ABSTRACT
Producer Joseph Papp was amidst planning for the founding of a new theatre downtown, The Public Theatre. Its primary mission was creating new works. Hair would turn out to be the inaugural production of The Public and would set the bar for what could be expected there. Hair painted a picture of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s. Rado and Ragni’s love child covered every hot political topic of the times from draft dodging to group sex, Eastern religion to drug use. Young theatrical producer Michael Butler was a fan of the Public’s production and the instigator of its move uptown. Communities saw the pot-smoking, free-loving, diverse tribe of hippies to be a threat to their values. They found the burning of draft cards and perceived abuse of the flag to be un-American.
