Local Pianist, Music Director Gears Up for Final Weekend of Hairspray Theater Performance

Sitting at a table in Starbucks, Hana Cai is bursting with energy.

She hasn’t had any coffee yet, but the 23-year-old College Park resident has just had a six-day break from rehearsing Hairspray with the Prince George’s Summer Teen Theatre (PGSTT).

With only two performances left this summer, Cai and the rest of the PGSTT program are gearing up for Hairspray’s final weekend at High Point High School in Beltsville, and Cai looks up to the challenge.

“This last weekend will be great. The kids will come back really energized,” Cai said.

Cai, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, is the music director for Hairspray and will be playing the piano for the teens, ages 13 to 20, performing in the production.

“Hairspray is not very typical musical theater. The show is very funny. The script is witty, it’s not a sappy show,” Cai said about Hairspray, which is adapted from the 1988 John Waters film of the same name.

Though Cai has dabbled in acting before, she is a self-described “pit orchestra person” who enjoys music directing more.

“I really like seeing my artistic vision come true, I guess. I know that sounds cheesy,” she said, laughing.

Once Hairspray is finished, Cai plans to take a job as a music director for the Red Branch Theatre Company in Columbia, MD.

She currently has no plans to return to PGSTT, but Cai admits, “you never know what life throws at you.”

Case in point would be Cai's transition from her teenage dream of becoming a concert pianist. They’re small and easy to miss, but the tiny red scars on the outside of her wrists are the only remnants of the life Cai almost had.

“I started playing piano when I was three. When I was in high school, I always wanted to be a concert pianist. I jumped my practice time from half an hour a day to eight hours a day,” Cai said.

“First I had tendinitis, and then I got some ganglion cysts that were starting to grow because I was using my wrists so much, so I had to have them cut out.

“I can play now, but I could never be a concert pianist and practice eight hours a day.”

Despite this, Cai seems perfectly happy with her life choices. She fills her free time with two other jobs, as a music director at Camp Encore, a music camp for teens, and as a music director at Glenn Dale United Methodist Church in Glenn Dale, MD.

In the meantime, though, Cai is ready for her final weekend with the PGSTT.

“Last Sunday ... I felt like we were really together the whole time. It felt so good to finally hit that moment where everything just sort of clicks," she said.

Hairspray plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road in Beltsville. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens and children 12 and under.