringwald reprise, this is such an interesting, you know, we kind oftalked a little bit about it, but it's such an interesting experience, I'm sure as an
actor, we only have six rehearsals before you're going on to perform.
(28:52):
ah Melanie, you had mentioned that this is your second year doing this.
So is there anything specific that you've brought over from that first year of like howyou're preparing or handling such an experience such as this?
Well, I did think through my costume sooner than I did last year.
You know, once we knew we were doing this.
Because we put together our own costumes, which for hair is fairly simple.
(29:16):
We've got a few hippies in the crowd, actually.
They brought in some of their gear for everybody to share.
ah you know, I listened to the show for the last few weeks more closely.
rewatched the movie.
There's a film, I don't know if you know that, but there's a film with Treat Williams.
(29:37):
He's fabulous, It does diverge a little bit from the It does diverge a little bit, but itis a good movie.
No, there's not much.
I think what I brought over isn't in preparation as much as it is.
It is a fun adventure, right?
We've talked some really serious concepts here, but at the end of the day, we're probablydoing it, most of us, because of
(29:59):
content, but also just we love to perform and the idea of experimental.
mean, this is a really unique concept.
Uh, this is a big show.
There's 20, 50, I don't know.
think there's 22 people in the tribe.
like 49 songs or something.
Joe just said today, he's like, I didn't, I didn't realize that for it until after Ipicked it, you guys started doing it.
(30:21):
How much music there is.
And like seven part harmonies and you know, but I would say we're killing it, especially
We've been listening to them rehearsing while we've been on with you.
can hear them in the background.
And I was like, we do sound good.
Yeah, it's just so good.
And I for so many of us, just being in a room, hearing the sound and feeling everybody'senergy, that's what we're here for.
(30:41):
So just there's one other cast member who was in this show last year, Justin, and uh bothof us keep repeating, this is not meant to be perfect.
It is experimental theater.
And you're going to be surprised at how well it turns out.
And I'm glad that you saw last year.
So, you know.
it's very, then you get into some improv, right?
During the shows when the phone is not out on stage when it's supposed to be, know, mean,Joe Bailey is a phenomenal improv actor.
(31:09):
So that's fabulous.
But I think this year it feels like more people know the songs than knew Applause.
And that will be helpful.
I think we're not going to have to rely on our scripts as much for the music as we didlast year.
uh But we're still gonna be on book.
Most of us will still be on book uh come Friday.
(31:31):
We haven't even talked about dialogue.
We haven't blocked.
We haven't nothing.
And I know for you all, you're like, this is not gonna happen.
But I'm telling you, you'll surprised how it does.
It just really starts to happen.
It's finding out what in your brain is important to figure out and then letting the restbe.
It's like writing a short story instead of a novel, right?
(31:52):
Like there's a lot of skill that goes into a short story.
because you're trying to limit your words.
And so, you know, do I need to say all of that?
Or could I just say the, you know, the blue dairy fresh milk crate?
And does that paint the picture that I need as opposed to?
Well, then somebody else next to you will have the phrase that you don't know as well.
That's right.
That's part of the beauty That is very true.
(32:13):
I'm singing a soprano too, which I've never done before.
I'm usually a first soprano and I am just all over the place right now.
So you gotta trust it.
You gotta trust yourself.
mean, I have to say that I think that, granted I always have a lot of fun with TheRingwald in their shows, but I think that applause was one of most hilarious experiences.
(32:37):
There was just such an energy to it where you're even watching people, like last yearyou're watching people on stage that even if they were to fumble a line, they would
laugh with themselves and there was like there was a bigger community aspect to it.
It was absolutely as soon as I saw they're doing another round like this is very excitingto see that this is coming back because it was just it was different.
(32:58):
You don't see something like this happen very often.
well, and the fact last year, they were like, I don't know, these numbers might be wrong,but the ratio is, think, right.
15 people who wanted to do the show, we sort of showed up on a Saturday and we figured outroles as we went.
This year, I think there were over 40 people who were interested and they really, theykept more than they had intended to keep actually.
(33:23):
Yeah, was supposed to be either 18 or under 20 and then it just kept kind of gettingpushed.
more people wanted to try to push themselves.
And I feel like this has to challenge you as a performer.
for sure.
I really, I mean, I feel like my dimples are hurting from smiling so much, but it is themost fun I've ever had as a performer in my life.
(33:44):
That's awesome.
Then one final question for both of you before I let you go is just what messages orthemes from the show resonate the most with you?
goodness.
um
Sounds like there's so many, there's so many different ones here, but what has to speakthe most to you?
Um, well, I'm in a, you know, I'm in the last third of my career.
(34:06):
I'm 54.
So thinking through where I'm heading, what I want to do.
And I have realized how little government is not very creative.
And, you know, thinking through how do I want to live the rest of my life?
And I don't have enough love in it and intentional love, right?
Like I have loved ones, but.
(34:28):
So I'm finding ways to seek that out and I am looking at the creative aspect for me, know,building that in.
And I moved to a lake to do that last year.
I moved up into Pontiac on a lake.
ah the idea of nature, the idea of the beauty, like I would say that for me, ah because inmy work, I do the resistance stuff anyway.
(34:53):
That's just part of what I do.
So for me, that isn't it.
It's the love part.
even loving myself part maybe.
Which is hard sometimes to find the love for ourselves starting there.
Like a real psychologist right there.
No, I get it.
I think for me, know it might sound cliche is in the word, but it's the importance offinding your tribe.
(35:18):
And I've experienced that, like I mentioned, through life.
But it's finding people that will love you, support you, are going in a similar directionas you see who you are and want to continue to.
feed into that and um makes me think of the friends I've made here in Detroit that feelmore like home and we're going to protest together, going to dinner together, we're going
(35:44):
out and dancing together, it's doing parts of life together as a community.
We were talking about the individualism and whatnot and not having to be so perfectyourself when you have a group of people around you, a tribe around you that can love on
you when you don't have it and that you can love on.
When they don't Yeah, when you don't have it.
Exactly.
That's a way to put it.
And that, you know, there's a place where everybody can come for, whether they'reexperiencing great achievements or despairing loss.
(36:11):
There's a place.
I think that gets harder, I'm sure, across the board, but especially I feel like ageneration moving into our 30s.
Yeah, community just isn't as prevalent around.
So finding your tribe, others who think like you and want the same.
world as you and then loving each other and bringing about that part of the world that youwant to see.
(36:34):
And now you got a new tribe another one.
I think that's also very reflective of not only the Ringwald Theater, also where it'shoused, Affirmations, it's coming together in a time when we all need to be unified and to
have community and to find your tribe.
director speaks of brave spaces.
(36:56):
This is a brave space.
As opposed to a safe space.
Right.
not any place can be perfectly safe.
Right.
There's always going to be some something that's And we give each other that, thatbravery, right?
And the courage to be brave.
I think affirmations is also that, right?
It's a brave space in a lot of ways, not just a safe space.
And I think that you're really going to feel that when people come to see hair thisweekend.
(37:19):
Like it's coming up really quickly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It'll be here.
And they're there.
I mean, as you spoke about nudity as well, like that's a part of the It'll be there.
You know, and it's an option for us.
And we're all still deciding what we're doing.
know, the audience, if they don't know that, that's going to be an interesting.
That's going to be interesting for them, too.
And it's really I happen to be of the mind that it's very important to the storyline.
(37:43):
Not that I'm not judging anyone who chooses not to do it, yeah, there's a real, that uhuncovering, revealing, shedding of yourself.
And in this moment, maybe we all need a little of that.
Right, the vulnerability of that too.
I couldn't imagine being an actor on stage and having to shed my skin that way.
(38:07):
it's vulnerable, it's beautiful, it's awkward, makes people reflect on, like, becausepeople have different responses to nudity and I think everybody's responses can be pretty
insightful into themselves as how they view their own body or, you know, it just giveseverybody an opportunity to reflect on our humanity together.
Yeah, and the message of vulnerability, which again, affirmations is a place where peoplecan...
(38:31):
be who they are and in this very brave space, can find that vulnerability, which manytimes people who have to be strong hide that vulnerability away.
And I think I've always loved affirmations for that reason.
And also just think about when you strip that away, it also shows that we're all exactlythe same.
(38:54):
At the end of the day, we're all human.
Like you said, humanity isn't illegal.
Yeah.
Oh, love that.
You use my words back at me.
uh
you taking time.
(39:15):
I know you got to get back to rehearsal as well, so.
You gave us a good vocal break.
Yeah, no, it's And we bonded we bonded.
Yeah It's great that two days are almost sold out already I'm really excited for forpeople to be here and get to experience it together with us because like you said It'll be
a well, I'll find out together what this show is gonna be so Friday and Saturday nightstill tickets available Saturday in particular.
(39:40):
I think yeah, we've said we have the most Sunday Monday Sunday Monday are gone party full
So perfect, so the Ringwald reprise of hair opens Friday and runs through August 11th.
However, the 10th and 11th are already sold out.
So get your tickets now for the first two days and we'll see you there.
Perfect.
See you there.
Thank you.
Peace.
Thank you so much, Jeff and Melanie for joining me today.
(00:02):
How are you two doing?
Good, yeah.
Still have energy.
Still have energy.
few more hours of rehearsal today, so we're going to save as much as can and keep itgoing.
Yeah, we were just kind of talking about this.
You're in the middle of your day two of rehearsal for Hair.
How's that going?
it's funny to be a third of the way through rehearsals and it's only day two.
(00:23):
Yeah, it's definitely fast-paced.
The first weekend is long, it's eight hours each Saturday and Sunday and then we go toevening rehearsals six to ten, so four hours every night.
And then we have a show on Friday.
mean, that's such a different pace, I'm sure, than other shows that you've been in, whereyou're in rehearsal for months and months and months before you go live.
(00:45):
Wildly so.
Yeah, I know that Melanie did it last year, but it's my first experience in something thatquick.
um I think one of the fun slash challenging bits, I come in with very little knowledge ofthe show.
It's not one that I have known very well.
um So the short time is fun, but also requires me to put down a lot of my perfection.
(01:09):
um I know like a lot of us or some of us will have books.
you know, with us on stage, which is very atypical, you know, of shows.
So I'm trying to become okay with the mess and the fun of the show and the chaos of it,where I usually like to be so studied.
So it's a fun challenge in that way, just to have fun.
(01:30):
you know, like we say, it's like, we're having fun, we're doing a show.
It's not, it doesn't have to be rocket science.
Although it is pretty heavy show compared to last year's show.
Sure.
Applause last year.
We didn't know what to expect last year.
Last year, Joe Bailey just put out em a Facebook something, like anyone want to do someexperimental theater, and I don't know, about 15 of us, I guess, showed up.
(01:54):
um I went to school with Joe Bailey at Oakland University.
So, well, you know, I have a full-time career that keeps me pretty busy and I can findeight days, right?
Like I can set my schedule so that I can do eight days.
I can't usually do shows, but um and then we just had fun as you saw, right?
This one, there's, we've done a lot of bonding as a cast because it's heavy.
(02:19):
It's a heavy topic.
A lot of us have attachments uh to Vietnam and to the storyline.
My mom was a protester.
My dad is a Vietnam vet.
um So, you know, there's, yeah, I would say this is a heavier show and more, the music ismuch more technical.
So.
Just we haven't done any blocking.
(02:39):
We've just been assigned some solos and quartets and duets that we're working through, butit's a tremendous, it's an experiment.
It's an experiment.
It's interesting to be doing something, not being fully aware of what it's going to looklike at the end.
ah You know, I feel like when you have months, you kind of know what you're going to putout at the end of your rehearsals.
(03:00):
three quarters of the way through, you have it on its legs and then it's just like gettingthe chew on it.
Where this one is just like, think we'll find out Friday, whatever it looks like.
The best performance to see is Monday night.
Yeah, because we had a few more.
But it's sold out actually.
Sunday is, I think one to get left up for Sunday.
it's exciting that so many people excited about it in such an odd format.
(03:25):
I think what is exciting about the Ringwald Reprise Prize is just this idea, Melanie, youkind of mentioned that last year you did applause, and that was, again, not a show that
many people are probably familiar with.
And the same with hair, because I have to admit, I've never seen hair.
I didn't even know what it was before I started trying to make questions to talk to thetwo of you.
And so it's cool to of revisit some of these things.
(03:48):
my friends I was doing hair, they were, oh, hairspray?
So there was a lot of that too.
Yeah, yeah, not quite.
But I agree with you there.
It's a really intergenerational.
So I'm 54.
I don't know how old you are.
I'll be 35, but I think the youngest.
Is 22?
Just turned 21 recently.
Yeah.
So it's very intergenerational, which I think has been interesting too for...
(04:13):
Again, my parents, I was the baby born in 1971.
This show was 1968, my dad went over in 69, and I felt the effects my whole life ofgrowing up as a Vietnam Vets kid, right?
We have some people in the cast who've been in four or five productions of Like someveterans that just like, oh, let's do it again.
(04:33):
They just love Hair, so they do a lot of them together.
that maybe helps us a little bit, right?
Because they know the flow of the show.
Yeah, I love, I mean, I'm already thinking about next summer.
I would do every show that Joe Bailey does if it was eight days.
Yeah, and we pondered over that the first time we spoke.
I work a pretty typical nine to five, and while I love doing theater, I usually can't givetwo months of time without planning it out.
(05:04):
And this was very much Joe just calling me, saying, hey, what do you got going on in thesummer?
I said, it depends.
You know, so it should be 10 days, you know, I'm like, yeah, I have 10 days.
If it would have been more weeks, I'll be out of the country doing other things with work.
But it's fun to be able to kind of get your shot of live theater and performance in asmall format like this at the Ringwald And not have to be perfect.
(05:24):
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't have be perfect.
mean, yeah, getting rid of that perfectionism part of it's probably very difficult to kindof like pull down the wall and just be like, okay, we're gonna do this live no matter what
happens.
And we may not know the material as well as maybe we want to.
and I'll say it's my first, I've done a few, two, three musicals over the time I've beenacting and this is my first lead role or at least any, ever having a solo and I got five.
(05:51):
Really?
You're doing great.
Yeah, so.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, added on top of that is like, know, being somebody I want to be on top of everythingand be able to lead the tribe well in the songs we have.
So yeah, it's a really fun trust experience and.
I think that's been, if you're in the room, think that's been one of the biggest topics isjust doing your best and bringing what you have and everybody, it's not a one man show.
(06:18):
There's an entire tribe of people that are carrying everything, carrying the energy andthe topics.
And I think the tribe concept, which is a big part of Hair is the tribe, that's whatthey're called.
We do have three leads who have more solos.
Named characters.
Named characters.
you know, they've broken it up and Rachel Rose is our music director from Wayne State.
(06:40):
She's absolutely tremendous as brought out new parts of me from last year and then thisyear.
But, you know, just the reminder that this is fun and that this is a moment in time thatHair's message maybe resonates more than if we'd done it, you know, last year, frankly.
So.
(07:00):
So what is hair about?
Because again, I don't really know what it is, and I'm kind of assuming that maybe there'squite a few people that don't know what hair is kind of about.
So what's that story?
You want to it?
I'll try.
You're more familiar.
I'll fill in.
He looked very questioning of himself for a moment there.
He was like, uh...
(07:20):
edit me out.
I'm still really digging in and learning a lot about the show.
But generally speaking, it's a group of friends with Claude, Berger, Sheila as the mainthree characters, but then a tribe of people who kind of live communally with free and
open love towards one another, going through the experience of seeing their country sendoff so many.
(07:48):
children functionally to war and the intersectional impact of that, what it looks like toturn away from what your government is doing and what that looks like and kind of the
vitriol that you can get from that but then also what it means to go off and take part ina war that you are seeing on TV as being so brutally violent and damaging.
(08:14):
What is it?
What is it like to be somebody in a space that has love for people and the world?
while being drafted and the difficulty of choice between you know certain Yeah, it sits inthat middle ground.
Yeah, it's the you did a very good job But it's it's very you know, I I mean I can't helpbut see my father in in this story because he
(08:42):
was a middle-class guy.
went to college right after high school, but wasn't particularly driven to it.
Just did it because it kept him out of the draft.
that's what Claude is facing, right?
I don't know if he's been drafted.
Oh, he has been drafted.
Yeah, in the story, all the men in this tribe receive draft cards, are drafted.
And it's what will they do?
(09:04):
What decisions will they make?
Will they go and fight?
Will they serve?
Or will they choose to basically put themselves
under the sights of the government and possible punishment for not going in for theirdraft call.
And maybe creating a new society would be a term I would use, right?
Because that's where the hippie movement really took off, of course, and in many ways wasits own society and own community nationally, right?
(09:34):
California hippies and Boston hippies were driven by the same message and the same...
beliefs system.
So yeah, so that's it.
And a lot of singing and dancing.
There's a lot of love, a lot of consternation, a lot of sort of sarcasm and sassiness tothe government.
(09:57):
I'm also talking about um the influence of consciousness expansion through different drugsand psychedelics and um sex and nudity and freedom.
yeah, freedom more
as expression and learning and openness versus something to be demonized or criticized orpunished.
(10:18):
So two very like warring ideologies of the way people see the world.
Normalized love.
It's interesting because you're right, Melanie, this is kind of become timely again.
We're back at a moment where a lot of this stuff is coming to a head in the very similarways.
Yeah, think I don't think I'm speaking out of turn.
Tell me if I am.
But I would say everyone in the room is really disturbed and frustrated and angry aboutwhere we are in the country right now.
(10:48):
Helpless, a little bit of helplessness.
And I keep saying they're probably tired of hearing it.
But for me, joy is resistance.
And we know arts is art is resistance and community is resistance.
These are.
I was a peacekeeper, so I literally have seen this in my career.
And those are things not to forget in this moment in time, if you are on the side that isfrustrated and scared and feeling helpless, is there, you can resist in a lot of ways.
(11:18):
And so that's maybe what a lot of us have chosen to do here.
Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts in this space.
Somebody who tries to be very aware politically and whatnot, but also,
how to express.
Yeah, I mean with the genocide in Gaza uh and even protesting domestically where you someprotesters are like our free speech is gradually being taken away by the actual you
(11:49):
government administration facing similar challenges of how much you know what can I do howmuch can I protest how much can I push back against this government but also uh
And for me, I've been very lucky.
love how diverse our cast is racially, age-wise, gender orientation, name it.
(12:15):
And I experienced in my friend groups, I'm very lucky to be decently.
I don't know what middle-class would talk about.
I have enough, right, to get by.
I don't have worries, especially as like a straight white dude.
But I know so many of my friends are directly impacted.
by this current administration.
(12:35):
So trying to figure out, like, I'm sitting on a side of relative safety for now, but wantto be impacting the world to help myself, my friends, and everybody who deserves this
care.
I don't know how to express it well, but it's a similar point where...
you're kind of on the fence.
know, lot of my friends work in tech.
So it's like, how do you work for Amazon to make your money, but then also go and proteston the weekends?
(13:01):
Which is kind of similar to the, the, the main problem here, right?
Like how do you stay a part of your family?
Right?
Cause families were not generally supportive of the hippie movement.
Right.
Um, how do you remain an American?
How do you even define American?
Right?
yeah, I mean,
(13:21):
Truly, Brian, we could go on.
think the, I don't think it's a mistake that this play was chosen or this musical waschosen to do this year.
Yeah, yeah.
And then she mentioned, I'll finish with that.
We've had a conversation earlier today about what does it mean to be an American and thedifference between standing behind America no matter what she does versus being an
(13:43):
American by calling and demanding that America be doing the right thing.
Right.
What we think is kind.
and just in the world and to protest often meaning to be labeled as un-American oranti-America um when in reality it's a fight to make it as beautiful and strong as it can
(14:04):
be.
As we know it can be.
As we know it can be, right.
uh People do not need to be suffering at this level.
It is within our control and it's difficult to sit with the dichotomy right And if it'snot, then we sing.
Then we sing and dance, yeah.
because that's always what makes people feel lighter and more free, you know?
And this sounds like such a musical that I would totally expect from both the Ringwald andfrom Joe Bailey, who balances art with activism, which in this time, those are kind of
(14:33):
sometimes mutually exclusive, you know?
that's a lovely thing to have said.
I've known him, like I said, since our 20s.
And I'm super proud that he does what he does.
And it doesn't surprise me at all.
also just, I mean, personally, just such a thrill to get to work with him.
I was texting some friends from college.
I was like, I'm doing a show with Joe Bailey.
they're like, oh my god, say hi.
(14:55):
The fact that we can still be connected is pretty lovely.
And I would follow him pretty much anywhere.
That's high praise though too, because it means that not only is it a pleasure to workwith him, but it just also speaks to the volume in which he isn't afraid to use his voice
here at the Ringwald.
So Jeff, you're playing Claude.
So who exactly is Claude within this narrative to you?
(15:19):
I know we've talked about a lot of themes here and they know they probably all intersectwith him, but like, I'm just kind of wondering.
definitely intersects.
One of the part it intersects with is like, I don't have this as fleshed out as I think Iusually would in a multi-month process, right?
So I'm kind of learning it as we go.
today though, I noticed.
We're getting there.
Yeah, we're getting there.
(15:39):
You know, from...
I've had a similar trajectory, I suppose, in my life going from...
you know, pretty safe and normal white suburbia.
And then finding out how stifling and then, you know, being in a church environment andthat doesn't necessarily need to be a church.
(16:00):
It'd be any environment that kind of imposes a certain set of structure and rules aroundhow you act, are, you know, in any kind of way.
And it took until my late 20s to start shedding a lot of what that put on and...
figuring out like who I am and how much love I have to give myself, my friends around me.
um hi mom, experimenting with like different drugs, you know?
(16:25):
um And just, yeah, like what does life look like living without all of the shackles thatwere put on us that we didn't necessarily consent to or didn't know were being placed on?
So coming back to Claude, think Claude is in an era where
He has found that community where he sees himself and is able to be a part of it.
(16:47):
He can be silly and big and charming and a main character with 20 other people that heloves and lives with and is around.
But when it comes to receiving his draft card and his family background, really justdoesn't know how to handle that.
So yeah, for me I think it's very relatable in that he's probably somebody that isgenerally safe, but also now kind of has to make a choice if he's going to go along with
(17:17):
um something that he specifically finds awful or choose against it when there areconsequences to both.
I think, honestly, that was something I didn't know until you had mentioned it, that itwasn't necessarily easy to just say,
no to the war effort if I didn't like it, just no.
Or vice versa, there's consequences on both sides of how your friends and family mightview you if you went to war.
(17:43):
ah So there really was no easy choice there.
And there never is when it comes to something as heavy as this, you know, not even in thisinstance, but like, like you said, even today, like there's times where you are going
against what you were raised in against what your family believes.
And that takes a lot of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Yeah, there you go.
(18:05):
I don't know.
I couldn't think of that word.
Yeah.
It takes a lot of courage to do that.
Yeah.
And the consequences can be small and large.
Like you mentioned, whether it's, you know, losing friends or family or being ostracizedfrom some of the systems that you grew up with all the way towards, you know, people being
placed in jail for speaking up.
And especially for communities uh of immigrants or anybody who's not just a whiteAmerican.
(18:30):
We see that today with with
Even congresspeople being arrested for just doing their job and speaking up for theirconstituents And especially in communities of color is so much significantly, you know You
can be arrested for speaking Spanish because somebody might think you're an illegalimmigrant just because you're bilingual which immigrants Humans can't believe I think yes.
(18:52):
Sorry.
Thank you for thank you.
Yes.
Sorry.
I work in immigration
And you're right, though, that humans can't be illegal.
yet here we are, we live in a society that 56 % of the population voted that that was OK.
And so I do agree that that's, again, all of this, you're taking, you're exploring thestory.
(19:16):
But also, we're walking back out into a world that's reflective of the same story thatyou're kind of living 50 years later.
One of the things they, I say they, there's some members, you saw more of it obviously.
I saw none of Vietnam.
But talking about that, was one of the first televised conflicts.
(19:38):
And I think about our generations now where not only are things so televised, but you'reable to create narratives that don't exist and miss and disinformation on the facts.
and obfuscate so much of the horrors that are going on.
um I don't know, it's difficult to go on Reddit, Instagram, and gosh, it's a weird timewhen you can wake up in the morning and go onto a piece of social media and see a child
(20:09):
that has starved.
That could have, for no reason, right, other than violence and greed, and know that yourcountry played a part in it.
Like what world would be...
Well, there are moments where, you know, and I wonder sometimes with in my day, you know,getting ready or something.
And I do work in government.
So, ah so I have a very different perspective uh as well.
(20:33):
Sure.
You know, having to work within a system that I don't think is functioning very well andfeel a little betrayed by in my career because it isn't it isn't what it was when I was
growing up, which is why I got into this work.
Right.
But ah
I wonder if you just think of the characters in particular, if there were times that theyfelt...
(20:55):
like I do when I look in the mirror and go, am I like, have I lost my mind?
Am I the only one having this experience because it feels like it should be an easy andsimple change.
So has my mind the problem?
And to an extent, I think that they did based, if I speak with my mother, you know, someof the, again, the conversation of it was hard to believe that your country was lying to
(21:20):
you.
And that their innocence was really broken.
um And these veterans who came back missed huge chunks of their lives, right?
And that generational trauma that Vietnam left, and I would argue not just on the men andwomen who served in Vietnam, but their families, their future children, and the country as
(21:45):
a whole has a giant scar through it because they learned they couldn't trust theirgovernment.
And I just, you know.
I mean, I do, definitely take this to another level because of my role and probably myage.
But ah I think about that as I watch these young people in the tribe thinking about, know,they haven't quite figured out that the government has totally lied to them yet.
(22:10):
you know, they will figure that out by the end of the war, of course.
I was going to say you have a very interesting perspective, I'm sure, because I'm apsychologist during my day job.
And so I've worked with people who've been in Vietnam, know, families who have been on theother side and it was never the same, you know, the people that were in it, but also the
(22:31):
people living through it from a family perspective, they were never the same.
to bring that, like you have a personal perspective to bring into here of being the childof somebody who was in that war.
that has to
I use the word re-traumatized, you know, kind of like, it's like you're reviewing thisthrough a new lens and that has to add another layer to it.
Yeah, I sobbed yesterday during our bonding.
(22:53):
I just wanted to share a little bit of what, you know, understanding of the generationaltrauma of Vietnam.
And I didn't know I had all those tears inside of me, actually.
I mean, I just didn't.
um And they just flowed like crazy.
I think my mom might struggle a little bit when she comes to see the show.
I think it will be very personal for her.
(23:15):
And he's going to be wearing my father's um
uniform from Vietnam as a costume.
And I cried when he put it on yesterday to see if it fit.
But I know my mother, that will make her cry, right?
uh Because my dad did lose a big chunk of his life along with other veterans.
I'm not singling him out, but in my experience.
(23:36):
then there's physical things too.
there's the emotion of not understanding you had PTSD until you're 75 years old, right?
Like that's what you probably experienced, as you just said, right?
He calls it his anger issues, by the way, not PTSD, but that is what it is.
you know, and they didn't get the benefits that they deserve.
(23:57):
They've had to fight for those.
have to pay attorneys to get those now.
Yeah, it's it's a long generational path from from the, you know, the Central Park wherethis is taking place basically to today.
And then like spoken like very anonymously just through her sharing.
Like today, learned other members of the cast spoke with their families and realized howmuch their childhoods were impacted by their grandparents.
(24:26):
So if...
That was pretty beautiful, actually.
Several of the much younger cast members had gone home and apparently talked to family andfound out, my gosh, my grandfather was in Vietnam or my uncle.
And I just didn't know.
They just didn't even know.
Or somebody who was widowed.
that's why one of their grandparents...
is the way they are or you know had to be.
(24:47):
She was widowed at 26.
Yeah.
She had to find a strength that most 26 year olds didn't have to have right and so yeahshe was today because of that.
They're finding out that a lot of their childhood or the way that they are is because of atrauma that their grandparents.
Yeah that was pretty beautiful.
generational trauma.
mean, like, and we don't think about those things as like the why, you know, we alwaysmade sure we always growing up, we always had more peanut butter than we ever needed.
(25:12):
But, you know, having my mom's grandparents lived through Great Depression and her fatherbeing in World War Two, you know, there there was things that you held on to.
And there was things that like when you look at it, you're like, there's reasons why allthis stuff happens.
But we're not looking at it because you didn't talk about it back then either.
You just kind of survived.
uh
Melanie, so you are a part of the tribe.
(25:34):
kind of what is the tribe?
Like, how would you describe the tribe and how it factors into the narrative of hair?
Um, tribe is love, man.
Tribe is...
No, you're going to be better at this.
Yeah, go for it.
The tribe is love.
It's, you know, again, they've built a community for themselves out of nothing, um, otherthan a belief that, things should be different.
(25:56):
Um, it's about beauty.
It's about love.
It's about expression.
It's about, um, kindness.
Um, it's about pretty much anything goes.
Stay out of my business.
but we're gonna support you, you know, that kind of a concept.
Yeah, it's quite beautiful.
It's in stark contrast to the individualism that I think many or most of us grew up justkind of knowing.
(26:22):
Yeah, sure.
People talk about like nuclear family and whatnot and this, but like capitalism,consumerism, I always laugh.
How many lawn mowers does my block at home need?
How many do we all need?
two, maybe three, but how many do we have?
Every single house has one because we all are like trying to make sure that we can handleour own needs where the tribe needs are met by the community.
(26:49):
It's a very American way of functioning this, you know, we're not a collectivist nation,right?
And I have the privilege and absolute wonderful experience of working with so manyimmigrant communities here in Southeast Michigan.
ah
much more collectivist, right?
um One of them may purchase a car and everybody pays $5 a week and that person helps getthem to get everybody else to work because they can't all afford a car straight away.
(27:18):
You they may build a garden.
You know, you do see community gardens a lot more these days, which I think has become amore collectivist approach to things, but it is pretty, you really have to seek out
collectivism in America.
I think um when it comes to at least the white
Anglo-Saxon Protestant type people like I was raised.
(27:38):
for mean, it really is, you know, everybody's kind of fending for themselves, you know, orlike your little tiny unit.
But um it sounds like
tribe has chosen family.
Yeah, the terms today and more today speak.
Yeah, it's it's they've chosen each other because the families around them either havedon't want them around or they feel completely disconnected from them.
(28:02):
And they are they're very sincere in like anyone's welcome.
Right.
So Claude just arrives there.
They didn't know Claude prior to his arrival there and from Manchester.
He's from Flushing.
Yeah, he's not.
But he, you know, he just sort of falls in with them and they really are very sincere inthat they don't want his spirit, his soul, his person to be destroyed by going and serving
(28:29):
in this war, right?
So they're basically the tribe is trying to convince him not to, they want him to burn hisdraft card and, you know, and then stick with the love.
His inner monologue is very much, but this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
So going to like the Ringwald reprise, this is such an interesting, you know, we kind oftalked a little bit about it, but it's such an interesting experience, I'm sure as an
actor, we only have six rehearsals before you're going on to perform.
(28:52):
ah Melanie, you had mentioned that this is your second year doing this.
So is there anything specific that you've brought over from that first year of like howyou're preparing or handling such an experience such as this?
Well, I did think through my costume sooner than I did last year.
You know, once we knew we were doing this.
Because we put together our own costumes, which for hair is fairly simple.
(29:16):
We've got a few hippies in the crowd, actually.
They brought in some of their gear for everybody to share.
ah you know, I listened to the show for the last few weeks more closely.
rewatched the movie.
There's a film, I don't know if you know that, but there's a film with Treat Williams.
(29:37):
He's fabulous, It does diverge a little bit from the It does diverge a little bit, but itis a good movie.
No, there's not much.
I think what I brought over isn't in preparation as much as it is.
It is a fun adventure, right?
We've talked some really serious concepts here, but at the end of the day, we're probablydoing it, most of us, because of
(29:59):
content, but also just we love to perform and the idea of experimental.
mean, this is a really unique concept.
Uh, this is a big show.
There's 20, 50, I don't know.
think there's 22 people in the tribe.
like 49 songs or something.
Joe just said today, he's like, I didn't, I didn't realize that for it until after Ipicked it, you guys started doing it.
(30:21):
How much music there is.
And like seven part harmonies and you know, but I would say we're killing it, especially
We've been listening to them rehearsing while we've been on with you.
can hear them in the background.
And I was like, we do sound good.
Yeah, it's just so good.
And I for so many of us, just being in a room, hearing the sound and feeling everybody'senergy, that's what we're here for.
(30:41):
So just there's one other cast member who was in this show last year, Justin, and uh bothof us keep repeating, this is not meant to be perfect.
It is experimental theater.
And you're going to be surprised at how well it turns out.
And I'm glad that you saw last year.
So, you know.
it's very, then you get into some improv, right?
During the shows when the phone is not out on stage when it's supposed to be, know, mean,Joe Bailey is a phenomenal improv actor.
(31:09):
So that's fabulous.
But I think this year it feels like more people know the songs than knew Applause.
And that will be helpful.
I think we're not going to have to rely on our scripts as much for the music as we didlast year.
uh But we're still gonna be on book.
Most of us will still be on book uh come Friday.
(31:31):
We haven't even talked about dialogue.
We haven't blocked.
We haven't nothing.
And I know for you all, you're like, this is not gonna happen.
But I'm telling you, you'll surprised how it does.
It just really starts to happen.
It's finding out what in your brain is important to figure out and then letting the restbe.
It's like writing a short story instead of a novel, right?
(31:52):
Like there's a lot of skill that goes into a short story.
because you're trying to limit your words.
And so, you know, do I need to say all of that?
Or could I just say the, you know, the blue dairy fresh milk crate?
And does that paint the picture that I need as opposed to?
Well, then somebody else next to you will have the phrase that you don't know as well.
That's right.
That's part of the beauty That is very true.
(32:13):
I'm singing a soprano too, which I've never done before.
I'm usually a first soprano and I am just all over the place right now.
So you gotta trust it.
You gotta trust yourself.
mean, I have to say that I think that, granted I always have a lot of fun with TheRingwald in their shows, but I think that applause was one of most hilarious experiences.
(32:37):
There was just such an energy to it where you're even watching people, like last yearyou're watching people on stage that even if they were to fumble a line, they would
laugh with themselves and there was like there was a bigger community aspect to it.
It was absolutely as soon as I saw they're doing another round like this is very excitingto see that this is coming back because it was just it was different.
(32:58):
You don't see something like this happen very often.
well, and the fact last year, they were like, I don't know, these numbers might be wrong,but the ratio is, think, right.
15 people who wanted to do the show, we sort of showed up on a Saturday and we figured outroles as we went.
This year, I think there were over 40 people who were interested and they really, theykept more than they had intended to keep actually.
(33:23):
Yeah, was supposed to be either 18 or under 20 and then it just kept kind of gettingpushed.
more people wanted to try to push themselves.
And I feel like this has to challenge you as a performer.
for sure.
I really, I mean, I feel like my dimples are hurting from smiling so much, but it is themost fun I've ever had as a performer in my life.
(33:44):
That's awesome.
Then one final question for both of you before I let you go is just what messages orthemes from the show resonate the most with you?
goodness.
um
Sounds like there's so many, there's so many different ones here, but what has to speakthe most to you?
Um, well, I'm in a, you know, I'm in the last third of my career.
(34:06):
I'm 54.
So thinking through where I'm heading, what I want to do.
And I have realized how little government is not very creative.
And, you know, thinking through how do I want to live the rest of my life?
And I don't have enough love in it and intentional love, right?
Like I have loved ones, but.
(34:28):
So I'm finding ways to seek that out and I am looking at the creative aspect for me, know,building that in.
And I moved to a lake to do that last year.
I moved up into Pontiac on a lake.
ah the idea of nature, the idea of the beauty, like I would say that for me, ah because inmy work, I do the resistance stuff anyway.
(34:53):
That's just part of what I do.
So for me, that isn't it.
It's the love part.
even loving myself part maybe.
Which is hard sometimes to find the love for ourselves starting there.
Like a real psychologist right there.
No, I get it.
I think for me, know it might sound cliche is in the word, but it's the importance offinding your tribe.
(35:18):
And I've experienced that, like I mentioned, through life.
But it's finding people that will love you, support you, are going in a similar directionas you see who you are and want to continue to.
feed into that and um makes me think of the friends I've made here in Detroit that feelmore like home and we're going to protest together, going to dinner together, we're going
(35:44):
out and dancing together, it's doing parts of life together as a community.
We were talking about the individualism and whatnot and not having to be so perfectyourself when you have a group of people around you, a tribe around you that can love on
you when you don't have it and that you can love on.
When they don't Yeah, when you don't have it.
Exactly.
That's a way to put it.
And that, you know, there's a place where everybody can come for, whether they'reexperiencing great achievements or despairing loss.
(36:11):
There's a place.
I think that gets harder, I'm sure, across the board, but especially I feel like ageneration moving into our 30s.
Yeah, community just isn't as prevalent around.
So finding your tribe, others who think like you and want the same.
world as you and then loving each other and bringing about that part of the world that youwant to see.
(36:34):
And now you got a new tribe another one.
I think that's also very reflective of not only the Ringwald Theater, also where it'shoused, Affirmations, it's coming together in a time when we all need to be unified and to
have community and to find your tribe.
director speaks of brave spaces.
(36:56):
This is a brave space.
As opposed to a safe space.
Right.
not any place can be perfectly safe.
Right.
There's always going to be some something that's And we give each other that, thatbravery, right?
And the courage to be brave.
I think affirmations is also that, right?
It's a brave space in a lot of ways, not just a safe space.
And I think that you're really going to feel that when people come to see hair thisweekend.
(37:19):
Like it's coming up really quickly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It'll be here.
And they're there.
I mean, as you spoke about nudity as well, like that's a part of the It'll be there.
You know, and it's an option for us.
And we're all still deciding what we're doing.
know, the audience, if they don't know that, that's going to be an interesting.
That's going to be interesting for them, too.
And it's really I happen to be of the mind that it's very important to the storyline.
(37:43):
Not that I'm not judging anyone who chooses not to do it, yeah, there's a real, that uhuncovering, revealing, shedding of yourself.
And in this moment, maybe we all need a little of that.
Right, the vulnerability of that too.
I couldn't imagine being an actor on stage and having to shed my skin that way.
(38:07):
it's vulnerable, it's beautiful, it's awkward, makes people reflect on, like, becausepeople have different responses to nudity and I think everybody's responses can be pretty
insightful into themselves as how they view their own body or, you know, it just giveseverybody an opportunity to reflect on our humanity together.
Yeah, and the message of vulnerability, which again, affirmations is a place where peoplecan...
(38:31):
be who they are and in this very brave space, can find that vulnerability, which manytimes people who have to be strong hide that vulnerability away.
And I think I've always loved affirmations for that reason.
And also just think about when you strip that away, it also shows that we're all exactlythe same.
(38:54):
At the end of the day, we're all human.
Like you said, humanity isn't illegal.
Yeah.
Oh, love that.
You use my words back at me.
uh
you taking time.
(39:15):
I know you got to get back to rehearsal as well, so.
You gave us a good vocal break.
Yeah, no, it's And we bonded we bonded.
Yeah It's great that two days are almost sold out already I'm really excited for forpeople to be here and get to experience it together with us because like you said It'll be
a well, I'll find out together what this show is gonna be so Friday and Saturday nightstill tickets available Saturday in particular.
(39:40):
I think yeah, we've said we have the most Sunday Monday Sunday Monday are gone party full
So perfect, so the Ringwald reprise of hair opens Friday and runs through August 11th.
However, the 10th and 11th are already sold out.
So get your tickets now for the first two days and we'll see you there.
Perfect.
See you there.
Thank you.
Peace.
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