A Morning at the Wig Shop

The Alice Cooper song, 'School's Out' blares from a speaker in the corner of APT's famous wig shop. Summer may be closer, but school is just starting for the designers and craftspeople working at APT. I sit at an island in the middle of the wig shop, straining my eyeballs at strands of hair I'm pulling from a wig in front of me. It seems like it would be tedious work, but, it's almost relaxing for me. The reason for hand removing each row of hair in the brand new synthetic wig, is that wig-makers can't purchase synthetic white loose hair. So, they have the intern remove the hair from the wig with a seam-ripper. After I remove the hair from all of the wigs, the white hair will be dyed in different shades of purple and grey and then re-wigged, meaning that the wig-masters will put the strands of hair back together in a different form and style specifically for a character. The Wig. Seam-ripping the strips of hair. The loose hair strips out of the wig. Success! As I'm doing all this, the 2 wig masters are working like crazy with their hands on their wigs. Outside of the wig room, in the costume shop, the sewing machine buzzing never stops. Costumes are being sewn, hats are being made, hair is being done, and of course, wigs are being created (or in my case, destroyed). It may only be May, but summer is near. Opening night is less than a month away! A Summer of Stars Blog