Samuels to star in “Hair in Meadow Park”

Hair in Meadow Park Saturday May 4/11/18 7PM The FDA has announced a series of local performances at Meadow Park, with Councilman Charles Samuels (above / red bandana) to reprise one of his favorite roles from his college theater days: Charles Samuels ran for City Council in 2008, in part, because he believes ordinary Richmonders […]

April 1, 2013; 8:55 AM • by Fan of the Fan

Hair in Meadow Park
Saturday May 4/11/18 7PM

The FDA has announced a series of local performances at Meadow Park, with Councilman Charles Samuels (above / red bandana) to reprise one of his favorite roles from his college theater days:

Charles Samuels ran for City Council in 2008, in part, because he believes ordinary Richmonders like him could make this city a better place to live and work. He cannot remember a time when Richmond has not been a part of his life. Growing up in Metro Richmond (specifically eastern Goochland County), Charles’ family attended church in the City. Charles also spent many summer working at his father’s law practice located in the heart of Downtown.

While studying at the college of William & Mary, Charles became enamored with the theater. He gained some regional notoriety spending summers as “Claude” while touring the northeast with the W&M student ensemble “Musical Toots & Thangs”.

Soon after, Charles attended law school at the University of Richmond, where he met his wife, Krista. They share a mutual love for the City and became involved with their neighborhood association shortly after graduation. This early civic involvement opened the door for Charles to become the first renter to hold the office of President of the Fan District Association.

Now a proud Fan homeowner, Charles enjoys the “character” that comes with a century-old house as he works to return his home to its intended purpose as a single-family dwelling. And although Charles gave up the theater when he entered law, he has always kept a song in his heart.

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical’s profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.

Hair tells the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to succumb to the pressures of his parents (and conservative America) to serve in Vietnam, compromising his pacifistic principles and risking his life.