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Press Release
Firth Opera announces new production of the outrageous musical "Hair"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Debby Lynn Broach
208-555-1014 -or-
Erin Sockwood
208-555-1081

THE FIRTH OPERA OPENS ITS 43^RD INTERNATIONAL SEASON WITH
A NEW PRODUCTION OF RAGNI AND RADO’S OUTRAGEOUS MUSICAL, HAIR
Lost Scenes and Songs Performed for the First Time!

May 1, 2002 -- Firth, ID -- The Firth Opera will open its 2002 summer season with Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s unforgettable hippy love-fest, Hair, featuring three previously unheard songs, from the original musical score by Galt MacDermot. The show will begin on Friday, May 3, at 7:45 p.m. at Russet Hall at Ore/Ida Fair Park. The show should last about two hours.

This will be the first time Hair has been performed for Firth audiences, and the first time these three songs have ever been heard in a live production of the musical. The show’s original publishers, Lipsky and Dorse, felt the show was, "Inappropriate for New York audiences," and made the three cuts. According to Firth Opera director Don Hoyt, "What was inappropriate for New York theatre audiences in 1968 has been inappropriate for Firth audiences until last year’s city referendum. I can’t wait to see the audience’s reaction!"

AMAZING NEW SONGS
For the first time ever, Hair will be presented with three new songs, two of which will take place between the acts, with the third serving as a new super-finale. The first number, titled "You, Me and Jack Kerouac," featured a series of beautiful string swells, rewritten into vocal parts for the Firth Opera choir. The featured chorus is, "Pack up the love bus, lay down the word, it’s time to tell a truth ain’t never been heard. Pack up the love bus, put it in the back, it’s time to go, you, me and Jack Kerouac."

The second piece is the somber soliloquy, "The Itch of My Loins," performed by the character Jeanie. After being rebuffed by Claude, she breaks into a beautiful solo piece featuring the chorus, "Can’t get none of that hard rock; just wanna let the cat scratch the pole; got The Itch of My loins and I’m a gonna strip it and roll."

The super-finale features the entire cast breaking out into a beautiful chant, lifting Claude’s seemingly dead body from the stage and onto a makeshift cross, all to the tune of, "Givin’ the Finger to the Man." The character Sheila takes center stage in front of Claude’s limp body, proclaiming in chorus, "I’ve got me five fingers to make one fist, tell me what to do and I get pissed. But I’ve got one finger unlike their clan, it’s the middle one and its reserved for the Man." The Firth Opera is pleased to present these amazing new, uncovered songs and guarantees they will thrill you, and make you question everything from the war in the Middle East to the Boone County middle school bond.

EXCITING LOCAL STARS
Tenor Dick Goodwin will be making his Firth Opera debut as the outspoken Claude. Goodwin is known for his wide interpretations of rock opera roles and has performed with the Loverboy cover band, "In10sity," throughout Bonneville County. Fritzi Maguire will also be making her main stage debut in Firth, after appearing as Rosina in the Firth High School production of Maggie Rosario’s Del Fuento ala Cart, in 2001. Maguire has not only performed extensively throughout Bingham County, where she makes her home, but has also worked with leading companies in the Jackson Hole and Swan Valley areas.

Superstar mezzo-soprano Johnatha von Stake, considered the state's finest interpreter of the great trouser roles (a male role written for a female singer, alternatively sung by a castrato during the 18^th century), returns to The Firth Opera to play the role of Sheila. Von Stake is now in the third decade of her career. She wants everyone to know that she doesn’t plan on taking her clothes off for this production of Hair!

Other returning artists for this production include noted Andrew Lloyd Webber and Celine Dion specialist, soprano Katy Arvey (from Shelley Idaho), in the role of Jeanie, a role she recently performed to great acclaim at Weber State University in Logan, Utah. Arvey last appeared with the company as the "bright-voiced Ona" (John Johnson, Firth Daily Misgivings) in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle - The Musical during the 2000-2001 season. Up-and-coming star, mezzo-soprano Suzie Jepson, who last appeared in the company's 2000 production of The Phantom of Jessup County High, returns for this production in the role of Crissy. The Firth Daily Misgivings touted Jepson, a 1998 recipient of a Firth High School Honor Student Award - October, as "a singer of major promise," while The Blackfoot Morning News called her an "ascending talent."

Music director of The Firth Opera, Graeme Cheeks, will conduct this production. Both Firth natives, costume designer Sue Ann Williams, who has designed the playful yet dramatic costumes for this production, and lighting designer Paul Blaylock, who has worked extensively in home construction lighting for more than 10 years, will make their Firth Opera debuts. Firth High School choir teacher Alexis Smith returns for her ninth season as chorus master.

PERFORMANCE DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION
Hair will be performed Thursday through Friday, starting May 3 and running through June 8. Shows begin promptly at 7:45 p.m. There will be no Sunday performances and no show on Saturday, May 18, due to the Firth High School Senior Ball. All performances will take place at the Russet Hall at Ore/Ida Fair Park.

TICKET INFORMATION
Single ticket prices range from $5 to $25, depending on where you park. Summer season subscriptions are still available and range from as low as $15 to $75 for opening night. For more information or to order tickets, call Sherly at the Firth Opera ticket office at (208) 443-1000.

SPONSORS
The Firth Opera expresses its deep appreciation to Winspear Farms and the Winspear Tractor Pull Fund, managed by Claudette and Will Winspear, whose generous support has made this production of Hair possible. The company would also like to thank opening night performance underwriters Cinda and Earl Hicks, as well as performance underwriters: Jim Simpleton, Jr.; Nancy and Jack Ricks; and Lois D. Wippman; with additional support from The Francis Gert Foundation. The Firth Opera gratefully dedicates this season to the memory of Ethel Bork for her devotion and generosity through the years.

The Firth Daily Misgivings is the 2002 summer season sponsor. Promotional support has been provided by WRST-TV, Firth Public Television. The Firth Opera is supported, in part, by funds from: The City of Firth, The Idaho Board of Cultural Charity, The Southeast Idaho Commission on Tax Deductions, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

THE STORY
Hair has no real storyline. Unlike most musicals of its period, it was based on a vision --a sense of a particular time and place -- rather than a plot. Hair presents a series of incidents in the lives of a tribe of "hippies," all non-collegiate dropouts devoted to a philosophy of "make love, not war."

The main characters include: Claude, a draftee who attempts to escape his stuffy, bourgeois background by pretending to be from Manchester, England, and who is in love with Sheila; Sheila, an anti-war protest leader who sings the touching song about the unkindness of most people, Easy to be Hard; Berger, the group's rebellious leader, who has just been expelled from high school; Crissy, who plaintively searches for her lost love, Frank Mills; Jeanie, a young woman high on life, in love with Claude and pregnant; and Hud, an outspoken and dynamic "Black Power" activist.

APPROPRIATENESS OF HAIR FOR YOUNGER PATRONS
For detailed parental guidelines about this musical's content, please read "Parental Guidance" for Hair.