Not Splitting Hairs

Melbourne Theatre Company’s wig-maker extraordinaire Jurga Celikiene began her career in 1986 in the Committee of TV and Broadcasting of Lithuania as Make-up master-Trainee, learning wig-making at the Odessa Institute Of Theatrical Art of Ukraine. She joined the MTC in 2005 as David Wenham's personal Make-up artist and wig stylist for Cyrano de Bergerac. She has created wigs for performers including Garry McDonald, Marina Prior, Caroline O'Connor an many more.
It takes Jurga about 40 hours to make a wig. She uses pieces from German Company Kryolan and from Creative Wigs in Melbourne, which she reformats and fixes to fit her clients.
Is there a trick to the trade?
“It’s very time consuming and tiring work, demanding a lot of patience and a lot of different skills. It's most important to decide what direction the wig should take right from the beginning - even before you start to make the wig, because it’s not possible to fix it later. There's only one way to gain your experience, and that's work, work and more work. Each new wig brings a new challenge, new improvement of trade skills.”
Do you have a favourite wig?
“I like the Marshall's Napier wig for Frost/Nixon, because it's a portrait wig which needed to actually look like Nixon. It also needed to be good enough quality for TV purposes because they were also showing a part of the play on the big screen. I liked Gary McDonald's wig in The Hypocrite, because it was funny and very cartoon-like. I also like the wigs used in Moonlight and Magnolias, because they look very naturalistic.”
Do you have any interesting or funny stories to share?
"While working with Cyrano de Bergerac, over a course of time the director wanted more and more grey in the wig - the second one David Wenham wears in the show, where he is supposed to look older. I had limited resources, and limited time, so in the end I had to work with what I have, so I used toothpaste. Everybody was happy with the greyness of the wig and nobody noticed the minty smell.
"When I was working on Rock 'n' Roll, Genevieve Picot had a total of six wigs. At one time, she had to wear a bald cap, and two wigs on at the same time. We had a very limited amount of time to swap wigs backstage before Genevieve had to be on stage again. It was very hard and frustrating - but we pulled it off!"
Why do you love what you do?
"I love my job very much, because I am helping actors to transform for the stage. It’s quite magical watching them transform in front of my eyes. Wigs, make-up, hairstyle make a dramatic difference and I love being part of that process."