Daily Inspiration Quote by James Rado

"I think I started out trying to be very objective about the flow of the play"

James Rado, Actor

About this Quote

Objectivity sounds noble here, but it also reads like a quiet confession: even the most “neutral” approach to theater is a kind of stance. James Rado, best known as a co-creator and performer of Hair, is talking about “the flow of the play” as if it were a natural current you can measure with a ruler. That phrasing gives away a performer’s itch to control momentum without strangling it - to shape feeling while pretending not to.

The intent is practical, almost craft-only: start from a clear-eyed map of pacing, transitions, and emotional beats. Actors (and actor-writers) learn fast that audiences don’t experience scenes as discrete units; they experience acceleration, drag, surprise, and release. Saying he “started out” objective signals process, not doctrine. It’s the first pass, the attempt to see the thing whole before ego, politics, or personal identification crowds in.

The subtext is where it gets interesting. “Trying” implies the limits of objectivity in a live, culture-soaked medium. Hair wasn’t just a play; it was a flashpoint: Vietnam, youth revolt, race, sex, the collapse of polite consensus. In that climate, “objective” can sound like a shield against accusations of preaching, or a way to keep a combustible message from tipping into sloganeering. Rado’s line frames flow as a discipline: if the structure carries you, the ideas don’t need to shout. If the structure fails, the ideas become a lecture.

Quote Details

Topic	Writing

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About the Author

James Rado (born January 23, 1932) is a Actor from USA.

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