Saturday, November 07, 2009
Make Up Designer
American Theatre Wing: "Make Up Designer Angelina Avallone outlines her design process; the research that goes into a design; how desinging the 'no-make up' look can be much more of a challenge than chaacter make up - we see some of her designs from Rock of Ages, Little Mermaid and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as well as her work with actors Constantine Maroulis and James Carpinello from Rock of Ages and Rogelio Douglas, Jr. from Little Mermaid."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Most people notice make up in big, spectacle filled shows like little mermaid or young frankenstein, but its interesting to hear about natural makeup, and how its just as challenging.
It would be a fascinating thing to work on, to create makeup designs for broadway. However, it would be quite difficult to work with large theaters. It must be sad to see that when you sit in the last row, all your work disappears.
Make up design does not immediately come to mind when thinking about professions in the theatre but it is just as important as any of the other design fields. Yes, I agree that in large spectacle driven productions, bold makeup is recognized whereas in more realistic shows, the make up goes unnoticed. And for good reason! If we are staring at the make up in the a realistic show and not focusing on the story something is severely wrong with the production. It is a shame that we do not have more make up courses offered here at CMU.
I agree with Allison, makeup isn't a design department that one immediately jumps to mind when one thinks of theater. It is, however, integral to the world creation. What I would start to ask is how it is read on the stage. What details are necessary, versus overkill. What will actually be read on stage, versus lost in the background. Saturated colors, definitely, sparkle, sometimes, but very intricate details are often lost. When creating a natural look, it seems as though you are compiling many details to get a simple look, and with the more "showy" looks, you bump up the color and severity of those details.
I thought that this was a very interesting thing to highlight as a sort of passed-over art in theatre. As far as I can tell, makeup and hair is what really ties an actor into their personality, and more importantly, their costume. With the wrong hair, the wrong style of makeup, you lose all of the wonder and mystery of the time and place you've set the show. What I especially liked was her mention of how the makeup had to compensate for the lighting, and how much research she puts into her work, its great to see all aspects of the show looking out for one another to minimize conflict.
I think that make-up is a vital element in the design of a show, regardless of the simplicity of the design. It helps the audience understand where to focus on the actor. I also think that make up is so interesting because it is not so strictly bond by budgetary confinements and the such, giving the designers more freedom to really explore what they can do with the characters. I wish that CMU offered more classes on the make-up and wig design process.
Post a Comment