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Description
The Hair/Makeup designer designs hair and makeup designer is responsible for buying hair and makeup supplies, and designing the hair and makeup looks for the production. S/he is responsible for buying the necessary hair, makeup, and related supplies. You need to go to whatever make-up workshops/rehearsals there are to find out what kinds of base people need and what specialty make-up people need.
This job requires very little time during the semester (maybe one afternoon to do inventory and look through the make-up and a few hours in discussion with actors/directors/designers about what is needed) until about 2 weeks before the show. If you can buy the makeup you know you will need early on, you will save money. Then lots of little 1-2 hour blocks a week (you go out and buy make-up, then other people tell you what they need, so you go out and buy that, then someone else gets back to you and you go get that, then it gets used up opening night, so you go and buy more, etc.). You will need to setup the make up during or after putin but before makeup dress rehearsals. If the show is in LaSala, west lounge will only be available in the afternoon and you will also need to setup tables and lights. You will also need to be able to be at every dress rehearsal during tech week to apply makeup to the actors and to teach them how to apply it themselves. Usually Monday/Tuesday for the hard make-up, and any special effects, Wednesday try to get everyone in makeup by the end of the run and Thursday to run makeup like a performance. If there is extremely complicated hair and makeup schemes, you might need to be at every performance to apply hair and makeup yourself.
General Makeup
Each actor needs foundation, regardless of whether or not they are male or female. And if possible everyone needs a base, a high and a low light. [insert example graphic]
Everybody also need eyeliner, blush or bronzer and probably lipstick.
Specialty Makeup
Aging
Line natural wrinkles on eyes, mouth, chin, nose and forehead in dark lines and then outline those in white lines and BLEND. You can also shade fade to make it look hollow and add purply bags under the eyes. For greying hair you can use hair white (buy the big container).
Hair
Tell actors earlier rather than later about changes to their hair like growing it, cutting it, dying it. If you need a wig try to order asap because you can often find them cheap on amazon but they will take a while to ship. Cheap wigs work just fine for these performances. You want to make sure you have enough bobby pins and hair spray for every show. Currently (2014) the shakespeare ensemble has 2 sets of working nice curlers. Use them and make sure MTG doesn't steal them.
Facial Hair
Real: if you want a character to grow a beard tell them early to stop shaving
show. They are also responsible for matching actors to the teaching actors how to apply their stage makeup.
Prior to the show, they should attend prod meetings to determine what special hair and makeup looks the director wants, and do an inventory of the supplies the ensemble owns. During put-in, they should set up the makeup rooms. If in Sala, set up tables and lights in West Lounge, and put newspaper on the windows. If in Kresge Little Theater, split up the actors alphabetically, and assign each group to a dressing room. The hair and makeup designer should be present at the beginning of every dress rehearsal and show if possible, to teach and correct actors on their hair and makeup application. If there is a very complicated look, they may also be required to apply that look themselves every night.
General Hair and Makeup
Characters' hair will vary depending on the show and director. In general, making sure that an actor's hair doesn't obscure their face is a must. Also, realistic wigs are expensive and somewhat difficult to maintain. Non-jokey wig use should be avoided if possible, unless a great one can be borrowed from another theater group.
Random note that is neither hair nor makeup: usually, the hair and makeup designer reminds actors to remove their nail polish for shows. Even if a production is set in a time period when nail polish would have been invented, it's usually impossible to keep nail color looking consistent and non-chipped for the entire run.
Each actor needs makeup, regardless of their gender or their character's gender. At minimum, they need base, highlight, lowlight, eyeliner, and setting powder/spray. The hair and makeup designer should send out an email around put-in time requesting that actors bring in their own eyeliner if possible, to prevent the spread of pink eye! Actors probably also need blush, bronzer, and lipstick. Some characters may also need eyeshadow, eyebrow pencil, or lipliner.
It is very helpful to put up a chart outlining basic makeup in the dressing room(s):
Specialty Makeup
Age
Have the actor scrunch up their face, and use an angled brush and a foundation a few shades darker than their skin tone to line the places that their face naturally folds (especially on the forehead, between the eyebrows, under the eyes, around the nose and mouth, and on the chin). Line on top of those lines with white or a pale shade, then blend. For greying hair, use Ben Nye Hair White/Grey or similar.
Facial Hair
Real: If you want an actor to grow a mustache or beard, tell them early to stop shaving.
Fake: Amazon has a decent selection of fake facial hair. Apply with liquid latex, which is much Fake: to apply fake facial hair try to use eyelash glue it is MUCH gentler than spirit gum or other adhesives.
Injuries and Scars
most scars can be done simply on the surface of the skin. Using lipstick/lip liner or anything creamy is good for blood and then a bruise disk with a sponge can add the shading around the damaged skin, yellows for older bruises and purples for newer bruise. Black eyes also can be made with the bruise disk.
Products
Makeup
Some good shades of foundation to have are:
Mehron makeup sticks. They are stage makeup and show up nicely under stage lights. Can be used for base, highlight and shadow
1. Ben Nye's CH-0, CH-00, CH-01 for good highlights
2. Ben Nye's CS-3 for a good generic lowlight
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Scars can be formed with scar wax, then painted to match the skin. If the wound is fresh, discoloration can be added with a bruise wheel. (Purples for newer bruises, and yellows for older bruises.) Ben Nye Scab Blood is a good product that will stick to an actor's skin, and won't drip down onto costumes. Creamy brown or red lipstick can also be added into a wound as blood.
Products
Makeup
Mehron makeup sticks are the best base, highlight, and lowlight for lighter-skinned actors. (Med-light olive tends to be a common base color.) Darker foundation shades are unfortunately harder to find, but the Covergirl Queen collection and L'Oreal True Match liquid foundations are a good bet.
As mentioned earlier, it would be best if all actors had their own eyeliner, but usually that isn't the case. Pencil eyeliners that don't need to be sharpened (i.e. have a twist up mechanism) are good to have, in both black and brown.
Most, if not all actors will need blush and bronzer. Teach them how to sweep it on subtly, with a big fluffy brush. Although it's nice if all actors wear lipstick, finding neutral lipstick for everyone can be a pain, and more effort than it's worth. If a character needs non-neutral lipstick, then bluer tones tend to be more flattering - they make the actor's teeth look whiter! Lipliner in a similar shade can be used to prevent the color bleeding into the surrounding skin.
Teach actors how to set their makeup (particularly eye makeup) with setting spray (less effective) or Ben Nye Neutral Set (more effective).
Tools
- Sponges - try to limit actors to one sponge for every two shows. Buy in bulk if the budget allows, since we always need these.
- Hand sanitizer - buy a big bottle and encourage actors to use it before eating or touching their face. No one enjoys a tech week plague.
- Makeup removal wipes - sensitive baby wipes work, although actual makeup wipes
-Sponges, buy often, buy early, try to limit people to 1 sponge per day Plan on a bag of sponges a night or a little less.
hand sanitizer
-Wipes, Pampers sensitive works just fine and is much cheaper than real makeup wipes-
- bobby pins, hair spray, getl
Cleanup
-alcohol and brush cleaner are a good idea. I clean everything at the start of a show (spay with alcohol and let dry), between weekends and at the end of a show.
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