Yahoo News Heaton writer and actor brings play based on his alopecia experience back to North East at Laurels in Whitley Bay
A writer and actor from Heaton has brought the play based on his alopecia back to the North East at Laurels in Whitley Bay. Sam Macgregor, 29, lost his hair suddenly in November 2019 and, after a period of time where he struggled to be creative during the pandemic, used the experience to write his first play, titled 'Truly, Madly, Baldy'.
He was turned on to the idea of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe by colleagues at the theatre he works at in London, and felt like it was time to put on his own show after having small roles in other people's. It wasn't until relatively late in the process that he decided to try and get the show on at the Fringe, and he now couldn't have been more thrilled to be performing at the festival.
Now, as he looks to tap back into his creative side, Sam is bringing the show back to his native North East in order to share it with a regional audience. Sam previously said: "It only took a couple of days for my hair to just fall out completely, I was shocked originally and didn't feel like doing anything creative, and one of the few people I felt like I could speak to was my mum, who also has alopecia.
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"When I decided to create something out of it, it started with a monologue that I used to get down all of my thoughts and feelings about what had happened. I spoke to other people about their experiences and was able to adapt it into an hour long show."
Now, Sam has brought together a team of creative people from the North East, many of whom he has worked with previously, to bring a new adaption of his written piece to the Laurels' stage. He went on to speak about the changes he has had to make to the performance and how he is feeling with opening night upon him.
Sam added: "We are working in a different sized space with a stage that is larger and thrusts out into the crowd, so we have had to adapt the play to work with this. I feel ready to go out there and do it now, and I want to say to people that if they have already seen 'Truly, Madly, Baldy' then they will certainly be seeing something different this time around."
Truly, Madly, Baldy started its two week run at the Laurels theatre yesterday.
