Hair On Broadway at Boston University

From 1964-1968, James Rado and Gerome Ragni scripted "The Age of Aquarius", promoting its inherent ideals of peace, love, and happiness with long-haired hippie protagonists. The resulting show, Hair (aka The Tribal Rock Musical) was recently revived for Broadway in early 2009, showing in New York City, but Boston University's musical theater group, On Broadway, put up their own rendition of the 1960s rock-based show.

Selling out their Friday and Saturday night performances, the cast and crew of Hair rehearsed for almost three months in preparation for opening night on Friday, March 27. Susanna Bolle and I snuck backstage to catch some footage of the chaos that is performance day, including conversations with the director/choreographer, musical director, and one of the male leads.


Behind the Scenes at BU On Broadway's Hair from Susanna Bolle on Vimeo.

The Vagina Monologues at Boston University

V-day: Valentine's Day?

Hallmark holiday.

V-day: Stop the Violence?

The Vagina Monologues.

Eve Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues as the crutch of her international campaign to stop violence against women. V-day has inspired millions of women around the world to perform and produce Ensler's play, a series of monologues that represent women's stories in a strikingly honest way.

Boston University and its female theatre group, Athena's Players, celebrated the 11th Annual V-day with three performances at the Tsai Performance Center on Commonwealth Avenue on Friday, February 13 and Saturday, February 14, 2009. Each year, the V-day campaign spotlights a particular international community; 2009 spotlights the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with proceeds from the show going to the V-day charity for the DRC and to a local women's shelter in Boston.

Last year, for V to the 10, I put on my spunky old-lady face to perform "Flood," an elderly woman's story of her first sexual encounter with a boy: a harmless teenage kiss that proved to be the one and only sexual encounter of her life. After participating in the V-day celebration and the play performance, I opted to instead offer my program design and photographic skills to the production.

For a recapitulation of the girls' Saturday matinee, watch the performance slideshow.