“These, over here,” points Caitlynn Adlard, smiling modestly as she gestures to a nearby array of shelves, “are our heads.”

Well, yes they are. Those are heads. To be specific, mannequin heads. Lightbulb-shaped and largely featureless, the disembodied crania are mostly bald at the moment, though several of them do boast wildly elaborate and very realistic wigs.

“Most of these wigs are made of human hair,” explains Adlard. “Human hair is the best.”

Welcome to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Wig Shop, in Ashland, Oregon, where Adlard has just begun a four-month stint as an assistant wig builder. The shop is tucked off in a corner of the vast, underground labyrinthine directly beneath the Angus Bowmer Theater, one of the three world-class theater venues where OSF annually produces a rotating repertory of eleven different shows, running between February and October. The first four shows of 2017 — “Henry IV, part one,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Mojada: a Medea in Los Angeles,” and “Julius Caesar” — all opened at the end of February, and will be joined, over the next few months, by several very ambitious new “wig shows.” They include this April’s “Unison,” a world premiere showcasing the poetry of playwright August Wilson, plus this June’s world-premiere of “The Odyssey” — developed by Tony-winning director Mary Zimmerman — followed by an elaborate staging of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” and a new spin on the beloved Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast.”

 OSF’s ‘Julius Caesar’ (Photo: Jenny Graham)

Adlard, already at work building wigs for the March 29 opening of “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo,” will be helping to build hairpieces for some or all of the summer shows.

“The summer shows are all going to be big, big shows,” remarks Devon K. Ash, OSF’s designated Wig Master. In charge of builds and styling decisions for all the shows, Ash has been with the company since 2011, and Adlard — raised in Petaluma, and initially trained at Santa Rosa’s Summer Repertory Theater program — admits she is thrilled to be working with such experienced professionals at a company as renowned as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The lifelong theater-lover has spent the past few years in Las Vegas, where she’s been working on the recently ended song-and-dance spectacle, “Showstoppers,” at the Wynn Hotel and Casino.

“That was a huge show,” Adlard says. “There were 125 wigs. I was originally hired to just keep track of the wigs and make sure everything was ready for the next show, but I gradually got more and more involved with the wigs as the show progressed.”

Even before “Showstoppers” officially ended its two-year-long run on Dec. 31, Adlard was busy looking for her next gig, assuming it would also be in Las Vegas.

Then the Oregon Shakespeare Festival job opening appeared.

“I thought it was a long shot, because my resume is not really that long yet,” admits Adlard, who ended up getting the call to come out to Ashland. Adlard says she is always willing to change states and climates, for the right opportunity. “I will travel anywhere that gives me a chance to do theater,” she smiles.

Still, this California native does allow that relocating from the desert to the mountains of Oregon has been more-than-a-bit dazzling. “It snowed here last week,” she says with a laugh. “I couldn’t get my car to drive up the hill to my apartment, until some nice people came out and gave me some help.”

Click HERE to read the full story in the Petaluma Argus-Courier