IF YOU GO
What: “W;t”
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Reed Keller Auditorium, UND School of Medicine
Cost: Free
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Info: theatreb.org
To play the lead in the stage drama “W;t,” Carrie Wintersteen went under the blade. She didn’t have to have surgery for the role, but she knew she had to shave off her curly hair to portray the dying cancer patient.
“Wow. This is weird,” Wintersteen said as Violet Deilke at Center for Hair and Wellness in Moorhead ran over the actress’ scalp with clippers.
As her ringlets fell, Wintersteen’s expressive eyes grew bigger, looking into the mirror.
“I have a puny head,” she said with a laugh.
Six days after her haircut, she sat down for coffee wearing a cap over her bald head. She talked about the play and how shaving her head helped her understand a little bit more about playing a determined cancer patient.
“For the first time ever I was really conscious about my appearance when I went out,” she said about walking downtown after her head buzz.
She says hair loss is more difficult for women as over the past 20 years men have embraced shaving their heads as a fashion statement.
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“It ends up being a marker for women in cancer treatment in a way that it isn’t for men,” she says.
While Wintersteen hasn’t faced cancer herself, she’s seen fellow ensemble members Pam Strait fight it off and Matthew Burkholder succumb to it in late 2012.
For her character, Vivian Bearing, an English literature professor driven by academic pursuits, the loss of hair symbolizes a loss of control of her own life.
After a four-weekend run of Margaret Edson’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play at Theatre B in Fargo, the troupe is bringing the play to Grand Forks on Oct. 30 for a couple of shows for UND medical school students and staff.
In addition to a performance for students and faculty, there will be a 7 p.m. public performance on Oct. 30 at the Reed Keller Auditorium in the UND School of Medicine. Admission is free.
The performances are part of a collaboration of Sanford Health’s Embrace Cancer Survivorship Program and the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences with Theatre B.
The troupe recently performed the show at Sanford before cancer doctors and staff and two members from the group 4ward, women living with stage IV cancer. Wintersteen says the cancer survivors were “gratified” she shaved her head.
One told her she was more concerned about losing her hair than losing a breast to cancer.
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“You don’t think about what role your hair plays in your identity, your appearance,” Wintersteen says.
Vivian’s identity is wrapped up in her intellect and her studies of 17th century poetry, particularly John Donne.
In direct addresses to the crowd Vivian describes herself as “resolute, steadfast and uncompromising” and Wintersteen calls the character “a powerhouse.”
The character has been so determined in her work that she chose not to have much meaningful human interaction and now faces her mortality alone.
“It’s intellectually challenging playing someone clearly much smarter than I am,” the actress says. “That’s what makes it fun, trying on people who are very different than yourself.”
Accent Editor Catherine Krummey contributed to this report.
