How to Be a Hair and Makeup Supervisor with Kelly Flanagan

Today’s episode features Hair and Wig Supervisor Kelly Flanagan. Kelly is currently on tour with SIX the musical, and I had the opportunity to get a haircut from her in Salt Lake City the last time I visited the tour. Kelly’s had a rich thirty-year career on the road, working on many of our favorite shows including Beautiful, Memphis, and Hamilton. During this time, she also raised two kids. It’s always so special for me to hear about full careers from women I admire, and I hope you enjoy hearing more from Kelly! 


Theme music written by Rachel Dean and orchestrated by Katie Coleman

Audio engineer 
Lane Sanders

Special thanks to the following folks from the SIX Boleyn Company for lending their voices to the intro:

Dylan Dineen
Sarah Ortiz
Jane Cardona
Kaitlin Ciccarelli
Mike Rukstad
Kami Lujan
Jillian Bartels

Find us!

on IG @howtosucceedintheater
https://howtosucceedintheater.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

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00:17.24
Kelly Flanagan
How are you doing? How's your haircut. Um.

00:26.30
howtosucceed
So good I haven't had to cut the bangs yet. Ah no, no, are you in Sacramento right? Great is it warm.

00:29.76
Kelly Flanagan
Good. Don't do that is we are in Sacramento California yes it's warmish I think it looks like it's about ° out there. The sun is shining so good. You know.

00:42.31
howtosucceed
Well, that's nice. That's better than here. It's gray and 30 Oh that's true. That's yes, um, okay I'm I'm excited to talk.

00:49.34
Kelly Flanagan
Well we go to Alaska in a couple of weeks so I'm trying to soak it up as much as possible.

01:01.15
howtosucceed
Do you have an interesting story. Um I was trying to remember what your job title is right now.

01:02.23
Kelly Flanagan
You.

01:09.77
Kelly Flanagan
I am the hair and makeup supervisor for the SIX Boleyn tour. Yeah yeah, ah over it's over 33 years I think now.

01:11.12
howtosucceed
Okay, hair and makeup supervisor great and you have toured for how many years

01:23.36
howtosucceed
Oh that is impressive. Oh my goodness. Um, what just name a few of the shows that you worked on that were highlights for you.

01:27.10
Kelly Flanagan
More than that probably 35 of most. Yeah.

01:36.75
Kelly Flanagan
Um, early in my career. My first show was city of angels then I did sunset boulevard with Glenn close in l a I did the color purple the oprah winfrey color purple in 2009 um I worked

01:38.30
howtosucceed
Oh. Wow.

01:49.78
howtosucceed
Nice, cool.

01:54.12
Kelly Flanagan
On radio city for the heart and lights tour that didn't go or heart and lights show that didn't go spring spectacular. Um, beautiful was probably my favorite the Carole King musical worked on Hamilton the Angelica tour.

01:59.35
howtosucceed
Okay.

02:07.50
howtosucceed
Um, yeah, yeah, great. Wow! Those are some big some heavy hitters.

02:13.20
Kelly Flanagan
And I'm on 6 right now. Yeah, yeah, there's quite a few of them in between that. But yeah, there's that's the jest of it.

02:22.85
howtosucceed
Yeah, and so when you're working on a show like I mean Hamilton's probably not the standard show but let's take something like 6 or beautiful. Ah, you're not the only person right? You usually have somebody helping you in each tour stop.

02:38.90
Kelly Flanagan
So we pick up a local in each city. Um, some of the tours I have an assistant that travels with us or I've been an assistant on different shows. Um, but yeah, we pick up local people and it's per the show as to how many people we need.

02:40.19
howtosucceed
Ok, cool.

02:53.46
howtosucceed
Um, yeah.

02:56.57
Kelly Flanagan
Um, on this one we pick up 1 person because we have to match. There's a lot of times in different theaters around the country we have to do what's called parody and if we have 2 people in our department we have to pair with 2 people from the local departments.

03:09.49
howtosucceed
Um, oh that's like the union is is fighting for fair labor in their city. Got it.

03:14.54
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, it it goes into their contracts and that's an individual thing normally with the house or that local. Yeah.

03:21.42
howtosucceed
Cool and then what does it mean to So what? what does your job look like on day to day.

03:34.75
Kelly Flanagan
So my job let's let's go. Um I'll take you on a week that we move and we load in how's that. So okay, so we normally travel on Monday on this show I don't go in on Monday night some shows I do go in on Monday night and start a preload.

03:37.68
howtosucceed
Perfect. That's perfect. Yes.

03:49.26
howtosucceed
Um, ah oh you're luck, You're one of the lucky ones right? Ah yeah on this job. Ah.

03:52.54
Kelly Flanagan
Um, Tuesday yes I am 1 and like you on this show now on Hamilton I was in all the time. But um, this one? Yeah I can get everything done in 4 hours that means I'll come in on Tuesday like at noon and meet my local. And we'll unpack the boxes and I'll give her her notes and the directions of what we need to do for that day and normally the week before I kind of map that out I write it down on a little calendar sheet and so I know who I need to work with and.

04:17.59
howtosucceed
Ah.

04:27.44
Kelly Flanagan
What wigs need to be addressed for that week um so we do that and we go on break. We come back I go over the notes step by step with her. We go away for dinner. We come back. We have a show that night. Um in introductions with all the.

04:27.58
howtosucceed
Okay.

04:46.19
howtosucceed
Yeah.

04:47.40
Kelly Flanagan
Actors and stuff like that and then we'll do eight shows that week to on Friday two on Saturday and 2 on Sunday normally and load out Sunday night and start the process all over again on Monday yeah.

04:57.50
howtosucceed
Ah.

05:01.35
howtosucceed
Yeah, yes, what a life and then in terms of actually taking care of a wig I know nothing about that. What is that like um.

05:05.26
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah.

05:10.85
Kelly Flanagan
Okay, so I've worked for the same designer for a really long time So I'm very familiar with his wigs and what he likes to see presented on stage to the audience. So. I am responsible for maintaining the integrity of the wig maintaining the style maintaining the design. Um and with this show the makeup also because that's a big component for the show is what these girls look like on stage. Um.

05:26.59
howtosucceed
And.

05:34.22
howtosucceed
Um, oh okay, yeah.

05:41.94
Kelly Flanagan
We supply quite a bit of the makeup. So but yeah, it's all 100% human hair all made custom for that person. They go into the studio and have a wig wrap when they get hired and they build them a wig they send it out to me and I cut it and style it and.

05:42.91
howtosucceed
Yeah.

05:49.30
howtosucceed
Wow. Wow And okay and do you wash them.

06:01.46
Kelly Flanagan
Put it into the show. We wash them up her equity roles. We wash them every three weeks some of them I wash a little bit more if they have like say natural curl in their hair and I'm putting more product in it sometimes I have to rinse that out and wash it a little bit more.

06:06.20
howtosucceed
Ok.

06:15.99
howtosucceed
Um, oh okay, yeah, who.

06:18.92
Kelly Flanagan
They get sanitized every night with just a 99% alcohol we sanit to I'm a big clean person. So we clean everything all the time. Yeah.

06:32.32
howtosucceed
And um, okay I'm going to break down questions. So um, so it's pretty standard nowadays that everyone is wagged and everyone does their own makeup is that true.

06:47.41
Kelly Flanagan
That that's true. The standard is changing. There are a lot of shows where some people don't wear a wig so they do their own hair or they are using their own hair in the show and if that were to happen we would provide like products.

07:00.25
howtosucceed
Okay.

07:07.70
Kelly Flanagan
And haircuts and things like that for them to help maintain that the show's responsible for maintaining their own hair most of the shows I do are wigged shows Hamilton week had kind of like fifty fifty some people wore their hair. Some people wore wigs.

07:09.29
howtosucceed
Um, got it like a hundred percent

07:21.33
howtosucceed
Interesting and then is it do does anyone ever have to change wigs in the middle of a show. Yeah.

07:31.60
Kelly Flanagan
Oh not on this show but most shows you have Yeah what we call quick changes. Um, where they're going from one character to another or a different time zone or a different timeline. Um.

07:37.61
howtosucceed
Ah, ah.

07:46.85
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, there's a lot of quick changes in a lot of shows so they will have multiple wigs you know I I would say like on Hamilton the average for the skyler sisters they each had at least 2 if not 3 wigs or 2 to 3 looks let's put it that way.

07:46.94
howtosucceed
Yeah, wow, That's very exciting aha.

08:00.48
howtosucceed
Wow. Okay, that makes sense given that show and then so how many total wigs are on 6 and say hamilton.

08:05.95
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah.

08:14.34
Kelly Flanagan
So six we only have ah six girls on stage at 1 time but we have four alternates so we have 10 girls but each alternate covers at least 3 roles some of the universal swings cover 4 roles. So we'll have.

08:19.70
howtosucceed
Um, and.

08:28.56
howtosucceed
Yeah, okay.

08:32.20
Kelly Flanagan
3 wigs for each one of those girls so that's 12 wigs plus the six wigs I carry about 25 wigs on this Hamilton we had I think it was 48 or 52 depending on who was in and who was out.

08:36.69
howtosucceed
Okay, and then what about Hamilton how many wigs were you responsible for.

08:46.66
howtosucceed
Wow.

08:49.54
Kelly Flanagan
We had a lot of universal people that would come in for say a week or 2 for a vacation cover or a covered cover as we all know. Um so we it would kind of be a revolving door of that and but it was basically 48 to 52 now not all those weeks go on stage every night

08:55.35
howtosucceed
Yes.

09:07.80
howtosucceed
True the swings and whatnot. Yeah.

09:09.34
Kelly Flanagan
Because they're understud you know? yeah like for 6 we have 6 wigs that go on stage and that's it. But I keep everything show ready so that if something were to happen last minute or something happens on stage where quickly.

09:14.37
howtosucceed
Everything right? That's luck here.

09:28.53
Kelly Flanagan
Able to transition a person into that role.

09:29.50
howtosucceed
How long does it take for someone to go from like how my hair looks right now to fully wagged.

09:40.43
Kelly Flanagan
And well it depends. Um I would say like on this show the girls get there early. They they like to take time with their makeup again because that's a huge component for this? Um, but a week prep normally takes 5 minutes once you get used to doing that.

09:48.38
howtosucceed
Yeah.

09:58.70
Kelly Flanagan
You come into the hair room. We put a wig cap on you your hair's already prepped. We put the wig on you. We pin it on you and I think we have 10 minutes in between each person but it doesn't normally take that long. You know it normally takes 4 to 5 minutes you know been doing it for a while. So.

10:06.64
howtosucceed
Okay, yeah, they're used to it my now. Okay yes.

10:17.40
Kelly Flanagan
You know the first day in a city is a little bit longer because our local person will work with 3 of our girls and I'll kind of help oversee to make sure everything's going smoothly with that. Yeah.

10:27.46
howtosucceed
Um, right? But then if you needed to put someone into a show in the middle of a show you could do it very quickly. Cool. Yeah.

10:32.86
Kelly Flanagan
I could do that really quickly I'm I'm kind of a speed de in that way and I've had to do it many many times 4 Yeah i.

10:40.24
howtosucceed
And then another yes I'm sure you've had to do that many times and then you also give haircuts to people when they need them on the road. That's so fun.

10:51.16
Kelly Flanagan
I am a licensed hairdresser. Also so yes I give haircuts to a lot of times. It's crew people band people you know people in their personal life that want a haircut you know I give a lot of the girls haircuts and it's.

11:00.99
howtosucceed
Um, yeah.

11:07.41
Kelly Flanagan
It's very hard to go from City to City and be trusting a ah person that you you don't know to cut your hair and as you know from turing we get pretty intimate with each other I mean I see these people every day they're my family. So.

11:12.23
howtosucceed
Right.

11:19.23
howtosucceed
Um, yeah, absolutely. Ah, last minute. Yeah, that's.

11:23.34
Kelly Flanagan
You know we talk about it for a couple of weeks normally unless it's somebody like you that says hey can you got it? Yeah, but I you know I enjoy doing it. It also keeps up my skills for that and keeps me in that current position to and.

11:35.29
howtosucceed
Um, yeah, so how did you get into this. Ah.

11:43.80
Kelly Flanagan
And so I went to college for a couple of years and kind of got burnt out. So then my mother was a beauty instructor at a beauty school and said why don't you go to beauty school. You can always fall back on it. Ah.

11:49.45
howtosucceed
Aha.

11:52.87
howtosucceed
Okay, yeah, it's it. That's proven to be true for you.

12:01.82
Kelly Flanagan
That is the 1980 anyway so um and I did that for about a year and a half I volunteered at the opera and then I started getting paid at Kentucky opera I'm from Louisville Kentucky originally.

12:06.27
howtosucceed
Ah, yes.

12:16.94
howtosucceed
Cool.

12:20.50
Kelly Flanagan
So I got I was getting paid at the opera they needed someone for a Broadway show in the same theater so I went and worked for them and they took me out the next week. Yeah.

12:23.40
howtosucceed
Yeah.

12:28.79
howtosucceed
Wow! Oh so pretty quickly up and running.

12:34.44
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, it was. It was not something that I pursued it was not something I even knew really happened you know, um, it just kind of a series of events led to a lifelong career you know and that first show was city of angels.

12:42.28
howtosucceed
Um, yeah.

12:49.50
howtosucceed
Um, Wow and you.

12:54.10
Kelly Flanagan
And I was there traveling local because long time ago companies used to do what they call fourwalling which means that they go in and they're the presenters in whatever theater. So I traveled with them to Chicago and to DC and

13:05.23
howtosucceed
Um I see um.

13:13.11
Kelly Flanagan
Did that and then all of a sudden I was in the middle of it. Yeah.

13:16.66
howtosucceed
Wow and 1 big reason why I wanted to talk to you is because you raised your family on the road. Ah the ah well I I don't.

13:22.12
Kelly Flanagan
I I did yeah we weren't smart enough not to know better. So.

13:33.65
howtosucceed
Yes, let's talk about how did that all happen. Um.

13:38.75
Kelly Flanagan
So I met my husband on a tour that I did ah crazy for you and we got pregnant got married and we were both working and yeah, we had a baby on sunset boulevard July twenty.

13:49.90
howtosucceed
Wow Oh my good his and what was his job on in the tour. Ok so then.

13:55.65
Kelly Flanagan
Like so 9096 awesome

14:02.81
Kelly Flanagan
He was ah the assistant electrician and at the time before my birth I have to make a disclaimer I was not working that show I had work sunset boulevard before and I had in l a and I had worked it on Broadway.

14:10.53
howtosucceed
Yes, ice be ah ok aha so you were just along for the ride taking care of yourself.

14:18.92
Kelly Flanagan
And when we took the tour out I was quite pregnant. So yeah I was just along for the ride. Yeah, but I had my son the end of July and three weeks later we moved to Cincinnati Ohio and we moved 6 every six weeks that show was a.

14:28.71
howtosucceed
Ah ha.

14:38.19
Kelly Flanagan
We would sit down for 6 to eight weeks in every city. So yeah, yeah.

14:38.49
howtosucceed
Oh that's that's nice. That's a little easier and then did you eventually get to work on the same show as your husband.

14:48.61
Kelly Flanagan
We have worked on the same shows together after that about a year after that we bought our house in Orlando Florida and we kind of did a partnership where he would go out for a while and then I would stay home I would go out for a while and then he would stay home.

15:02.45
howtosucceed
Oh so you weren't necessarily traveling with the kids for is there just one one kid.

15:08.64
Kelly Flanagan
Um, yeah, it they were.

15:13.70
Kelly Flanagan
No I so my my oldest son we traveled for about a year with him and then I have a second son that's two two and a half years older younger than he is and we did I took 10 years off

15:19.64
howtosucceed
Ok.

15:23.76
howtosucceed
Her.

15:30.36
howtosucceed
Um, oh okay, got it. That's good. Ah, and what was that like.

15:31.40
Kelly Flanagan
And kind of raised them became the Pta mom and all that then when they were in middle school I did the grinch and took them with me and it was great. It was hard. It was fun. It was hard. It was great. It was I kind of made it like a. Ah, little game with them is to Okay, we're here at the airport. What do we do? How do we get through the security. How do we find a cab.. How do we get to the hotel that kind of thing and really yeah, like you know now. Okay, we're at the hotel. How do we find? food. How do we find the theater.

15:57.75
howtosucceed
Right? The actual life lessons right.

16:09.49
Kelly Flanagan
You know and that was kind of right before the the explosion with the phones so it was you know we had to do a little bit more method right? yeah.

16:13.81
howtosucceed
Okay, a little harder to do those things back and were there other kids on that show. Yeah.

16:23.60
Kelly Flanagan
There were and that's one of the reasons it really worked out because they had someone that was a wrangler and a teacher so they went to school with the other kids from Grinch for 3 to 4 hours a day and then.

16:33.16
howtosucceed
Wow.

16:38.57
Kelly Flanagan
I would go to work and it was only a 90 minute show so they would stay at the hotel and hopefully not get in too much trouble and and I was had housing that was very close to the theater so it was something that you know my oldest one at that time I think was 12

16:42.68
howtosucceed
Um, okay, ah.

16:53.20
howtosucceed
Um, yeah, okay, yeah, it's It's a unique schedule and really does allow for for time daytime together. So in some ways it's helpful.

16:56.49
Kelly Flanagan
13 yeah.

17:03.80
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, we got they got to see a lot. You know it was a lot of fun for them I think and it was the perfect age you know middle school is a hard 3 years so it was good for them.

17:13.30
howtosucceed
Yeah Wow and that was a year that that you all did that? Ok oh that's nice. Oh right? that makes sense.

17:22.00
Kelly Flanagan
It was just a a shorter time. It was like a twelve week show because it's a seasonal Christmas show. Um, but to back up a little bit. My husband did the radio city Christmas spectacular with the rockettes for 14 years

17:35.34
howtosucceed
Oh Wow. Okay.

17:40.27
Kelly Flanagan
So every Christmas and thanks Thanksgiving and Christmas we were in a different city because we would go visit him so the kids have always grown up with you know Christmas in a hotel room.

17:43.83
howtosucceed
Oh my gosh I see.

17:53.10
howtosucceed
Um, yeah, oh well. Yeah, and what how old are they now.

17:56.19
Kelly Flanagan
It was very few years that we had it actually at the house. Yeah Connor is going to be 28 and Carson will be 26 so yeah

18:04.22
howtosucceed
Okay, and what are they doing with their with their lives.

18:11.00
Kelly Flanagan
Um, my oldest son and just graduated from film school so he's doing a lot of independent work and and really enjoys it and my youngest son um works at a car dealership for Audi. Yeah.

18:13.46
howtosucceed
Cool.

18:23.27
howtosucceed
Okay, Wow So nothing Well I guess Arts film is arts related or not yeah, that's great. Sure they so they saw what the reality of that was and.

18:28.12
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, yeah I think they've kind of said to the Stagehand work. But I think yeah yeah, yeah is is funny as.

18:40.20
howtosucceed
They could always fall back on it I'm sure.

18:44.85
Kelly Flanagan
You know as much as their parents move around and tour and all that they've lived in the same house their entire life. Basically so yeah, yeah.

18:47.57
howtosucceed
Okay, that's that's really nice I mean that stability is a lot for for a kid so it sounds like you guys found a good balance of that traveling life but then a stable home which is which is great for 2 artists as parents.

19:03.10
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

19:06.92
howtosucceed
Truly um, okay so 1 thing I like to ask all my guess is if someone well I guess 2 questions. So the first is if somebody is looking to do your job. How is. The best way to get started to do that.

19:30.15
Kelly Flanagan
Um, I think the best way to do that is to go to their regional theaters and see if they need to have any volunteerships if they have any programs any mentorships that way. Um, you know.

19:41.77
howtosucceed
Ah.

19:47.97
Kelly Flanagan
Going to New York and filling in is always a way to do it and there's always kind of lifelines of what tour is going out and who needs what it's a little harder to get into the union you do have to be a licensed hairdresser Braider Barber something like that and you do have to show ah a portfolio.

19:53.86
howtosucceed
The home.

20:01.14
howtosucceed
Um, okay I was gonna ask that so and then all of these tour jobs. All of these tour jobs would be Union jobs so in order to work at that level. You have to have that.

20:07.33
Kelly Flanagan
Um, and have some work done.

20:15.45
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, 90% of them are there are a few that are non-union jobs. Um, but for the most part and I'm part of local 105 out of New York there is what's called Atc which is another. Um.

20:17.14
howtosucceed
Um, okay.

20:23.48
howtosucceed
Her.

20:31.54
Kelly Flanagan
Not really a union. It's kind of it was built for people that didn't have a local union that wanted to travel so there are ways to get in through that. Um, but I would really suggest for a person to start in their own city and see what's available. You know.

20:36.25
howtosucceed
Okay.

20:45.17
howtosucceed
Try it out that way. Sure. Yeah, yes, yes.

20:48.83
Kelly Flanagan
Making a couple of phone calls and saying hey do you need any extra help just to see if that's something that they would enjoy because it is not just a career. It's a lifestyle you know.

21:02.95
howtosucceed
Definitely I do know? um and yeah and if if somebody is looking to have success in theater. What are some good things to think about.

21:15.40
Kelly Flanagan
Um, I think the biggest thing that I would say success in theater is how to learn to be um.

21:30.48
Kelly Flanagan
Malleable How how to be able to change on the drop of the hat and not be so set in ways that might hinder your job performance because each city each circumstance is totally different. So.

21:40.65
howtosucceed
Sure yes.

21:48.83
Kelly Flanagan
That's one of the things that I'm attracted to with it because I like change I like to try to problem solve and you know set up a new room and set up a new hotel room and try to find food and try to you know those kinds of so I think.

21:54.88
howtosucceed
Right.

22:00.81
howtosucceed
Yeah, yeah I find that that that that balance between excitement and stability is is really interesting and touring in particular offers like a very stable Job. You're doing the same show every night. But your life is changing all the time so being able to adapt to that is really important.

22:20.37
Kelly Flanagan
Yes, right? Your routine is always changing I think you know from week to week show to show whatever and it's hard to sometimes keep that self. And check.

22:39.40
howtosucceed
Right? Great awesome anything else that you can think of that might be fun to talk about. 

22:44.90
Kelly Flanagan
Um, um I know I hope this sounds okay.

22:51.70
howtosucceed
Yeah I'm I'm sure it'll be great I'm not worried too much about the tech stuff I mean I look fancy but half the time it doesn't yeah certainly mean anything cool.

23:00.48
Kelly Flanagan
Right? it? Um yeah I mean it. It's been a lot of fun. Obviously I'd like it or I wouldn't still be here.

23:10.88
howtosucceed
Yeah, yeah, absolutely and you guys have another five months or so and then a little break and then.

23:19.63
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, till the end of July and then we're gonna have I think ten weeks or something which is lovely I think that that's you know that's another good balance issue is is trying to take time off for yourself and know when you yourself need to step back. You know.

23:26.28
howtosucceed
That's really nice.

23:35.43
howtosucceed
Um, yes, truly.

23:39.15
Kelly Flanagan
And that's really hard to do That's really hard. You know it's a lot easier to say it than to do it.

23:42.26
howtosucceed
Yeah, yeah, and touring it can be really hard and and it's not good for anyone if someone in that situation is miserable.

23:49.10
Kelly Flanagan
no no I live in Florida and I've been in more winter on tour. We're going to Alaska for two weeks in february.

23:56.67
howtosucceed
Ah, it's a good thing you live in Florida then yeah, yes, the weather just keeps changing no matter what you do about it. Interesting.

24:05.46
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah, yeah, you know keep hydrated just keep drinking water. That's what they tell me I don't know. Thank you? Yeah I'm glad this worked out.

24:14.79
howtosucceed
That's a very good tip. Thank you so much. It's it's such a delight to know you and to to hear your story. Yeah, me too and I I hope that they ship me off to to Tora again. So I get another haircut in a month or so.

24:25.29
Kelly Flanagan
Yeah. Yes, especially when you need a bag trim. That's right,? What was great to talk.

24:32.58
howtosucceed
I know exactly this is is one of the reasons why I stick around I'm like oh time time for a tour stop I get my PT and my haircut all right have a great rest of your time. Yes, thank you so much all right bye bye.

24:47.37
Kelly Flanagan
Alright bye.