Life has gotten a bit hairier for Maxwell Schaeffer.

When he’s not busy doing his morning radio show on KIOA, he’s devoting his time and talents to StageWest community theater as a director. His latest project is the ’60s musical “Hair.”

“It’s tough; we’re up late rehearsing, I get up early,” Schaeffer says about his grueling schedule. “But after doing a morning show for such a long time, I kind of learned how to survive on about 5 hours of sleep.”

As one of the longest running Broadway musicals ever, “Hair” questions the standards of morality, sexuality, individualism, racism, violence, drug use, loyalty and social acceptance ,which remain problems in America today.

This past weekend marked the musical’s first four performances, and Schaeffer was excited by the turnout and crowd reactions.

“The audience really eats the show up,” Schaeffer says. “It’s a real interactive experience for them and a chance to kind of feel like they’re right there in the middle of the show, which is kind of fun.”

Schaeffer was also very surprised at the diverse crowds; the difference in age groups was not what he expected.

“It’s really wide,” Schaeffer says. “I pictured a lot more baby boomer-type audience, but I’d say it’s been pretty mixed.”

Schaeffer and company began rehearsing in August with the dance moves and the music. After taking a couple weeks off, the cast regrouped to begin working the scenes.

“There’s 18 people in the cast, more than 30 musical numbers, and there’s some sort of movement going on in each one of those,” Schaeffer says. “So it’s been a pretty intense process.”

“Hair,” also dubbed as an American tribal love rock musical, first began in 1968 when it was staged in a very small public theater off Broadway. Schaeffer says he likes the ensemble feel that seemed to come out of that show. He also likes how the actors interact with the audience.

“I thought it would really be good for StageWest to try that musical that way in that space,” Schaeffer says.

Though he says the directing process has been fun and smooth for the most part, Schaeffer has run into difficulties with the cast and their lives outside the theater.

“You have 18 people who have lives and jobs, and some of them have families, some of them are struggling to make it,” Schaeffer says. “But the beautiful thing about community theater is you take people who pretty much donate this part of their lives to the cause here, and, in spite of all their stresses, seem to overcome that and put on what I think is a really quality show.”

Before tackling this project, Schaeffer made sure he knew exactly how he wanted to direct it and how he wanted to reach his audience.

“Our goal was to give those baby boomers who maybe were hippies back then or at least understood what was going on then with the Vietnam War and drugs and sexual freedom and all that other stuff – to kind of to bring them in, let them see the show and see if they relate to it, if they can get the flashbacks and experience some of the feelings they had back then,” Schaeffer says.

Now that he has seen the hodgepodge of different age groups in his crowds, Schaeffer is glad that he has found a way to spark the interest of a youthful age group.

“On the other side of the coin, it’s to entertain and involve people who may not have lived that experience, but have heard about or read about it and throw them into it and see how they react,” Schaeffer says. “And so far it’s really been great.”

When the crowds leave his show, Schaeffer wants nothing more than to know they got magically lost in the show and felt as if they were in another place. So far, the comments he has received definitely point in that direction.

“When it’s over, they feel like they went somewhere and they experienced something out of their normal lives, and that’s what I think theater should be,” Schaeffer says. “It’s hard to achieve even on a professional level, and I think we are really doing that on this level, and people will come and get lost in the ’60s.”

Though Schaeffer’s radio personality career is pretty much his defining job, his love for the theater and over 20 years of experience will keep him coming back and doing more productions.

“Hair” will be performed Nov. 2-5 and 9-12 at the in the Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner theater, located at 221 Walnut St. The shows on the 2-3 and 9-10 are at 8 p.m. There will be two shows on each Saturday at 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The Sunday shows will be at 3 p.m. Tickets are $17.

This Friday’s 8 p.m. show and Saturday’s 6 p.m. performances are sold out.

Saturday’s 9:30 p.m. show is $5 off for all college students who show student I.D. when they buy tickets at the Civic Center box office on the day of the show.