http://americanplayers.org/index.php/site/index/experience-apt en Copyright 2010 2010-09-03T14:16:45+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/apt-in-the-wall-street-journal1/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/apt-in-the-wall-street-journal1/#When:13:16:45Z New reviews of The Circle, Another Part of the Forest and Major Barbara from Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal. Not good for the geese By Terry Teachout Long before he became one of the world's most popular novelists, Somerset Maugham was one of England's most successful playwrights. Four of his new plays actually ran simultaneously in London's West End in 1908, an achievement that makes Neil Simon look like a piker. But Maugham's brand of high social comedy had fallen from grace long before his death in 1965. It's been 21 years since any of his plays was successfully mounted on Broadway, and that one, "The Circle," presumably owed its success to the presence in the cast of Rex Harrison. While Maugham revivals are not unknown in this country, one almost always has to get out of New York to see them. So I hastened to Wisconsin's American Players Theatre, one of America's top classical companies, to find out how well "The Circle," which was first performed in London in 1921, has held up, and the answer—to my surprise—is that it is not merely viable but brilliant. Most of Maugham's other plays, to be sure, are period pieces that merit the dusty obscurity into which they long ago fell, but "The Circle" is different. Instead of the not-quite-Wilde-enough epigrams of "The Constant Wife," we get a drawing room full of well-dressed but plain-spoken characters who might have stepped out of one of Maugham's own short stories, plus a plot so soundly made that you'll be engrossed as soon as the wheels start turning. Lady Kitty (Tracy Michelle Arnold), the fallen woman at the center of "The Circle," walked out on Clive (Brian Mani), her husband, 30 years ago and ran off to Italy with Lord Porteous (James Ridge), Clive's best friend. Now Kitty and her aging consort have returned to England for the first time to pay a call on Arnold (Paul Hurley), her son, who was 5 years old when she bolted and is now a promising but priggish young politician who recoils at the thought of further scandal. Little does Arnold know that Elizabeth (Susan Shunk), his wife, has fallen for another man and is thinking of doing as Lady Kitty did. Enter Clive, who sees history about to repeat itself and is determined to nip Elizabeth's nascent romance in the bud before it's too late. Such a plot lends itself equally well to comedy and tragedy, and though Maugham described "The Circle" as a comedy on the title page, it isn't hard to detect a pungent whiff of seriousness in the parallel situations of Lady Kitty and her starry-eyed daughter-in-law, who has only the vaguest notion of how her comfortable upper-class life would be ripped to shreds were she to leave her exceedingly proper husband for another man. (Small wonder that Maugham, who in real life left his own wife for another man, saw Elizabeth's plight as the stuff of a memorable play.) At the same time, much of the charm of "The Circle" lies in the light-fingered sleight-of-hand with which Maugham keeps you from guessing who'll end up with whom until just before the curtain falls. One of the ways in which he brings off this neat trick is to ensure that all of his characters have mixed motives. This is a play without a hero—or a villain—and that ambiguity is what gives "The Circle" its unexpectedly contemporary feel. Never do you hear the telltale creak of contrivance. The conceit of "The Circle" may be artificial, but the characters, for all their Edwardian badinage ("I've noticed that you always get the best food if you come in unexpectedly and have the same as they're having in the servants' hall"), conduct themselves as though it were realistic, and so you believe in it as firmly as they do. James Bohnen, the departing artistic director of Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, a troupe whose work I greatly admire, has caught the tone of "The Circle" with perfect exactitude, and his cast, which consists for the most part of old APT hands, is with him all the way. Ms. Shunk, who is so fine as Birdie in this season's revival of Lillian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest," is, if anything, even more appealing as Elizabeth. At first her naïveté seems a bit much—you want to kick some sense into her—but before long you'll find yourself hoping against hope that she'll refuse to settle for the respectable life of a politician's wife. As for Mr. Mani, whose lip-smackingly urbane performance in APT's 2008 production of Shaw's "Widower's Houses" remains fresh in my memory, I can say no better than that he is the very embodiment of Maugham's description of Clive: "He is a man who makes the most of himself. He bears his years jauntily." If you can't get to Spring Green, Conn.'s Westport Country Playhouse will be mounting "The Circle" next summer in a production directed by Nicholas Martin. I don't doubt that his staging will be worth seeing, but APT's version is going to be an awfully tough act to follow. Also, see When Hellman's Foxes Were Kits for reviews of Another Part of the Forest and Major Barbara 2010-09-03T13:16:45+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/apt-in-the-wall-street-journal/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/apt-in-the-wall-street-journal/#When:13:16:28Z New reviews of The Circle, Another Part of the Forest and Major Barbara from Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal. Not good for the geese By Terry Teachout   Long before he became one of the world's most popular novelists, Somerset Maugham was one of England's most successful playwrights. Four of his new plays actually ran simultaneously in London's West End in 1908, an achievement that makes Neil Simon look like a piker. But Maugham's brand of high social comedy had fallen from grace long before his death in 1965. It's been 21 years since any of his plays was successfully mounted on Broadway, and that one, "The Circle," presumably owed its success to the presence in the cast of Rex Harrison. While Maugham revivals are not unknown in this country, one almost always has to get out of New York to see them. So I hastened to Wisconsin's American Players Theatre, one of America's top classical companies, to find out how well "The Circle," which was first performed in London in 1921, has held up, and the answer—to my surprise—is that it is not merely viable but brilliant. Most of Maugham's other plays, to be sure, are period pieces that merit the dusty obscurity into which they long ago fell, but "The Circle" is different. Instead of the not-quite-Wilde-enough epigrams of "The Constant Wife," we get a drawing room full of well-dressed but plain-spoken characters who might have stepped out of one of Maugham's own short stories, plus a plot so soundly made that you'll be engrossed as soon as the wheels start turning. Lady Kitty (Tracy Michelle Arnold), the fallen woman at the center of "The Circle," walked out on Clive (Brian Mani), her husband, 30 years ago and ran off to Italy with Lord Porteous (James Ridge), Clive's best friend. Now Kitty and her aging consort have returned to England for the first time to pay a call on Arnold (Paul Hurley), her son, who was 5 years old when she bolted and is now a promising but priggish young politician who recoils at the thought of further scandal. Little does Arnold know that Elizabeth (Susan Shunk), his wife, has fallen for another man and is thinking of doing as Lady Kitty did. Enter Clive, who sees history about to repeat itself and is determined to nip Elizabeth's nascent romance in the bud before it's too late. Such a plot lends itself equally well to comedy and tragedy, and though Maugham described "The Circle" as a comedy on the title page, it isn't hard to detect a pungent whiff of seriousness in the parallel situations of Lady Kitty and her starry-eyed daughter-in-law, who has only the vaguest notion of how her comfortable upper-class life would be ripped to shreds were she to leave her exceedingly proper husband for another man. (Small wonder that Maugham, who in real life left his own wife for another man, saw Elizabeth's plight as the stuff of a memorable play.) At the same time, much of the charm of "The Circle" lies in the light-fingered sleight-of-hand with which Maugham keeps you from guessing who'll end up with whom until just before the curtain falls. One of the ways in which he brings off this neat trick is to ensure that all of his characters have mixed motives. This is a play without a hero—or a villain—and that ambiguity is what gives "The Circle" its unexpectedly contemporary feel. Never do you hear the telltale creak of contrivance. The conceit of "The Circle" may be artificial, but the characters, for all their Edwardian badinage ("I've noticed that you always get the best food if you come in unexpectedly and have the same as they're having in the servants' hall"), conduct themselves as though it were realistic, and so you believe in it as firmly as they do. James Bohnen, the departing artistic director of Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, a troupe whose work I greatly admire, has caught the tone of "The Circle" with perfect exactitude, and his cast, which consists for the most part of old APT hands, is with him all the way. Ms. Shunk, who is so fine as Birdie in this season's revival of Lillian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest," is, if anything, even more appealing as Elizabeth. At first her naïveté seems a bit much—you want to kick some sense into her—but before long you'll find yourself hoping against hope that she'll refuse to settle for the respectable life of a politician's wife. As for Mr. Mani, whose lip-smackingly urbane performance in APT's 2008 production of Shaw's "Widower's Houses" remains fresh in my memory, I can say no better than that he is the very embodiment of Maugham's description of Clive: "He is a man who makes the most of himself. He bears his years jauntily." If you can't get to Spring Green, Conn.'s Westport Country Playhouse will be mounting "The Circle" next summer in a production directed by Nicholas Martin. I don't doubt that his staging will be worth seeing, but APT's version is going to be an awfully tough act to follow. Also, see When Hellman's Foxes Were Kits for reviews of Another Part of the Forest and Major Barbara 2010-09-03T13:16:28+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/a-taste-of-as-you-like-it/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/a-taste-of-as-you-like-it/#When:14:01:13Z If you haven't seen this year's production of As You Like It (or if you'd like a refresher), here's just a little from Act III Scene II. Featuring Hillary Clemens as Rosalind and Tiffany Scott as Celia. Produced by Tilt Media in Madison, WI. 2010-08-19T14:01:13+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/as-the-warm-wisconsin-night-closes-in-so-does-the-circle-at-american-player/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/as-the-warm-wisconsin-night-closes-in-so-does-the-circle-at-american-player/#When:13:52:17Z A review of 'The Circle' from Chris Jones of The Chicago Tribune. THEATER REVIEW: "The Circle" ★★★½ Through Sept. 25 at American Players Theatre, 5950 Golf Course Road, Spring Green, Wis.; Tickets: $39-$64 at 608-588-2361 or www.americanplayers.org SPRING GREEN, Wis. — You have to wonder what Somerset Maugham — a former British intelligence agent of impeccable breeding and a man generally regarded as a creature of the English drawing room — would have thought about one of his plays competing with persistent Wisconsin heat, mosquitoes and overachieving crickets. But I think he would have enjoyed the rapt attention given to his gripping play “The Circle” by the smart audience you invariably find here at the American Players Theatre. Even the 'skeeters seemed to be lingering over the stage, drinking in a word or two. Unlike so many of the constantly revived plays from the early 20th century — the Shaws, the Cowards — this is a play that very few of us on Tuesday night had seen before. “It's a sleeper,” said one delighted gentleman behind me, clearly engrossed in its deceptively wry and wise treatment of such little matters as love, marriage, politics, mistakes, regrets, compromises and the inevitable inclination of the young to ignore the wisdom of the old. For, as Selina Hastings' recent biography, “The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham,” points out, Maugham was actually a very complicated man with a very complicated relationship with the English establishment. And that touch of anarchy, that note of cynicism, those unpredictable jolts of intellect and compassion, are what make “The Circle” so incredibly well rounded. It is an ideal match for the skilled repertory company at American Players and for the measured Chicago director, James Bohnen, who is at his best with just such a play. Written in 1921, “The Circle” anticipates the massive social changes coming with the dawn of feminism and increased sexual freedom. “Some of us are more mother,” one character observes to an uncomprehending man, “some of us are more woman.” “I want to be free,” says a wife to her husband of three years. “Don't be ridiculous, darling,” comes the reply. But it's also a reminder of how little things change. “Even when they are in love,” says an older woman to a younger, “men are not in love all day long.” And there's a lot of talk about how to manage love in long relationships, including a devastating little speech about the encroachment of indifference. This play's older, wiser characters know all too well that what reads as “charming impulsiveness” in the young seems like “ridiculous affectation” in the old. The audience got that, all right, chuckling along with the truisms. The setup is very simple. Maugham simply puts together two love triangles, involving two generations of politically minded Brits. The play begins with Arnold (Paul Hurley) faced with the unexpected arrival of his beloved father, Lord Clive (Brian Mani), just as Arnold has invited his mother, Lady Kitty (Tracy Michelle Arnold), to lunch, replete with her second husband, Lord Porteous (James Ridge). Arnold hasn't seen his mom in 30 years, since she ran away to Italy with her new man, leaving her son and first husband to suffer the scandal and her second husband to wonder whether this neurotic was worth the death of his political career. Arnold has his own wife now, the simmering Elizabeth (Susan Shunk). But Elizabeth has become frustrated by Arnold's twin passions of politics and interior decorating (an unusual combo) and has fallen in love with their friend Edward (Marcus Truschinski), who has not a penny to his name. Most of the action revolves around whether the younger, adulterous couple will follow the same path as the previous generation. Energetic and craftful actors like Mani, superb as a man you're never quite sure whether to like, and Arnold, the dry and fearless leading lady of APT, find just the right spot between comedy and pain. And as the play twists in the wind (figuratively, there was no breeze Tuesday night), Hurley really winds himself up and confronts some demons up there in one blistering monologue. Ridge starts out broad — too broad perhaps — but his character constantly surprises, just as Maugham intended. I'd argue that the change in Lord Porteous is a little too drastic in Act 3; ideally, you see a more certain link as you imagine who these characters were as distinct from what they have become. But that's a minor quibble in a show that's entirely worth the drive from Chicago. On Tuesday, the night darkened along with a play that always manages to stay a good step ahead of its audience. Outdoor theater has its discomforts, sure, but the fading natural light is a perfect match for “The Circle,” as the sunny games and social niceties progressively give way to truths as hard and long-lived as the trees that surround this most beautiful of Midwestern stages. 2010-08-16T13:52:17+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/looking-up/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/looking-up/#When:14:35:09Z Director Tim Ocel of As You Like It said early on in the process, that the set design for the show was from the point of view of the characters within it. That the trees were painted on the walls so that it was as if you were at the base of them looking upward. No matter how bad things get within the world of the play - he said these characters are always looking up. The idea of hope, of something larger, bigger, or higher. That things will in the end be bright. I play Sylvius, who in my mind is an eternal optimist, and at the final point when you think he might just break, Phoebe gives in and stays true to her word to marry him. Hope is everything. The faith that as life moves forward, whatever may happens, you will get through it. Recently, we held our annual ALFE auction, which was a great success. ALFE is a program run by talent at American Players Theater and it stands for Actors Looking for Future Employment. It allows us the funds and means with which to bring casting and artistic directors from around the country to come to Spring Green and see our work onstage as well as audition us for future employment. In heading the program - there is always a lot of work to be done, and as the date of the ALFE fundraising auction neared, I felt more and more pressure...and I heard from people who ran it in the past that has always been the case. And it was in the midst of this that I should have simply looked up. Stopped. Breathed. Looked. And Repeated. But I did not. The date came closer and closer, we had a lot of auction items and little entertainment. Some organization, but not enough. People had to leave town for auditions, and had to bow out of the event to go and do those - which after all, is what the program is all about. And the pressure became greater. Things became more hectic. I would be lying if I did not say that during the days proceeding the event my brain was mush and that I was close to a meltdown on the day of the event. But you know what. People pulled together. Chris Giese got a great set list together. Audra Lange did more work throughout the whole process than I have words to thank her for, and the boys (Travis, Santiago, Joe, Mark & Chris) played some beautiful music. David Daniel read poetry, as did myself and Colleen Madden. I ate an array of hot peppers - which was a bad choice. ;) And Rory and Elliot were a godsend with sound and equipment and more than helping hands. And life happened. And we were fine. I was tired. We had cleaned up the Shed, inside and out. And as I made a final round through the upstairs of the Shed and out the back door to the steps leading to the patio, I looked up at the night sky, for just a brief moment, and the world stopped. I breathed. And I looked wholly to the night sky. Looked upward. And Repeated. I sighed. And for a moment took in what we had accomplished over the last three hours, over the past two months. And I smiled. Then I went back to work. This serves as an example to me that the work never stops. Today we had a theater in town to hold auditions, just two days after the event. We had to get housing situated, tickets and a room for auditions. The work never stops...but you can. And when you do - just look up. Day or Night. There is a whole lot of beautiful up there just waiting to remind you how little your problems may be. 2010-08-13T14:35:09+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/lovers-spar-in-the-circle/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/lovers-spar-in-the-circle/#When:17:26:28Z A review of The Circle by 77 Square's Lindsay Christians. Does history repeat itself? The answer is always yes, and it is always no. As one character, educated too well by life, remarks at the end of “The Circle,” “no circumstances are quite the same.” W. Somerset Maugham’s cynicism and perceptiveness about the human animal unfold quietly in “The Circle,” his 1921 comedy currently running at American Players Theatre in Spring Green. James Bohnen directs a sharp, lively production, populated by socialites who know more than they say and fight to keep up appearances. The history that circles back on these well-to-do English types hinges on two love triangles. Three decades earlier, Lady Kitty left her affable, predictable husband Clive for the exciting, wealthy Lord Porteous, who himself left a promising position in Parliament. Now, Clive and Kitty’s daughter-in-law is preparing to do the same. Elizabeth, 25, plans to abandon her indifferent husband Arnold to his politics and “period” furniture for another man and an adventurous life in Malaysia. Looking at Arnold, it’s quite clear why his wife (Susan Shunk) wants to decamp for parts tropical. Paul Hurley plays the young politician with a distracted, self-absorbed air. One gets the sense Elizabeth merely fits with her surroundings, like a prized chair. By contrast, the rival, played by Marcus Truschinski, is the picture of love-struck awkwardness. Endearingly blunt and nervous, Teddie wonders aloud why romance is so much harder than making a business deal. “I feel it’s all so tremendously serious and I think we ought to keep emotion out of it,” he says, his voice betraying him. For her part, Shunk embraces her character’s pluck, passion and indecisiveness so well, we truly don’t know until the last moments which man she’ll chose. Looking on as this crisis unfolds is Tracy Michelle Arnold’s overly-rouged Lady Kitty, at once delicate and worldly. Porteous (James Ridge) spends most of the play in a bad temper, complaining about everything from bridge techniques to his ill-fitting false teeth. They’re like an old married couple, blaming one another for their lost potential, much to the delight of Kitty’s ex (played by Brian Mani). As Clive, Mani is self-satisfied and relaxed, pragmatic like some of the characters he plays in Shaw (“Widowers’ Houses” from 2008 comes to mind). He also delivers some of the play’s funniest lines. “I love old wine, old friends and old books, but I like young women,” Clive explains when Kitty offers to return to him. Kitty calls her former husband a “wicked old man” and Mani deadpans, “that’s what I told you.” Bohnen leads the action with a sure hand, revealing depth in the smallest gestures. Kitty thrills that someone has found her dropped lipstick, but doesn’t look at the finder long enough to realize that he’s her former husband. Bohnen also keeps the emotion from seeming too broad, even when the script could easily lend itself to caricature. (One example: Arnold’s obsession with interior design and the fact that he and Elizabeth don’t yet have a child could be read in an entirely different way.) A few quirks of the script throw things off — an unnecessary character played by Ally Carey who speaks about 10 lines, and an early intermission after only 30 minutes. “The Circle” feels like a latter-day “Doll’s House” toward the end, rehashing Ibsen’s societal condemnation with lines like “I must do what my whole self yearns for.” But all told, “The Circle” revolves quite beautifully, a thoroughly entertaining rotation on the APT stage.   Plays, Reviews 2010-08-09T17:26:28+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/a-touch-of-nature/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/a-touch-of-nature/#When:14:33:25Z I have a confession to make: I've never been what some would call "the outdoorsy type." I'm allergic to the sun, I'm terrified of insects, and despite the fact that I'm from Georgia, I hate the heat of summer. Yet would you believe that the moment I was given the opportunity to intern/shadow here at APT, I jumped at the chance? You see, though I may not have a passion for the outdoors, I do have a passion for theatre. Especially theatre of the quality found here in Spring Green. There's something intimate about a show performed without any microphones or gimmicks. There's something heartwarming about heading down the hill after a show with a thousand other patrons, and listening to a thousand different conversations about the performance you just watched. Out of all the theaters I've been to (and I've been to quite a lot), APT stands at the front of the pack for me. What's even more amazing is that I get to watch and learn from the talented people who work in this amazing place. In my week here (oh how the time flies!) I've been able to sit in on development meetings, strategic planning discussions, and marketing brainstorm sessions. I've helped paint sets, set up technical rehearsals, and organize purchase orders. And despite the sometimes trying natural elements (although you can't complain until you experience summer in the South), I can't think of a better way to spend my summer. And I'll tell you a secret: the buzzing of bees doesn't bother me anymore! It's true! (Just don't tell my dad, he'll make me go camping again) In closing, Shakespeare once wisely said that "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." So thank you, APT, for including me, and theater-lovers everywhere, in your family this summer. 2010-08-02T14:33:25+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/the-life-and-times-of-a-suit-coat/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/the-life-and-times-of-a-suit-coat/#When:21:45:04Z I remember when I first arrived at the store, perfectly pressed and snappily displayed. I was certain that it wouldn’t be long before I was bought. I was even expensive, made from a nice wool; in a beautiful brown- someone would surely want me. I could just imagine my life: traveling, going to meetings, out to eat, it was going to be so exciting! But that wasn’t what happened . . . I just sat there . . . people would try me on or pick me up off the rack to look at me, but no one wanted to take me home. I was too big or too tight, or not the right color of brown, or they didn’t like my plaid, or I was too expensive. I just sat there day after day watching other suits walk out the door ready to lead their exciting lives. Then I was discounted and I thought “now surely someone will take me home”, but I was in for more disappointment. I had given up all hope. I was discounted even more and I just sat there watching the world pass me buy. Then, one day, someone was paying attention to me . . . I heard them exclaim over my price and my color . . . I might be just what they were looking for . . . then they were buying me! I was so excited, I was getting out . . . someone wanted me!! Then I realized that I wasn’t going to some businessman who was going to wear me in a boardroom or out for lunch, I was going into the theatre?!?!?! I’d never even dreamed of being on stage, what would this mean? It wasn’t the life I’d envisioned for myself but I was starting to get rather excited about it. Just think; me on the stage! Now I was almost giddy with the idea of it. I had my fitting the other day, and it was nerve wracking. There I was on the actor (his name his Brian Mani) and there were all these people standing there looking at me and judging me. Did I fit? Was I right for the part? I started to see my new dreams fade. I was too big, and too long and too modern, but before I could lose all hope someone said, “We can fix that” . . . wait, what? Then, I was poked and prodded by the draper (the person on the production team in charge of the costume construction, as opposed to the designing) they were going to take me in, hem me, shorten my sleeves, take out my shoulder pads, make a third button hole, change the roll line . . . I wasn’t so sure how I felt about all of that but they seemed pretty set on it and confident that it would work, so I went along with it. After the fitting I was passed along to the first hand (another person on the construction team) and she got to work. First, my sleeves were removed so I could be taken in and my shoulder pads were removed; then, the sleeves had to be taken in and reset before they were sewn back on. Next my hem was taken up with the front having to be redrawn so the curve at the hem would stay the same, and I got new wigan (something that gets puts into suit to create crisp edges)!! After that my sleeves were hemmed (more new wigan) I was starting to feel like a whole new suit. Then the finishing touches to make me look like a period suit (one from the 1920’s) and not a modern one. A third button hole was carefully measured and cut, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, then my new roll line was put in. They took twill tape and stitched it down nice and tight to change where my lapels would roll. It was a little uncomfortable at first but them she gave me some steam (and complimented me on my wool) and it was much better. I got some new buttons and then I was done!! It took two days, but now I hang on the rack all labeled and ready to go eagerly anticipating my big debut . . .look out stage here I come!!!  - Andrea Williams, First Hand, The Circle Behind the Scenes 2010-07-28T21:45:04+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/wigs-101-a.k.a.-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-wigs-but-were-afraid-to/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/wigs-101-a.k.a.-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-wigs-but-were-afraid-to/#When:21:39:07Z A few things you may not have guessed about what goes along with designing, making and wearing wigs. Most of our wigs are made of human hair. We have a few synthetic wigs in each season (this year they’re in All’s Well on some of the men). Most of the wigs are fully hand tied and take upwards of 40 hours to make from beginning to end. We also build facial hair as needed per show. Mustaches, beards, goatees, sideburns… even eyebrows! We start out each season having our actors sit for a head wrap. We wrap their heads with plastic wrap, then cover that with scotch tape. We then trace their hairlines on the wrap. This way, we always have a mold of their heads at our disposal in the shop without having to constantly call them in for fittings. We buy our hair from merchants in Los Angeles and New York. They get the hair from Asia where it was grown, cut, de-loused, color stripped, dyed the color needed, permed if needed, re-cleaned then sewn into the wefts or tracks of hair that we buy. We buy hair in all sorts of lengths, typically nothing shorter than 10” all the way to 30” in all sorts of colors. The most expensive hair is the white and grey hair or any hair beyond 22”long. The process of tying hair is called “ventilating”. (No, I don’t know why it’s called that.) When we ventilate, we are taking a couple of strands of hair at a time and knotting into a foundation net over and over again. Yes, it can be a strain on the eyes and yes, I sometimes think I must be nuts to do this for a living. But I love making wigs. It’s a skill that not too many people know exists let alone can do! And yes, it takes a lot of patience to build a wig. One of the best things I can overhear people say when they walk away from a show is, “Was so-and-so wearing a wig? I couldn’t tell!” It’s one of the best compliments I can hear. I don’t want you to be able to tell necessarily that someone is wearing a wig. I want it to look like it’s hair growing out of their heads. That is unless it’s a show where the actors are obviously wearing wigs. Then I like to overhear, “Whoa! Did you see that wig on so-and-so? That was wild!” Occasionally, things happen to wigs that make me stop in my tracks. For example, I recently had a wig built for a specific show and actor, fully hand tied and beautiful. We washed it, set it in rollers, styled it and had a fitting with the actor it was built for. We had some notes to do on it, so we took it out of the style, tied some more hair into it, washed it and let it dry. The next day, I brushed out the wig to give it a haircut and all the hair that was in the back part of the wig came untied and brushed out in clumps. By the time I finished brushing it, the back of the wig was bald and had to be re tied. I’ve never seen that happen before and after I finished freaking out, we fixed it and it was fine.   Behind the Scenes 2010-07-28T21:39:07+00:00 http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/clothing-as-art/ http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/clothing-as-art/#When:21:17:09Z As the draper for The Circle, my challenge was that I had a beautiful, light, drapey silk that I have to applique lace trim to, without destroying the hand. (If you don't know what "hand" means here, keep reading). Hand is how a fabric moves and feels. The dress is for Kitty (Tracy Arnold) in Act II and it has this love boarder of lace around the hem and on the bodice. In the past I would have had the stitcher hand baste the lace into place and then use the sewing machine to make it permanent. This is very time consuming and you often have to fight with the fabric to keep it from shifting and bubbling. But this time I wanted to try some new products that could make the job easier and faster. With machine embroidery becoming so popular there are many stabilizers on the market to chose from and one of my favorites is an iron-on tear-away that I used on the back of the appliqué. To affix the lace to the skirt I used a temporary spray adhesive that is made for fabric. This stuff is great! It held the lace in place as we sewed. Then you just use the iron to press it away. The process was very successful and I think the dress turn out wonderful. I hope you agree. Plays, Behind the Scenes 2010-07-28T21:17:09+00:00