Looks Great on Stage

In the Sherlock saga I have a recurring role as Mrs. Hudson, and I like her. Hudson is an older woman who is constantly at odds with Sherlock Holmes (who is her tenant). In previous shows you saw little glimpses of her as most of the action is outside of the apartment. In this show, however, everything happens in the apartment at Baker Street, so I make a couple more appearances than I typically would. Ever the ham, I greedily took the part.

Along with playing the role of Mrs. Hudson, I also do the period inspired hairstyles for the cast. I will tell you that finding hairstyles which were not entirely ghastly for this time period was quite the task. In the late 1890’s there was something called the Gibson Girl. These women were thought of as “the new woman” for the turn of the century. Their hair had wonderful sweeping volume and graceful lines that are [even by today’s standards] considered by many to be beautiful.

This play, however, takes place in the year 1890… before the Gibson Girl came into fashion so the hair should be quite slicked down to the head with odd intricate loops positioned exactly where the head begins to curve down at the back of the skull. Most of the hairstyles I was looking at when I was doing my research could not most accurately be described as, well… “ugly.” Scouring the internet for period photographs and fashion plates every night after I got home from work, I found a few hairstyles which I did not find terribly disagreeable and that I had found depicted in accordance with the time period we are attempting to portray. I threw together a few rudimentary sketches and I was ready to go.

        When actually implementing the Up-Do’s I altered each style to a small degree, to incorporate the element of fantasy into the design. There is a reason after all, that no one does these hairstyles any more. To use the word “outdated” would be a grave understatement. If you ever watch a period piece on film, rarely does the hair and makeup design rigidly adhere to the fashions of the period, because it would be completely distracting to watch wonderful performances topped by revolting hairstyles. People would say things like, “It was great, except for the awful hair. Who got paid to do that?”. In this case, that would be me.

It takes some amount of bravery to dance out on stage and put on any performance. Imagine if you will for a moment doing it with the most unflattering hair imaginable. So, I took a few liberties and produced some beautiful period inspired hairstyles; which I feel good about adding to my portfolio and the actors feel good wearing on stage.

Categorised in: Dinners

This post was written by Jim Riley