Jurga Celikiene

What’s a typical working day like for you?

Well, firstly it depends [at] which stage [of] production, because if it’s production-production… I would go to work, it’s already set fittings time. If it’s a new production, of course. So, then I need to firstly talk to the designer, costume presentation. I see actors, I have an idea what they want. So, I know my stock and I pull something out of stock. Does it need to be made from scratch? A wig, which is very time consuming – it’s about 50, 60 hours. So, two weeks just to make one wig from scratch, depending on size. And usually, we have only about four weeks production rehearsal time. So, yeah, it depends. If I have only a few wigs, I can make it. But if it’s a lot, usually I pull it out of stock and I just re-front it – to change sizes and colours a little bit, you know. So, that’s first fittings. And then, usually, a director, a designer, an actor, me and we sort of talk [about] what they want. How do they see this character? And, for me, also important [is] what sort of hair it needs to be. Because it depends how I make the wig. So, all these discussions and then I have fittings – taking measurements, choose a hair colour. Do I have hair, do we need to buy hair, do I need to colour hair? Maybe sometimes I do have [hair] and I can recolour [it]. And then I just start to work on these wigs. But it depends how many wigs, how many actors, so… And it can be a few fittings in a day, it can be a few in a week, it can be four in one day. So, then I need to drop everything and try to do this fitting. And usually, because I’m only one [person], so usually I work on all productions. Yes, and then come other designers with other shows and [they] also want fittings and then sometimes they come to me and I’m sitting and working, and they talk to me. And [I’m like] “Yes, yes. Wait! [From which show are you from?”] They’re from different shows! So, I’m working sort of parallel, sometimes [on] three shows even.