A Special Beast: Wigs for The Unfortunates

-
An Interview with A.C.T. Wig Master Kate Casalino

By Shannon Stockwell

The Unfortunates is now playing at The Strand Theater. Get tickets here!

“The wigs for The Unfortunates are a special beast,” laughs Kate Casalino. “This show is a lot different than what I’ve traditionally done at A.C.T.” As A.C.T.’s wig master, Casalino works closely with costume designers to create the hairstyles for the show. For The Unfortunates, she had the opportunity to work on a design that balanced a World War I–esque time period with a “funky, weird” factor, resulting in some truly impressive (and massive) wigs. We visited Casalino in the Unfortunates dressing rooms to get the story behind the hair.

How did you go about building the wigs?

Luckily, The Unfortunates had been done previously at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Even though the show has changed a lot since then, I rented the wigs that they used, to have a starting point. Only half of one of those wigs made it into A.C.T.’s production, and that’s our big lady [Madame’s wig]. I rented that one because building it from scratch would have been a large process. It’s built with a wire understructure, kind of like scaffolding. Then there’s netting with hair sewn over it, so it’s light enough that the actress [Danielle Herbert] can dance and move. 

Madame's wig in The Unfortunates. Photo by Shannon Stockwell. 

What about Rae’s hair?

Rae [played by Taylor Iman Jones] is using her own hair. We had to find a style that would hold up, because she doesn’t have arms to move it off her face—the character is armless in the dream world, and Jones performs with her arms bound in a costume piece. We actually talked a lot about what to do if something goes awry with her hair. We made sure that the the other actors knew that if she was nuzzling up against them at a part she didn’t otherwise, it might be because there’s hair in her nose, and she can’t fix it because she has no arms. She’s trapped. That was something that we had to be very conscious of.

There are a lot of quick costume changes in this show. How are those done?

Danielle and Amy [Lizardo, who plays Handsome Carl] have a two-minute quick change, full costume and wig. We only have two people running costumes for the show. So that’s a lot to do. We had to figure out how to quick-rig Handsome Carl’s first wig so she could take it off herself. So her first wig is just some hair sewn on to a wig cap with a handkerchief over it. Amy comes offstage, pulls that off on her own, starts to run her quick change, and by the time our wig person is available to put her next wig on, she’s ready to go.

When does that quick change happen?

It’s during the scene where Joe and his friends are prisoners of war, near the beginning of the show. They’re going from their recruitment scene costume to the dream world look. They finish one song, there’s a blackout with an explosion sound, and before they even go offstage, the cast has to change the costumes of the three guys [Joe, CJ, and Coughlin] while they’re onstage in the dark. Then they book it offstage to stage right while stripping. It’s crazy. I love things like that.

To learn more about the production design of The Unfortunates, click here to purchase a printed or digital copy of Words on Plays, A.C.T.'s in-depth performance guide series. All proceeds go to our ACTsmart education programs, serving teachers and students throughout the Bay Area. 

Popular posts from this blog

“To Be or Not to Be”: The Iconic Speech’s Origins, Interpretations, and Impact

-
Image
By A.C.T. Publications Staff The opening line of Hamlet ’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is theater’s most iconic, most referenced quote. What’s less known is the famous speech’s history, with Hamlet ’s earliest publications offering varying versions of its language. Also questioned is its meaning—is Hamlet contemplating suicide or is he weighing the consequences of murder? Though definitive answers are unlikely to arise, the questions “To be or not to be” asks have kept audiences, scholars, and actors engaged for centuries. Hamlet ’ s "To be or not to be" speech as it appears in the three original editions of the play. Photo by Georgelazenby. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The first edition, or First Quarto (Q1), of Hamlet was published in 1603. Because the text is much shorter than later editions and its language is less poetic, it is nicknamed the “Bad Quarto” by scholars. “To be or not to be” in Q1 reads as: To be, or not to be—ay, there’s the point. To die, ...
Read more

The American Sound: The Evolution of Jazz

-
Image
By Cecilia Padilla There is nothing so uniquely American as jazz music. In its simplest form, jazz embodies the essence of the American people: bold and inventive. The improvisation of the jazz ensemble can even be seen as a metaphor for the American democratic ideal: musicians playing solos have the liberty to express themselves as long as they adhere to the overall structure of the tune—individual freedom but with responsibility to the group. The evolution of jazz music also carries with it the social development of our nation from slavery to the swinging songs of World War II. Musically, jazz contributed immensely to the way contemporary musicians approach instrumentation, composition, and vocal arrangements. It is difficult to find a popular tune today that does not derive from such jazz icons as Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Thelonious Monk. Jazz is the great equalizer; for more than a hundred years, it has been the common ground between blacks and whites, me...
Read more

A Hell of a Businessman: A Biography of Joe Glaser

-
By Simon Hodgson Born in 1897, Joe Glaser was the son of a successful Russian Jewish physician in Chicago. He originally intended to follow a similar career and entered medical school, but after passing out in the operating room, he realized he wasn’t cut out to be a doctor. He started off in business selling used cars, but found better luck managing prizefighters. In his biography of Al Capone, Laurence Bergreen notes, “Glaser’s power to fix fights earned him a reputation as a sage of boxing, especially among reporters.” With advanced word as to which fights were fixed, Glaser could predict the results—and even the number of rounds—of many bouts in Chicago. His connections with organized crime continued in his next career change, when he began running nightclubs and whorehouses in the South Side for the Chicago Outfit, the powerful underworld gang led by Capone. Glaser’s tendency toward illegal action nearly ended his career. In 1928, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for ...
Read more