Chapter 5

Designers and
Technicians:
Makeup
Makeup
– essentially the design of the actor’s face and
hair.
▪ occupies an undervalued position in much
contemporary theatre where it tends to be the
last design field to be considered.
▪ In amateur theatre, makeup is likely to be
applied for the first time at the final dress
rehearsal
▪ the only major design element whose
planning and execution are often left entirely
to the actor’s discretion.

▪ one of the archetypal arts of the theatre, quite

probably the first of the theatre’s design arts,
and it was absolutely fundamental to the
origins of drama.
The earliest chanters of the dithyramb, like the
spiritual leaders of primitive tribes today,
invariably made themselves up—probably by
smearing their faces with blood or the dregs of
wine—in preparation for the performance of
their holy rites. Their resulting makeup
subsequently inspired the Greek tragic and
comic masks that are today the universal
symbols of theatre itself.
❖Makeup reflects ancient
roots .
❖ traditional makeup and
“making up” are still
evident, particularly in
European and
Asian theatre.
❖ makeup always
combines the
realistic and
symbolic functions
of theatre
❖ makeup’s paradoxical role resides in
the changing emphasis of theatre
aims.
❖ Makeup, like costuming, serves
both ceremonial and illustrative
functions.
❖ Illustrative makeup is
the means by which the
actor changes her or his
appearance to resemble
that of the character.
Makeup of this sort is
particularly useful in helping
to make a young actor look
older or an old one look
younger.
Artificial scars, deformities, bruises,
beards, wigs, moustaches, sunburn,
frostbite, and scores of other facial
embellishments, textures, and
shadings can contribute
significantly to realistic stagecraft
when needed or desired.
in making an actor of any age resemble a
known historical figure

or a fictitious character whose appearance is already set

in the public imagination.
Makeup gives
• great nose ; red one
• reddens and whitens the
ghost
• it turns the college
sophomore into the aged
• dancer into one of T. S.
Eliot’s cats and
• An ordinary man into a
prince or the look of a
famous figure.
A subtler use of makeup – is still
within the realistic mode, aimed
at the evocation of psychological
traits.
❖ through physical clue; the
modern makeup artist may try to
suggest character by
exaggerating or distorting:
placement, the size and shape,
the angularity, or the tilt.
❖ known as creating a face that “reads” to the house
— conveys its fullest expression over a great
distance.
❑ Ceremonial makeup goes beyond realism
altogether. stylized or represents the actor as a
superhuman presence. allows the audience to
imagine the performer becoming larger than life—
a divine ascendant to a higher world. This
apparent enhancement of the actor may even be
thought of as the “up” in “makeup.”
❖makeup seeks merely
to enhance the actor’s
features in order to
make them distinct and
expressive to every
member of the
audience.
❖a character’s inner state on the basis of
observable characteristics
❖skilled makeup artist
can go far in enhancing the
psychological texture of
a play by the imaginative
use of facial
shaping (prosthetics)
and shading.
The Makeup Kit
– makeup in high-budget productions may
be created and applied by professional
makeup artists,
actors in most productions
—even on Broadway—
design and apply their own,
with a well-stocked
makeup kit.
 FOUNDATION
– is a basic color applied thinly
and evenly to the face and
sometimes to other parts of the body
as well.
Creme makeup, formerly known as
greasepaint, is a highly opaque and
relatively inexpensive skin paint
that comes in a variety of colors.
Cake makeup, or pancake, is less
messy than creme but also less
flexible which comes in small
plastic cases and is applied with a
damp sponge.
Color shading defines the facial
structure and exaggerates its
dimensions to give the face a
sculptured appearance from a
distance; ordinarily, the least
imposing characteristics of the face
are put in shadow and the
prominent features are highlighted.
❖ the makeup must be dusted with makeup
powder to “set” it and prevent running.
❖A makeup pencil is regularly used to
darken eyebrows and also to accentuate
eyes and facial wrinkles.
Special applications may include
false eyelashes or heavy mascara; facial
hair (beards and mustaches, ordinarily
made from crepe wool);
nose putty and various other prosthetic
materials; and various treatments for
aging, wrinkling, scarring, and
otherwise disfiguring the skin.
❖ A well-equipped actor has a makeup
kit stocked with glue (spirit gum and
liquid latex), solvents, synthetic hair,
wax (to mask eyebrows), and hair
whiteners—in addition to the standard
foundation and shading colors—to
create a wide variety of makeup
effects.
Costume
Costume Designer Catherine
Zuber With 43 Broadway
shows glimmering on
her résumé, along with
over a hundred off-
Broadway and regional
productions around the
country and abroad
probably the most
active costume designer
in America
❖ Her productions have netted her seven Tony
Awards , plus six additional Tony and a host of
other awards and tributes.
❖ Zuber explained that she had come to her
profession from an undergraduate background in
art, with a
major in
photography.
But after college graduation and a subsequent
move to New Haven, Connecticut, she happened
to meet up with several Yale theatre students who,
admiring the vintage clothes she liked to wear,
encouraged her to design costumes for their
extracurricular productions staged at Yale’s
undergraduate colleges. “I just loved doing this,”
Zuber exulted, and after a year of designing such
shows she assembled a portfolio of her designs
and applied to the Yale School of Drama for
graduate professional training in the field.
“I also had a photo portfolio,” she adds. “Being a
costume designer is not about costumes alone!
Learning photography
proved extremely helpful because it taught
me how to compose an entire image—a picture
of the set… Costumes then become an
ensemble of characters within a rectangular
image, not just clothes on a rack.” Zuber
particularly loves designing fantasy plays
Zuber now moves easily between classic verse dramas
(Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale), revivals of
modern comedies (Born Yesterday, The Royal Family),
musicals (The Bridges of Madison County, How to
Succeed . . . , South Pacific), historical dramas (A Man
for All Seasons, Coast of Utopia), and new plays set in
our own times (Outside Mullingar, Impressionism,
Doubt).
“it’s sometimes harder to convince the actors to wear
certain things, as they all have their own ideas of how
they should dress. And that’s natural because in a
modern realistic play the actors need to stay connected
to who they are. But in a period show, actors are more
trusting of the designer: there’s enough distance from
where they are in their everyday life, and who they are
playing
 Sometimes costume uniformity is required, as
in the case of “uniforms.”

In South Pacific, Zuber has given each uniform

measure of individuality by the way he wears his
costume.
❖ Zuber is quick to point out that costume
design is a “real collaboration” with those
technicians who actually pattern, cut, drape,
and sew the costumes that she
draws.
“…they really great ones take it a
step further.”
❖ Technology has come to the aid of
costume designers as it has all the design arts
❖Music, as well as sound, often evokes a mood,
supports an emotion, intensifies an action, or
provides a transition into or
between scenes.
The sound designer
designs
and oversees the
implementation of all of
these elements.
❖ this work may be of immense importance
in the overall production.
❖ Sound design has rapidly escalated in
importance as playwrights and directors
incorporate the new sound technologies that
have swiftly expanded theatrical potential.
❖Sound Design Music and sound effects have been
in use in the theatre since ancient times.

❖ Aristotle considered music one of the six

essential components of tragedy, and offstage
thunder, trumpet “flourishes” and “tuckets,” and
“the noise of a sea-fight” are all called for in
Shakespeare’s original stage directions.
❖Before the electronic age, there are:
rain drums (barrels filled with pebbles
or dried seeds
Thundersheets
thunder runs (sloping wooden troughs
down which cannonballs rolled and
eventually crashed)
door slammer
❖ the rapid development of audio
recording and playback technologies
starting in the 1970s and 1980s has led to
a virtual revolution in the area of sound
design and the emergence of an officially
designated sound designer in theatres
around the world.
❖Almost all musicals and many “straight” (i.e.,
nonmusical) plays employ electronic sound
enhancement that reinforces the actors’ voices
and creates a “louder than life” sonic
ambiance.
❖ there cases the actors usually wear miniature
wireless microphones—often concealed.
Thanks!