Cohort 1 Convened · April 2026
Is your production
Texture Ready™?
One standard for hair across every production — qualified, budgeted, and protected before the first hair call. Built for theater, film, TV, and commercial. Cohort 1 convened April 2026 with 25 industry leaders. Featured in AEA Employer Resources. First case study in production with the Umbrella Arts Center.
Black Hair Is Hair · Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge · 2023
"Prevention is not mysterious.
It's operational."
How we got here
From workshop
to standard.
In 2023, Kira Troilo gathered theater leaders from across the Boston regional ecosystem for a single afternoon at the Multicultural Arts Center. The session was called "Black Hair Is Hair." Its argument was simple: textured hair is not a specialty. It is hair. The people sitting in production rooms had been trained to treat it as exceptional, and that training was costing performers their hair, their time, and their safety.
That afternoon became an eBook. The eBook became a toolkit. The toolkit became a standard — used in productions, taught to leads, and now built into the operating systems of a growing number of regional theaters and conservatories.
Texture Ready™ is the formalization of three years of work. Not a new idea. An overdue one.
Teaching the curl pattern chart — Black Hair Is Hair, 2023. Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge.
The Standard
Hair is a production department.
Not a specialty. Not an afterthought.
Like lighting. Like costume. Like sound. Every other department has a lead, a budget, a timeline, and documented protocols. Hair doesn't — and the labor falls on Black performers and performers of color to fill that gap.
Texture Ready™ changes that. It is not about finding the right specialist. It is about building the infrastructure so textured hair is planned for, regardless of who is in the chair — before the first rehearsal, before casting is complete, before tech week.
A production is Texture Ready™ when the system works. Not when one exceptional person made it work.
A Texture Ready™ production has —
What changes
The same production. Two different rooms.
Without the standard
Hair is a side problem.
- Costume designer or ASM informally inherits hair work mid-rehearsal
- Hair budget is leftover from costume — eaten by week 2
- Performers buy their own products and arrive early to maintain styles
- No intake, no documented consent, no record if something breaks
- "Just let us know" is the escalation plan. There is no plan.
- Performers stay quiet because there are no solutions in place
With the standard
Hair is a department.
- A qualified Hair Lead is named before casting closes
- Hair budget is built before the cast is set — sized for all hair types
- Maintenance time lives on the call sheet, paid and accounted for
- Intake, consent, and escalation are documented before the first hair call
- A stop-the-line protocol is known by every performer at first rehearsal
- Performers perform. The production carries the labor.
Qualified isn't a person.
It's a production.
In Practice
The first case study.
Hairspray at the Umbrella.
25 performers. All hair types and textures, including protective styles. 30–40 hours of design, consultation, fitting, and run support across rehearsal and tech. The first production to test the Texture Ready™ toolkit start to finish — and the first published proof point of what the standard looks like in motion.
From Cohort 1
The room agreed.
This is overdue.
Cohort 1 of Texture Ready™ convened virtually on April 28, 2026 — bringing producers, casting directors, agents, employment attorneys, union leaders, theater critics, conservatory leaders, and performers into the same room. The standard was on the table. Here is what they said.
Convened
From Feedback Respondents
Theater · Film · Casting · Education · Legal · Union · Press · Tech
"This is not just an added, nice-to-have thing for productions, but actually critically necessary — and easier and more practical to implement than I would have thought."
Robert Casey·Owner, Maggie Agency
"Art & Soul Consulting have shown they have the skills and experience needed to move things forward in the entertainment space. These conversations have gone in circles for years — it's great to see an executable framework and a standard."
"There is so much I need to understand — and Kira's presentation was an honest, knowledgeable, and passionate way for me to learn about this important topic that affects so many actors in our community."
"The level of intention required is important — but it is not hard if people do just a little of the work they would do for anything else critical to a production."
"The shift is action. It's encouraging and empowering to witness the work happening for textured hair. It's not just a conversation."
"There are ways to standardise this for productions."
"I'm much more tuned into nuanced issues around Black hair — and how NOT mainstreamed this topic is, but how 'othered' it is."
How we work together
Three ways to get
your production there.
Texture Ready™
Cohort
For Hair Leads & Production Staff
The professional standard, taught directly. Your Hair Lead — costume designer, ASM, or wardrobe supervisor — learns what it means to be Texture Ready™ and earns the credential to prove it.
- 3-session virtual intensive (6 hours total)
- All hair types, textures, styles, and production logistics
- Budgeting, intake, and call sheet planning
- Performer collaboration and stop-the-line protocols
- Texture Ready™ credential on completion
- Cohort community access
Investment
$997
Per seat · Cohort 2: June 24 – July 8, 2026 · 5 of 25 seats already claimed
Texture Readiness
Diagnostic + Toolkit
For Productions & Organizations
We assess your production against the Texture Ready™ standard — your processes, staffing, budget approach, and gaps — and deliver a custom toolkit built for your specific production. Ready to implement.
- Production assessment against the Texture Ready™ standard
- Custom Performer Hair Intake & Consent forms
- Production-specific Hair Plan and budget predictor
- Texture Timeline mapped to your production calendar
- Stop-the-Line Escalation Card with your chain of command
- 30-day action plan and gap analysis
Investment
From $3,500
Theater from $3,500 · Film / TV / Commercial from $7,500
Texture Ready™
Coaching
For Productions in Implementation
You have the toolkit. Your Hair Lead has the training. Now you need support executing it. We coach your Hair Lead through implementation — in your production context, with your cast, calendar, and team.
- 4–6 coaching sessions across the production cycle
- Intake form review as cast is confirmed
- Budget review and approval support
- Coaching through hard conversations with directors and performers
- On-call support for mid-run issues
- Optional presence at tech week or production meeting
Investment
From $7,500
Theater from $7,500 · Film / TV / Commercial from $15,000
Coaching always follows a completed Diagnostic. Both can be scoped together.
The Path
How organizations move
through the standard.
Cohort
Your Hair Lead gets trained on the standard and earns the credential. They return to your production with the language and knowledge to advocate for what is needed.
Diagnostic + Toolkit
We assess your production and build your custom operating system. You leave with every document you need — tailored to your specific cast, calendar, and team.
Coaching
For productions that want support executing the toolkit. We coach your Hair Lead through implementation so the system runs — and your team owns it going forward.
Who this is for
Every seat at the table
has a role to play.
Producing Theater
Artistic Directors & Executive Directors
You are casting diversely and your hair infrastructure has not caught up. The labor is landing on performers. You have no documentation if something goes wrong — and the industry just watched what that costs.
Film / TV / Commercial
Producers & Line Producers
The SAG-AFTRA contract uses the word "qualified" with no legal definition. On a commercial shoot, one bad hair day is a brand crisis your client calls you about. Texture Ready™ defines qualified — and documents that you met the standard.
Production Staff
Costume Designers, ASMs & Wardrobe
You are holding the hair work but you do not have the framework, the language, or the authority to do it right. You are improvising around a gap that should not be yours alone to fill.
Production Operations
Stage Managers
You own the call sheet. You know maintenance time for textured hair is not on it. You know there is no protocol when something goes wrong mid-run. You are improvising around a gap that belongs in the production — not on your shoulders.
→ Cohort
Casting & Representation
Casting Directors & Talent Agents
You are placing diverse talent into productions with no hair infrastructure. You have no leverage to fix it and no language to name it before your client signs. Texture Ready™ gives you both.
Legal
Entertainment Attorneys
Your clients are operating under SAG-AFTRA contract language that uses the word "qualified" with no legal definition. The lawsuit referenced above shows what that gap looks like in litigation. Texture Ready™ closes it — and gives you something to point to.
Training & Education
Conservatories & Training Programs
You are training the next generation of production professionals and none of them are learning this before they graduate. Their first job will expose the gap — and the performers they work with will absorb it.
Performer?
This standard exists to protect you.
Before you sign, you have the right to ask if a production is Texture Ready™. We have built the questions for you.
5 Questions to Ask →
About Kira
The work behind
the standard.
Kira Troilo is the founder of Art & Soul Consulting and the architect of the Texture Ready™ standard. A Black/biracial theater artist turned EDI consultant, she has spent the last three years building the knowledge, language, and infrastructure the field has been missing — translating lived experience and production reality into documents producers can actually use.
She is the recognized expert in textured hair needs in performance environments — across theater, film, TV, and commercial production. Her work is rooted in the Boston / Providence regional theater ecosystem, with active reach into NYC casting and international film and TV.
Cohort 2 — Enrollment Open
Three Wednesdays.
One credential.
The professional standard, taught directly. Three sessions. Six hours. Your Hair Lead leaves with the knowledge, the framework, and a Texture Ready™ credential they carry into every production.
Cohort 1 convened April 2026 · 25 industry leaders · 9.7 / 10 average rating.
Virtual · $997 per seat · Limited to 25
After payment, you'll receive a confirmation with prep details and Google Meet access within 48 hours. Full refund up to 14 days before Session 1.
Booking your full team?
Private cohorts. Custom-scheduled.
For organizations sending four or more, a private cohort is often the right move — custom scheduling around your production calendar, retreat-style full-day formats, and content tailored to your roster. Pricing scales with team size.
Inquire about a private cohort →Cohort 2 dates don't work?
Get on the list for Cohort 3 — first access, before public release.
Questions answered
Before you book.
Who is the Cohort actually for?
The Cohort is for the person inside your production who is currently carrying — or about to carry — hair. That is most often a costume designer, ASM, wardrobe supervisor, or wig & hair designer who has been informally inheriting hair work without the framework, language, or authority to do it well.
If your organization is sending more than one person, look at the Private Cohort. If you are a producer trying to figure out whether your production is set up correctly, start with a Diagnostic.
What is the credential, and what does it actually mean?
The Texture Ready™ credential is issued to participants who complete all three sessions. It is a defined professional standard — not a certificate of attendance — built around six competency domains, including foundational hair knowledge, protective styling, intake and consent, budgeting, performer collaboration, and stop-the-line protocols.
It is the language productions can use to say: this person has been trained to the standard. As the standard is adopted across more productions, the credential becomes the answer to the question SAG-AFTRA does not yet define — what does qualified mean.
When does Cohort 2 run? Are sessions recorded?
Cohort 1 convened April 2026. Cohort 2 runs across three Wednesdays — June 24, July 1, and July 8, 2026 — from 1 to 3 PM ET each session. Two hours, virtual, six hours total. Sessions are recorded and made available to registered participants only — not publicly distributed.
What is the difference between a Diagnostic and Coaching?
A Diagnostic is the assessment and the toolkit. We evaluate your production against the standard, identify the gaps, and build the custom documents you need — intake forms, budget predictor, stop-the-line escalation card, hair plan, 30-day action plan. You leave with what you need to implement.
Coaching is implementation support. After the Diagnostic, if you want our team beside your Hair Lead through the production cycle — reviewing intake forms as casting closes, supporting budget conversations, coaching through hard conversations with directors, on call mid-run — that is Coaching.
Coaching always follows a Diagnostic. They can be scoped together.
Is there pay-what-you-can or sponsored access?
Yes. We hold a small number of access seats per cohort for actor advocates, casting directors, and emerging professionals who would otherwise not be in the room. These are not publicly listed — email Kira directly with a short note about who you are and what you do, and we will respond within five business days.
Brand and institutional sponsors can fund Access Seats, full Diagnostics for productions that cannot afford them, or full Cohort access for peer organizations. See brand partnership opportunities →
What is your cancellation and refund policy?
Full refund up to 14 days before Session 1. After that, your seat can be transferred to a colleague at your organization, or rolled to the next cohort. We do not refund after the cohort begins.
Do you work outside the Boston / Providence region?
Yes. Cohorts are virtual and global. Diagnostics and Coaching are delivered remotely with the option of in-person presence for tech week, production meetings, or pre-production planning. We have active engagements and pipeline in NYC, Chicago, and London.
Not sure where
to start? Start here.
Every path to Texture Ready™ begins with a conversation. Tell us where your production is and we will tell you where the gaps are.
Questions? Reach us at kiratroilo@artandsoulconsulting.com
Brand or institutional sponsor? → Texture Ready™ Brand Partnerships
