A Century of Drama
Colby’s student-run theatrical group, Powder and Wig, turns 100
Putting on a stage production takes hundreds of hours of work. Memorizing lines, nailing light and sound cues, designing and building sets, sewing costumes. But what if you crammed all of that into a single week?
For members of Powder and Wig, Colby’s student-run theatrical group, the one-week musical is a rite of passage. First-year students arrive on campus and are immediately thrown into all-hands-on-deck productions that in recent years have included High School Musical and Xanadu. Putting on a musical in a single week requires a lot of work, but many of the students who participate find that the tradition is a high-speed on-ramp to join the theatrical group that is marking its 100th birthday this year.
Colby offers a long tradition of success in the arts. According to the 1927 edition of the Colby Oracle, Powder and Wig was founded on March 14, 1926, and merged with the women’s drama club, Masque, a few years later. Decades before the College even had a theater department, Powder and Wig (and its predecessor, the Dramatics Society) produced plays for the campus and surrounding towns.
Olivia Gould ’16 didn’t know anything about Powder and Wig before coming to Colby. “I saw the posters for Legally Blonde my first week on campus, and I said, ‘Oh, I want to do that,’” said Gould, who went on to major in theater and dance. “I didn’t think I was going to take any theater classes at Colby, initially, but once I started with Powder and Wig, I found I wanted more.”
What separates Powder and Wig from the Department of Performance, Theater, and Dance is that the club is entirely student-run. “There’s a huge connection between what students learn in class or in department productions and what they’re doing in Powder and Wig,” said John Ervin, technical director in the department. “They channel this incredible energy from coursework or abroad experiences into these amazing productions. What’s great about the club is that it can be anything that the students want it to be, and they have full autonomy over the decision-making, the budget, and their imagination.”
Productions are chosen based on student-submitted directing proposals and excerpts of the work. Everything is on the table, from serious, dramatic works like Death of a Salesman to campy musicals like Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This gives students a chance to experiment outside of the classroom—and to have a little fun, said Brianna LaValle ’22, who served as club president. “It’s definitely intense, but there’s less pressure than performing for a grade in class or with a department production. You’re doing something with your friends, and there’s more of a self-satisfaction in creating something on your own that you can all be proud of.”
Ervin, who often advises the club on production design, said that while the club has changed over the years, there’s a lot of continuity, too. “The major throughline has always been that it’s an accessible opportunity for someone to direct for the first time, or write a screenplay for the first time, or act for the first time. It’s an incredible opportunity to do something different.”
LaValle directed her first stage production through Powder and Wig, a madcap version of Clue that turned the Page Commons Room into a board-game mansion. “Plenty of theater majors do Powder and Wig, but so many members just love theater and want to be a part of it,” she said, herself a double major in psychology and performance, theater, and dance. “Directing was one of the biggest projects I ever took on at Colby. It was such a cool experience to have a production go from an idea in your mind to a real-life play.”
Beyond traditional productions, Powder and Wig includes several annual traditions that give students a chance to act outside their comfort zone: Monologue night, where students prepare a reading of their choice; the Red Eye Film Festival, a wild 24-hour race to create a short film; and one-act plays, typically during Jan Plan, which are student-written.
Emerson Riter ’29, the current club president, directed one of her own plays this past Jan Plan as part of the one-acts. “It was an out-of-body experience to see what I had written on stage,” she said. “There’s nothing like it, and it’s only made me more excited to continue to work on my playwriting.”
Today, Powder and Wig serves as a place where students can express themselves, whether they’re taking courses in the department or are simply lifelong lovers of theater. More than 200 people on campus are members of the group, which is led by the all-student Powder and Wig board. Regardless of experience, everyone is welcome. “It was just Insta-friends,” said Gould. “This community is so incredible, and really supported me throughout my time at Colby.”
Each year, the club comes together to celebrate with the annual Wiggies, the club’s version of the Tony Awards. In addition to classic awards like best actor or costume design, they also hand out off-beat tributes to that year’s productions, from “best kiss” to “sexiest costume.”
“Everyone was so supportive, it was one of the best nights of the year,” said Gould. “We’re screaming, we’re cheering, we’re dressing up like it’s a real awards show. It was such a gorgeous and beautiful way to celebrate the safe space we created on campus to just be ourselves.”
