Now Hiring: Wardrobe and Hair Manager
Department: Production | Reports to: Production Manager
Status: Full-Time, Exempt (40+ hours/week)
Salary Range: $70,720 - $76,960
Location: Ashland, OR
Position Overview
The Wardrobe and Hair Manager supervises the unionized Wardrobe and Hair staff, ensuring that the shows and designs are successfully maintained. Provides vision and leadership at a world renowned theater. Facilitates internal and external communications within the Festival.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions**):
- Manages wardrobe and hair personnel, including but not limited to:
- Assigns and communicates work assignments to staff and manages the day-to-day schedule and workflow.
- Provides materials and equipment needed for wardrobe and hair personnel to successfully open, run, and close a show.
- Ensures wardrobe and hair personnel understand and uphold OSF mission and values.
- Ensures wardrobe and hair personnel understand and comply with AEA guidelines and OSF’s standard practices.
- Ensures crew’s adherence to safety procedures and creates additional safety protocols when necessary.
- Recruits, hires, performs performance reviews, manages progressive discipline, and orchestrates and organizes the on-boarding and off-boarding processes for wardrobe and hair personnel.
- Performs administrative tasks such as payroll, expense reports, and injury forms.
- Models and supports the mission and values of OSF by:
- Demonstrating inclusive behavior and creating an environment of belonging.
- Maintaining a safe and anti-racist working environment
- Recognizing micro-aggressions and interrupting othering behaviors.
- Building a team atmosphere and structure to encourage behaviors among staff members that exemplify respect and inclusion.
- Operationalizing IDEA concepts into organizational practices including systems, processes, problem solving approach, personnel hiring and management practices.
- Coaching and developing staff.
- Collaborating with other managers to enforce safety policies and delivery of required and/or updated training.
- Manages the Wardrobe and Hair support of shows. Duties include and are not limited to:
- Organizes and/or ensures organization of all wardrobe and hair functions for individual shows, including working technical rehearsals, troubleshooting, and run crew documentation, and show reports.
- Ensures design integrity and quality control of the costume and hair design throughout the season.
- Ensures the maintenance and organization of wardrobe and hair spaces and equipment.
- Ensures wardrobe and hair follow safety, sanitization, infection control of all work spaces.
- Supervises overall hair, wig, and makeup needs and builds, including organization of wig inventory, pull, purchase, alter, or manufacture all wigs, hair styles, and facial hair as designed.
- Collaborates and communicates with the Costume Shop to balance the show hair and makeup requirements with OSF resources to meet show and performer needs safely and efficiently.
- Develops and advocates for Wardrobe and Hair’s annual labor, material, and capital budgets in the season budgeting process. Manages budgets throughout the year, keeping leadership apprised of any challenges.
- Attends Production Meetings, show specific costume meetings; convenes department meetings and show specific wardrobe and hair meetings.
- Participates and actively engages in Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations.
- Collaborates, coordinates, and communicates with many internal stakeholders about wardrobe and hair functions. Some examples include:
- Costume Shop: in regard to costume closure modifications and special care of costumes and wigs, resources, paperwork, load out schedule, cleaning and restoring of costume rental items, and production transfers.
- Collaborates and resolves pre-show schedule for hair prep and dressing order, quick change choreography, on stage pre-sets.
- Stage Management: in regard to AEA updates, run crew assignment needs, show breakdowns; keeping apprised changes to entrances/exit locations and run times; collaborating closely with quick changes prioritizing crew and actor safety, and specific needs for any given performance, understudy fittings, etc.
Other Duties and Responsibilities:
- Ensures regular inspections of hair salon and stations, adhering to HLO, Health Licensing Office regulations on safety, sanitization, and infection control.
- Assist in maintenance, transportation, and cleaning of show and rehearsal costumes.
- Emergency understudy during run of shows.
- Responds to after-hours emergencies and participates in emergency response teams.
- Represents OSF at organizational functions, and conferences when requested.
- Advises and/or leads facility maintenance and improvement projects as appropriate.
- Assist and support Marketing, Engagement and Development efforts. For example, occasional donor events, creating content re: quick changes for social media outlets, or interfacing with the OSF public community.
- Other duties as assigned by Production Management.
Supervision Received: Production Manager (costume, wardrobe and hair focus)
Supervision Exercised: All wardrobe and hair and wig staff, FAIR participants, and volunteers
Minimum Qualifications & Skills:
- Five (5) plus years of experience in professional theatrical wardrobe, including experience supervising projects and/or people in the entertainment industry
Preferred Qualifications & Skills:
- Proficient in quick-change choreography and run crew track planning.
- Short term and long-term budget planning skills.
- Experience in de-escalating conflict using clear communication, both oral and written.
- Experience in using industrial and home sewing machines with a variety of fabrics. Knowledge or ability to understand regulations detailed in OHA, Oregon Health Authority Cosmetology Safety and Sanitation rules.
- Knowledge of safety standards for backstage and production shops; using and providing proper safety equipment.
- Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).
- Comfortable using cloud-based information sharing systems.
- Excellent Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Access analysis and inclusive behavior:
- Able to identify and dismantle work systems that uphold and promote systems of white supremacy; to re-envision and implement new systems that account for equity and promote inclusion in all areas of work.
- Ability to approach relationships with colleagues and staff, particularly those belonging to underrepresented or historically marginalized groups, with an understanding that identity informs every individual’s human experience in a way that may differ from their own personal experience.
- Ability to communicate about body types, hair types, skin tones and genders using respectful and equitable language.
Physical Ability:
- Lift and move costumes and equipment weighing up to 30 pounds occasionally,
- Climb stairs occasionally
- Sit or stand for long periods of time.
Hours Requirements:
- Standard work week is Tuesday – Sunday.
- Night-time and weekend hours are regularly required.
- Significant overtime is required, especially during technical rehearsals.
- The ability to work overtime frequently, and at a short-time notice is required.
Other Skills, Ability and/or Knowledge:
- Ability to keep multiple projects moving forward simultaneously, meet deadlines and achieve long term goals.
- Ability to pivot and respond to last minute changes.
- Effective and motivational team leader.
- Confidentiality required.
- Experience working with unions and within the context of collective bargaining agreements.
- Attended EDI or anti-racist trainings.
- Experience working in a repertory environment
Organizational Background
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.
Statement of Purpose
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
Company Values
We are committed to working toward inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, creating a space of belonging for all audiences and employees—through concrete actions and systemic improvements.
We nurture and support our artists, attracting and retaining diverse, innovative talent across the organization.
We believe in the transformational power of collaborative artmaking and performance.
We recognize the importance of responsible stewardship of resources and sustainable business, financial, and environmental practices.
We serve the public good and engage with and respect our community of artists, audiences, staff, local citizens, patrons, donors, and the greater theatre community worldwide.