Description
The Hair/Makeup designer designs the hair and makeup 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
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
Tools
-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.
-Wipes, Pampers sensitive works just fine and is much cheaper than real makeup wipes
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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.
Two good places for makeup and hair products are Dorothy's Costume (on Mass Ave in Boston by the Christian Science Center) and Boston Costume (near Kendall T stop and in the Garment District store). You can get brushes, makeup sponges, wet-wipes, and other things of that nature for pretty cheap and decent quality at CVS. Plan on a bag of sponges a night or a little less.