The Garfield Center for the Arts (Chestertown Maryland) is embarking on the exciting annual adventure in theatre known as “Short Attention Span Theatre”. For those not in the know, that’s our annual 10-minute play festival. Performance dates are July 11-13, July 18-20 and July 25-27. We are seeking scripts for 10-minute plays.
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English-language theatre in Seoul, South Korea
We’re looking for scripts for the upcoming 2025 Ten-Minute Play Festival. Submissions will open March 1st, 2025. From the first to the fifteenth (Beware the Ides of March!!), playwrights can submit up to three scripts for free.
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Imagine Performing Arts is located in Connersville, Indiana. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or at our website. Scripts should fit into the theme of “Hope and Happiness” and should be no more than 15 minutes in length.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** BIG WIGS ***
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
This multicolored quick-change wig is put on with magnets, not bobby pins. Mr. Potter said he was inspired by the locks of 1980s video divas Tina Turner, Terri Nunn (of Berlin) and Dale Bozzio (of Missing Persons).
A Raisin in the Sun
A tight curly look for a 1950s character who chooses to cut her hair off before it was widely popular for black women to have Afros.
Macbeth
Worn by a witch, the piece was sculpted out of a platinum blond wig with a dark-ash root. Catherine Zuber made the crown of thorns.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/theater/big-wigs-of-broadway-interactive.html
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Anthony Ramos Once Ruined A 'Hamilton' Performance With A Bad Wig
For one performance, he was snacking on Goldfish crackers backstage and had to come back out for his tragic death scene; Lin-Manuel Miranda told him later that “he could barely focus on the song” because all he could see was the bits of cracker in Anthony’s teeth. It wasn’t the only time he tripped up his co-stars; when he got the part in She’s Gotta Have It, he had to cut his hair, but Hamilton was still running. So the producers cut down one of his co-star Renee Elise Goldsberry’s wigs for him to wear, and “it was not a vibe,” he says. When he came out wearing it the first time, the cast laughed so hard that they couldn’t get through two of the numbers. “I feel bad for everyone who came to the show that night,” he laughs. Listen to the episode for more about Anthony’s career, his charity work, what the pandemic has taught him, and much more on Let’s Be Real.
More...
https://www.iheart.com/content/2020-11-12-anthony-ramos-once-ruined-a-hamilton-performance-with-a-bad-wig/
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Wigs are probably as old as drama itself: there are few disguises more transformative. In his book The Wig, Luigi Amara observes how often Shakespeare uses them as “a symbol of vanity” – though Elizabethan boy actors would have convincingly wigged up to play female roles. There’s a continuity in wig-making: Simon Sladen, senior curator of theatre and performance at the V&A, notes that synthetics and sculptural foam have extended the repertoire, but many skills remain constant. Theatrical wigs take quite a bruising, and the hair may be reused, which helps explain why the V&A collection holds few early wigs – the oldest come from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in the early 20th century. Even so, key artefacts indicate their role in nailing character. When Vivien Leigh played Blanche DuBois in the film of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, “the wig fundamentally made her appear less glamorous,” Sladen says. Leading theatrical wig-maker Stanley Hall created “impoverished, rather thin hair … to point out her highly nervous, worn-out character”.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/nov/09/great-wig-theatre-miraculous-creators-yeti-like
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What does a head of hair — also known as the hair and wig supervisor — do?
Mary Kay Yezerski: The hair supervisor is in charge of making sure the hair in the show (wigs and personal hair) follow the design of the show. I am in charge of a room of four people with the help of my assistant, Ryan McWilliams — my right-hand man. Together we oversee how everything looks. We also run “tracks” during the show. Most supervisors in other departments [like costumes] do not [perform a backstage track during] the show. Running a “track” means you do very specific tasks during very specific parts of the show, and you do it almost exactly the same every single time. If someone else runs your track for you, they are expected to also do the exact same things you do.
More...
https://www.broadwaynews.com/little-known-theater-jobs-hair-and-wig-supervisor/
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“You can imagine the difference between working on this show and working on the Ring Cycle,” Tom Watson said as he stood in a tiny wig room backstage at the Brooks Atkinson Theater and showed some of the metalhead wigs he had designed for the hair-band musical “Rock of Ages.” They did seem a far cry from the tresses that would adorn a Siegfried or a Brünnhilde.
Whether it’s high art or arena rock, though, Mr. Watson is equally at home. He has designed hair and wigs for more than 30 Broadway productions — a half dozen this season alone — and at the same time runs the busy wig department at the Metropolitan Opera. His role on a show is to work with the costume designer, director and other members of the creative team to put together an overall look.
With the schedule he keeps, Mr. Watson certainly cannot weave each wig himself. (They are made from human hair, by the way.) So he delegates.
“I still love to sit down and, if I’m not in a rush, I enjoy the actual tying of the knots,” he said. But with some 60 productions per year, between the theater and the Met, there’s little time. He has a staff of wigmakers at the Met and uses a separate staff at a studio to work on other shows.
More...
https://archive.ph/3bCaD
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How important can a wig be to a theater production and an actor’s performance? What better way to answer that question then with a section from the recent book, The Ascent of Angels in America: The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois.
Why? Well, there is this passage that begins on p. 187. Marcia Gay Harden speaks of the importance and psychology of wearing a particular wig for her performance as Harper Pitt in the 1993 production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches in New York City.
“I perceived Harper’s innocence and her Mormon-ness through her hair. So I had a wig, a beautiful red wig that made me feel like her.”
The section goes on with Harden and director George C. Wolfe sparring and growing heated over Harden’s desire to use the wig. Wolfe thought it unnecessary. I will leave with you this as one of Harden’s quotes: “I want my FUCKING WIG!”
More...
https://dctheaterarts.org/2018/05/02/in-the-moment-interview-with-shakespeare-theatre-company-wig-master-dori-beau-seigneur/
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Everyone knows that great wig work is important to the artistic process of creating theatre. But few know just how much work and skill go into producing the incredible design and execution of a wig. Paul Huntley, one of the most esteemed wig designers (and a past Tony Honoree), shares his career journey and spotlights the creative, economic, and technical processes of working in the hair and wig department. We enter his world through the Broadway production of A Bronx Tale, showcasing the interaction between designers and talent, resulting in one important goal – to complete the illustration of a character on stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XsOMG6q860
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