mid-scene make-up?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Forum Discription: For how-to's and where-can-I-find
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2370
Printed Date: 7/27/25 at 1:09am
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Topic: mid-scene make-up?
Posted By: jenjenvoila
Subject: mid-scene make-up?
Date Posted: 4/24/07 at 3:19am
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I hope someone can help me. I am cosmetologist, not a professional make-up artist for stage and theater. But I have been asked to head up hair and make-up for an amatuer production. Mid-scene, on stage, a character is struck with leprosy on his face. The leprosy is supposed to make the flesh look white and rotted. The actor has a matter of seconds to change his appearance. I was wondering what would be the best method for simulating this.
I've come up with three options;
1 Smear white make-up on the face mid-scene
2 Back stage, do special effects makeup and cover the made-up skin with a latex 'healthy skin' that could be ripped off during the scene.
3 Create a mask that looks like the infected skin that could be kept in a hidden pocket and quickly put on.
I am looking for suggestions from the pros. Please help!
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Replies:
Posted By: eagle10
Date Posted: 4/25/07 at 8:02pm
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It would depend on the following: 1) cost of the method and budget available 2) duration of doing it and available time 3) ease with which to do it and the actor's ability to do it him or herself 4) visual effectiveness 5) how long it needs to be worn and what else the actor has to do such that it won't come off when it isn't supposed to. note that you would have to work out a cue with the lighting team or stage manager to notify them that the make up change has been done... |
Posted By: jenjenvoila
Date Posted: 4/26/07 at 3:02pm
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Well.. let's see 1. budget: low
2. available time to make the change: about 3 to 5 seconds
3. the actor has to do the change himself, onstage
4. the stage is large and the auditorium is large, about 10,000 in attendence, so the effect won't be seen in detail, just a general impression needs to be made.
5. the actor is in the performance for about 30 minutes before the change but only onstage about 3 minutes after the change
As for the lights there is no special lighting, just full house lights. We can't hide him behind a screen or in darkness. the best we can do is have him turn his back to the audience for a few seconds to make the change. Because the audience is so large and so far away, I'm wondering if we should just keep it simple and let his acting create more of the effect than the makeup. Thanks for any help!
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Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 4/27/07 at 9:24am
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Does his face have to be seen? In other words, can you have him facing upstage, have someone react to his face, but not do any makeup at all? Without knowing the script, obviously I have no idea whether this is feasable, but it beats my first reaction, which was "you're screwed."
Incidentally, why are you showing with 1 post when you clearly have two in this thread? I'm just very confused today!  ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: jandcries
Date Posted: 5/19/07 at 10:37pm
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I assume you're speaking of this year's convention. i play the leprous part in ours. i have a couple of ideas. You? |
Posted By: theatreron
Date Posted: 7/26/07 at 12:30am
| What play are you speaking of? |
Posted By: jenjenvoila
Date Posted: 7/26/07 at 3:54pm
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I'm a little late replying but we did figure out what to do. I made a mask form using liquid latex and painted it with fabric 'puff ' paint in white. Once I had steamed the paint to create the dimension and texture of infected skin I ripped some of it away from the latex mask and used bright red and dark brown paint to make those 'open areas' look like open sores. I attached a thin peice of elastic so He could wear it on his head. He kept it hidden under a hat, then mid scene knocked the hat off and pulled the mask down while his back was to the audience. Pretty gross but very effective! Jandcries, it was at a convention. The account of Gahazi.
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