Taking to the wings at The Grange Festival

The Grange Festival is a leading UK opera festival held each summer at The Grange in Hampshire, staging three full opera productions across six weeks.

For Lucy, the placement was a chance to explore a new industry after already gaining experience in fashion, film and musical theatre. "I wanted to experience a variety of industries I could go into once leaving university," she says. "I'd already done some work in fashion, film and on some musicals, and I really wanted to see how opera might differ from these, and to see if it was something I wanted to go into."

For Emily, the motivation was more personal. "I have a background in amateur theatre, working alongside my mother, so I knew this was something I wanted to do professionally," she says. "When our lecturer Lottie told us about assisting on the wigs team, I knew this would be a valuable learning opportunity in the industry."

Both students describe long, fast-paced days built around the rhythms of a live production. The pair would arrive at the theatre, getting set up before shadowing the head of the WHAM department and getting a feel for the pace of the environment.

From there, moving into the performers' changing rooms, helping with hair and make-up and making sure every look stayed consistent, before heading backstage for quick changes between scenes, on one occasion to help clean blood off one of the actors. In any spare moments, they practised wig skills that needed work, including blocking, setting and correctly storing wigs.

One of the highlights for both students was working alongside Solent graduate and Deputy Wigs Philipa Johnson, who began at The Grange as a work experience student herself.

"We spent a lot of our time shadowing Lottie and Philipa, understanding what the job entails," she says. "We practised our wig work in any spare time we had and assisted with getting the cast ready. My role involved organising the wigs, hair and make-up space, helping the cast get ready between acts, and doing make-up during quick changes offstage."

For Lucy, the placement brought together everything she has learned on her degree. "Before I went to university, I was really worried about not having the confidence to work in the industry, and specifically about lacking hair and wig skills," she says. "Those skills are so important in theatre, and I wouldn't have been able to do what I did at The Grange without the training and support from all our lecturers. It's given us real-world experience, preparing us for when we leave university. It's a great experience to have on our CV, and it's helped us grow a few connections in the industry."

Emily agrees that the technical grounding from her course made the professional environment feel manageable. "The skills we learned at Solent were hugely helpful when assisting on a production like this, from the technical sessions where we learned to apply make-up with speed and precision, to learning how to prep and set wigs."

The experience has also helped both students see more clearly where they want their careers to go. "I'm hoping this experience will make more theatres interested in hiring me, so I can keep growing my experience and network," Lucy says.

"I've always wanted to go into theatre or TV and film, as those are the places I feel I can be most creative." Emily shares similar ambitions. "After this experience, I'd love to keep working in theatre and expand my skills, before eventually working in the film industry."

For Lucy, the standout moment came from seeing her work in front of an audience. "Being backstage and seeing some of the hair and make-up I'd done out on the big stage. It felt so unreal and so rewarding, knowing people in the audience were seeing work I'd created." Emily's proudest moment came from being given real responsibility on set. "By the end, after shadowing Lottie and Philipa, they trusted us enough to complete a range of tasks on our own. That was the moment I felt proudest."

Placements like this sit at the heart of Solent's Career Ready Revolution, the University's commitment to redesigning every course around real-world experience, industry connections and employability. For Make-Up and Hair Design students, that means learning by doing in genuine production environments, building portfolios of industry-recognised work, and networking with the professionals shaping their future careers.