[If you are seeing this on FB, click through to see the full set of photos]
About a month ago, I had let my hair and beard grow a bit to appear as Old Gobbo in a modern adaptation The Merchant of Venice:
Knowing that my next role would be as Bart Chumley, a more-than-slightly unsophisticated wild-west rancher, I asked the director of the mystery dinner theatre show [Murder for Hire] if she would like me to let my hair and beard continue to grow. She liked the idea. Here is what I looked like last Saturday morning:
It then occurred to me that since the Chumley family would all be dressed in black, it might be a good idea if, in addition, my hair and beard were black. She immediately agreed. So here is what I looked like, a tube of mascara later:
And at the performance venue [The Dark Horse Winery, Grand Bend, Ontario]:
Fortunately, mascara washes out quickly and easily. I washed it all out before going to bed Saturday night:
My next role, for the 2017 London Fringe Festival, June 1-10, will be as Noam Chomsky in the comedy, Noam Chomsky vs. Rush Limbaugh. I realize Chomsky has much more hair than I do and no beard, and so I'll continue to let my hair grow for the role. But I'm not willing to shave my beard for this role other than to trim it quite short. This photo, taken Sunday morning, shows roughly what I'll look like.
And if anyone would like my beard, I've saved it: