J. Jared Janas is a mathematician. That’s not some clever way of saying he’s precise with his designs — though he is. Janas, who designs hair, wigs and makeup, is actually a trained mathematician, having completed undergrad and graduate studies in mathematics before even discovering the art of theatrical design.
“At the very end of grad school, I was complaining to a friend that I had nothing to do for about a month, just waiting to walk down. So she said, ‘Why don’t you come help out at the theater?’” Janas recalled. The school was putting on “Assassins” and needed help in hair and makeup. “After three weekends [of performances] and one week left before graduation, I called my mother and said, ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake. I know what I want to do now.’”
Janas has since racked up 31 Broadway credits; six of those shows bowed during the 2024-2025 season. He designed the hair, wigs and makeup of 2024’s “Once Upon a Mattress” and “Our Town” as well as “Buena Vista Social Club,” “John Proctor Is the Villain” and “Dead Outlaw,” and served as the hair consultant for the recent “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Janas is also the wig coordinator for all worldwide productions of long-runner “Wicked.” Still, Janas’ success took time to build.
After those three fateful weekends at the University of Chicago’s theater, Janas began a career in math. “I worked in psychometrics. [I] determined the equitability of standardized tests,” Janas explained. But in his free time, Janas taught himself about the art of hair and makeup design. He became a voracious reader on cosmetology and eventually earned an apprenticeship with Chicago’s Lyric Opera in the mid-’90s. In 1996, his math job moved Janas to New York City. But he didn’t make the full-time switch to theater just yet. He needed more experience.
“When I first moved here, there were, I think, two community theaters total,” Janas remembered. One was the Village Light Opera. “I got my feet wet on four shows at Village Light Opera: I did ‘Iolanthe,’ ‘Mikado,’ ‘Call Me Madam’ and ‘Brigadoon.’” After two seasons there, Janas threw his name in the hat for professional Off-Broadway productions. “I was getting paid 100 bucks, 200 bucks,” said Janas, “but then those led to gigs that were like $1,000, which led to gigs that were $3,000, which led to Broadway gigs, which led to bigger international tours and all that.”
In 2005, Janas was offered a summer gig with Santa Fe Opera and took a sabbatical from his day job. The company’s wig designer was the esteemed Tom Watson, along with his assistant Cookie Jordan — now another respected wig designer in her own right. At the end of the summer, Watson asked Janas to run his studio — and Janas said goodbye to math.
From 2005 to 2014, Janas managed Watson’s studio — which has provided hair and wig design to 88 Broadway shows, from 1989’s “Mastergate” through 2025’s “Just in Time.”
In 2012, costume designer Emilio Sosa was creating the wardrobe at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a production of “Porgy & Bess” starring Audra McDonald. Sosa asked Janas to design the hair, wigs and makeup. When the show transferred to the Main Stem, Janas made his Broadway debut.
As with any design discipline, hair and wig design as well as makeup design combine research and dramaturgy, skill and technique, collaboration and vision. Individual characters — not to mention the overall stage picture — are incomplete without both curated hair and makeup design. While some designers specialize in either hair and wigs or makeup, Janas tackles both.
To read the full article please click here (Note - subscrition required)
