Anne Ford Coates: Wig and Makeup DesignerGlimmerglass Opera runs in repertory, which means there are four shows alternating onstage throughout the summer. This poses an extra challenge when designing the wigs and makeup. The job is, obviously, a much more straightforward process at an opera house where you work on one show at a time. You can design a specific look for each actor and the character they are portraying. At Glimmerglass, many of the performers are in multiple shows. This means you have to design a look, especially if you’re using the actor’s actual hair rather than a wig, that can cross over many stylistic time periods and designs for the various shows. It may also mean that you have to make two to three different wigs for each person. The workload is enormous and the planning of how to get all of these looks to work consistently throughout the summer is incredibly important.
Another big challenge is, of course, time. While the first two shows are in tech rehearsals in the theater, the other two shows are in preliminary planning stages. So I’m having to divide my time between being in the theater to watch the actors and see how the looks are working with the other design elements (costumes, sets, lighting…) while also getting wig fittings, hair cuts and preliminary design meetings scheduled for the upcoming shows. It means making best friends with our fantastic scheduling manager, Eileen Diskin!
There are so many looks to execute in a very short amount of time. For Kiss Me, Kate, for example, there are 30 or so people in the cast, and each of them has at least two looks— in some cases chorus members have as many as six or seven. Beyond that, there are still three other shows to design!
photo:
1. Anne Ford Coates setting wigs in the studio before a performance.
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