by: Emily Moseley
My favorite of the Ham4Ham pieces was when Miranda pulled out their production stage manager Jason Bassett to call all the cues while Miranda and the company performed “Ten Duel Commandments.” This got me excited because when I was my school’s theater company stage manager for my last two years of high school so it gave me something I could personally relate to with Hamilton.
Even though I didn’t have the same cue calls for the intricate lighting and turntables that Bassett did, I knew exactly what he was rambling on about while the actors were singing and running around (since there were no real turntables on the streets of New York City). This Ham4Ham performance was not necessarily making any changes to the musical, just bringing certain aspects of it forward for the audience to notice. You can still hear the actors singing the “Ten Duel Commandments” but more prominent you hear Bassett’s voice on the microphone calling for light cues, when to and which direction to start the turntables, and who to spotlight.
The argument of the original piece is quite clear: Miranda wants to tell the story of our Founding Fathers, especially Alexander Hamilton, in a different, color-blind, light and with a different tone. But this adaptation of part of the show has nothing to do with the original message, it merely wants to show the crowd the hard work and mechanics that go into producing a musical like this every night on Broadway. He wants to give credit to the techies that rarely see the spotlight or get credit from the audience for the work they put in at the same time that the actors are putting on the show. By getting Bassett on the mic, and still keeping the actors in front, Miranda was able to show the audience outside the theater how important the roles of stage manager and crew are into running a high production musical like this. Without them, the actors probably would not be fully dressed (I’ve hastily dressed many actors before), they definitely won’t be in the spotlight, and all props would be lost…forever. Actors have a knack for losing props that I just won’t ever understand. When I used to be stage manager, the tables back stage would look like crime scenes because I would tape out sections for every prop on their respective stage right a left and if something wasn’t in its place we knew right away.
I don’t know if I’ll use the theme of this Ham4Ham in my own adaptation or remix but I did enjoy watching and analyzing it. This “Love for the Techies Day” video let me look back at my own time as stage manager and see it applied on a much higher level in Hamilton the Musical.