Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504732
26 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2023 M iddle America, 1943, World War II, average people with a few glamorous exceptions. Baseball, America's favorite pastime sport, was slowly becoming less frequent since men were going to fight in the war. Based on the movie of the same name, A League of eir Own, the series was also based on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which delved into more of the adversity toward racial and sexual issues of the time while maintaining some comedic lightheartedness to the series. Abbi Jacobson, lead actress, writer, EP, and Will Graham, writer and EP, presented the treatment for the series to Penny Marshall, and she gave it her blessing. I had previously worked with producer Michael Cedar and director/ producer Jamie Babbit, and was very excited when I was asked to design the hair styles and head the hair department on this project. Period hair being one of my favorites, especially the 1940s. I immediately began the research process, which I love to do. We were all impressed seeing how hard the cast and ball players practiced playing ball, way before filming began. We needed to match up baseball doubles and stunt doubles to all cast baseball players physically, and then I needed to match hair color, length, cuts, or prep wigs for the aforementioned doubles. ere were also 2-3 other girl teams which also had to have 1943 period hair. Adding this element to make-up, costumes and sets to transform the viewer to 1943. Fittings and prep began very early due to having to create and decide on wigs, hair style, haircuts, and hair color. It was very important for the hair department to have a team of hair stylists with very diverse skills on this production, wig application, and styling all types of hair textures. e director needed the audience to be able to quickly recognize each ballplayer on the field with all the fast action while playing ball. For this reason, we had to make sure every ballplayer had their own signature look, which complemented their character. I was very fortunate to put together such an amazing team! My team consisted of Kemi Cooks, Iraina Crenshaw, and Maaliq Elliott. Joining us later were Andreya Joseph and Karen Dick. Other hair stylists who made appearances from Los Angeles were Justina Tuck and Mary Lum. Not to forget Nancy Stimac, John Mccormick, and Carla Gentry for their fantastic work on the pilot. We also needed the help of local Pittsburgh hair stylists due to the enormity of the cast, day players and background actors. Candace Orlandi, Bunny Giuliani, Felecia Bates just to name a very few. I am so appreciative for everyone's hard work and dedication to this project. e wig fitting for Abbi took a lot of creative vision since the only wig that was available to me with the correct length and texture was a B Y M A R Y A N N V A L D E S - P O O L E D E P A R T M E N T H E A D H A I R / D E S I G N E R A LEAGUE OF TEAM PLAYERS Chanté Adams as Max Chapman