{"id":3263,"date":"2013-07-24T17:11:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T21:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3263"},"modified":"2013-07-31T09:57:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T13:57:21","slug":"james-brown-lets-his-hair-down-and-the-sunshine-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/james-brown-lets-his-hair-down-and-the-sunshine-in\/","title":{"rendered":"James Brown lets his \u201cHair\u201d down and the sunshine in"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting in the audience of a Broadway theatre, the lights dimmed and the sights and sounds of the freewheeling 1960s opened up a whole new world for Aurora\u2019s James Brown.<\/p>\n

Mr. Brown, a 21 year old Queen\u2019s University graduate, was fresh out of Aurora High School when he caught his first production of the musical Hair. Its message of acceptance was something which resonated with him at a particularly difficult time in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just out of high school and confused about the future, much like the tribe members in the show,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was going through mental health issues, so seeing the show itself really had an impact and it made me feel like I belonged.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sense of belonging carried him through his time in Kingston where he received his Bachelor of Music at Queen\u2019s specializing in the piano. When the budding musician heard the local Wavestage Theatrical Company, formerly known as the Aurora Performing Arts Group, would be opening their newly rebranded season with Hair, he knew he had to be a part of it. <\/p>\n

Playing tribe member Steve, as well as an authority figure in the play who rails against the \u201ckind of antiquated thinking where men should have short hair and women should have longer hair\u201d, it gives him a chance to explore the other side of the message which so resonated with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my love of the show that spoke to me,\u201d he says of why he went out to audition. \u201cI automatically knew I had to be a part of that experience and process. When I do other productions, I am usually on the musical side. I teach acting at a children\u2019s theatre company but I wouldn\u2019t classify myself as an actor, but more of a museum. <\/p>\n

\u201cParts of the show have been very liberating. You can do all these things you wouldn\u2019t necessarily be able to do in a straight show. It has been exciting and I think I definitely want to pursue more facets of acting performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hair may have sown the next few seeds which could spur him more towards the acting side of things, it is the piano which remains his chief passion. As is the case with so many kids, tickling the ivories wasn\u2019t initially his idea. Mr. Brown says his parents kept pushing him in that direction until Grade 8. By then he was old enough to make his own decisions and they said he could do what he wanted, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised there was a part of me that still wanted to play music and all through high school I practiced and played on my own and decided to play it post-secondary.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Queen\u2019s, he found a very free environment where he could study the music the way he wanted. He also had a particular professor who stuck with him through thick and thin all four years as a private piano instructor where they developed a remarkable rapport. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what I learned I owe to him and his passion for teaching,\u201d he says, noting this fall he will return to Queen\u2019s for further instructions and also to work towards a Bachelor of Arts focusing in Philosophy. \u201cRight now I am all about creating. What I love about Hair is that it is just so unique and the fact it sprung from someone\u2019s imagination just blows my mind. I would rather be the person who creates rather than the person who does the performing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to walk away from Hair feeling happy, to walk away smiling and to walk away having felt they have experienced something positive and that maybe the negative things they experience, the small little judgements of people and the harsh realities of our world don\u2019t in the grand scheme of things really matter much. We have ourselves, we have our life, and we have the people we love. When you get down to it, that is what is most essential to a happy and meaningful life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hair opens this Thursday at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. For more information and tickets, visit www.wavestagetheatre.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting in the audience of a Broadway theatre, the lights dimmed and the sights and sounds of the freewheeling 1960s opened up a whole new world for Aurora\u2019s James Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-QD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 02:06:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/2013-07-24-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}