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hi my name is charles de la pointe I'm
the wig designer for beautiful Broadway
I've been doing this for about 25 years
and I'm very happy to be here
the Broadway bug hit me when I was about
14 and I was in a production of Fiddler
on the Roof and then really it cemented
when I was about 17 and was in one of
the first regional productions of course
line I had come to New York I remember
that on a high school trip and we had
seen A Chorus Line and I was sitting way
way up at the top and I just remember
thinking wow I want to be that well you
get into Broadway here in many ways a
lot of people go to school some people
learn on the job I'm one of the
on-the-job kind of guys experience my
story's a little sword and I slept with
my boss we were on the road together
started a relationship and he traveled
all the time so I had to follow along
with him and I needed a job and he said
won't you try it that's really very
simply how it began I net this costume
designer named Paul Tazewell my partner
Tom at the time could not do with this
show that Paul asked him to do so Paul
recommended that I do it and Paul and I
immediately became friends it was a
raisin of a son and I was stressed out
because I'd never worked with
african-american hair before so I really
had to spend a lot of time literally
getting caught in the subway staring at
people's hair it will see how they grew
up in her head and trying to figure out
texture when that was successful or I
felt like I'd accomplished something was
when I really started to realize oh this
is something like I think I'm actually I
found something that I'm good at you
know my process for creating hair in a
show is I literally talked to the
costume designer look at the sketches
and then kind of throw it all out the
window and I don't think about it too
much I just do it I worked with a Laiho
Viet he was the costume designer also a
really good friend of mine some of the
styles for Carol that he originally
showed me you know we looked at Jessie
Mueller and we just thought I'm not sure
that's gonna fly
so trying to negotiate that stuff is
really more the process than I would say
sitting down and do a lot of research I
know a lot of wood people who do that
they go and read through books and look
at sketches and I can look at three or
four looks on a living person and get
the sense of what it is and then that's
where the creative part comes in you
make what that is work on the person
you're building it for the idea was to
get the essence of it more so than the
exact person you know Jessie Mueller
isn't Carole King Carole King is and
Jessie Mueller you're not trying to make
them that person but working with her to
create an essence the process really
involves just kind of blending the hair
building the cap doing a head wrap
making sure we have their hairline in
their head form so that when we build
the wig it fits their hairline perfectly
so the illusion is always that it's
their hair even though they're wearing
multiple wings in the show all wigs go
through eight shows a week which is much
more than wigs are generally worn on the
street so eight times a week on and off
they go through hell basically if you
have a really great team like I do here
unbeautiful those wigs can last a very
long time there is not a show I do that
I do not go into it thinking I have no
idea what though I'm doing their friend
they're gonna catch me and then it
suddenly some just just comes through
and you know in some way it happens
there's a moment when you just know it's
gonna work you put the wig on and you
kind of hear this swoosh and it just
sits exactly where it needs to sit I
welcome input from the actors because
they do have to where no matter what I
think they have to wear it they're the
ones who put themselves out there all
the time they work with you they want to
get to the essence of what this
character is and the hair finalizes that
for them the costumes the hair that's
the that's the topping that's the icing
on all of it and that's really what I'm
here for to make you feel like a million
bucks you know or to make you feel scary
if you need to be you know it's I'm
there to make I'm there to finish that
off for you
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