PROFILES IN ARTS ACTIVISM ~
Anne Ford-Coates
CURLING HAIR FOR THE KIDS
Sing for Hope Donor Artist Anne Ford-Coates preparing Soprano Patricia Racette for a brilliant performance
Hair and makeup artist Anne Ford-Coates fell into her career by accident. “When I was a freshman in college, I went to pick up my little sister one day from the Sarasota Youth Opera, and the head of the opera’s education department mentioned a new internship. I took a semester off school to do it, and that first season I met Jeffrey Frank, who runs Elsen Associates, a legendary theatrical hair and makeup design firm. He offered me an opportunity to work with him, and within a year I was on the road doing gigs all over the states.”
Anne met Sing for Hope Co-Founders Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora at Glimmerglass Opera, where the three of them worked together. “They told me about Sing for Hope and I thought it was just so beautiful and inspiring,” remembers Anne, who recently reconnected with Monica when they worked together at Syracuse Opera and Opera Omaha. “It just so happened that this spring I had a lot of time in New York, so I was able to start doing some events with them. We did a concert for schoolkids (Bringing It to YOU) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with members of the casts of Fela! and Avenue Q, opera singers, hip hop dancers—it was an amazing show, the kind of experience I wish I could have had as a kid.”
Anne is grateful that Sing for Hope affords her the opportunity to step out of her busy career and give back to her community. “In my college days I did a lot of very active and difficult community service, like volunteering in a domestic violence shelter and for a rape crisis hotline. Back then, my schedule allowed me to commit to such volunteer work. Now I live out of a suitcase most of the year, and my days are spent primarily curling hair and gluing on eyelashes for a paycheck.”
“Compared to some things, hair and makeup design can be perceived as a somewhat frivolous occupation,” Anne admits. “I was finally able to justify it to myself when I realized that all artists put some good into the world. Whether I’m putting on some beautiful eyeliner or sending someone out in a big fat wig, my work is part of what helps an actor become his or her character. Actors and singers are in such a vulnerable position, and I want to help them feel comfortable and beautiful. If they’re miserable, they’re not going to give their best performance. You really have to earn the performers’ trust. Not long ago I was down at Washington Opera Studios doing a makeup demonstration for a bunch of children. One of the volunteers said something so interesting: in a way, the costumes and hair and makeup are as much for the singer as the audience. Giving the singer what they need—that’s what we’re here for.”
“Being a theatrical hair & make-up artist is about serving the performer, the director, the costume designer, the audience, the story and one’s own art, all at once,” she continues. “I’ve come to believe that as frivolous as my job may seem, it’s just one of many ways to do good in this world. Working with Sing for Hope is its own reward. I believe there is this innate desire in humans to do good. It’s great to get to practice my craft and not do it to pay my rent or further my career. I just do what I do every day of the week, but when I’m working with Sing for Hope, I’m curling hair for the kids.”
Anne Ford-Coates is Associate Director for Elsen Associates, resident Hair & Make-up Designers for numerous North American opera companies. She is Hair and Makeup Designer for Glimmerglass Opera and Washington National Opera. She has also designed productions at Opera New Jersey, Des Moines Metro Opera, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Mark Taper Forum, The Women’s Project, SITI Company, Opera Boston, Utah Opera, Opera Omaha, Tulsa Opera, Tampa Opera, Manhattan School of Music, and Yale Opera, among others.
Thank you, Anne, for your service to your fellow artists, and for giving your talents in the best way you know how to bring positive change and uplift to schools, hospitals and communities!
This article is written for the Sing for Hope enewsletter by donor artist Kelley Rourke (Dramaturg, Glimmerglass Opera; Editor, OPERA America Magazine).
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