Chapter 11 Image Makers: Designers Scenery, Costumes, Makeup, Masks, Wigs, and Hair

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Chapter 11 Image Makers Designers(Scenery,
Costumes, Makeup, Masks, Wigs, and Hair)

• Stage-designing should be addressed to the eye
  of the mind. There is an outer eye that observes,
  and there is an inner eye that sees.
• Robert Edmond Jones

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Chapter Summary

• Designers of theatrical sets, costumes, masks,
  puppets, hair, and wigs realize the production in
  visual terms.
• They are visual artists who transform space and
  materials into an imaginative world for actors
  engaged in human action.

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The Scene Designer

• Background
• Scenic artist (19th century)
• Painted large scenic backdrops
• Scene (or set) designer
• Rise of realism and naturalistic theatre created
  demand for more complex sets.
• Sets required to look like what they represent.

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The Scene Designer

• Early 20th century innovators
• Adolphe Appia
• Edward Gordon Craig
• Reinterpreted function of set and set design
• Create mood
• Open stage up for movement
• Unify visual ideas
• Moved beyond illusion of stage realism
• Stage can be expressive

Courtesy Arena Stage
Ming Cho Lees Design for K2
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Scene Design as Visual Storytelling

• Designer as detective
• Uncovers visual clues that reveal inner life of
  play
• Approaches
• Begins with script analysis
• Literary (theme, mood, setting, etc.)
• Practical (entrances, exits, properties, etc.)
• Creates sketches, models
• Works with director to decide on look, details
• Designers plans given to production manager,
  technical director, shop foreman

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Scene Designer Spotlight

• Adolphe Appia (1862-1928)
• Considered unity to be the basic goal of
  theatrical production
• Disliked contradiction of three-dimensional actor
  and flat backdrop
• Used ramps, steps, platforms to give depth
• Role of lighting to fuse visual elements into
  whole

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The Costume Designer

• Costume
• All garments and accessories, wigs, makeup, and
  masks
• Tells us about characters
• Social position, economic status, occupation,
  etc.
• Relationship of characters to each other
• Tells us about play
• Sets mood, establishes setting

Bruce Goldstein/Courtesy Guthrie Theatre
Patricia Zipprodts Costumes for Molières Don
Juan
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The Costume Designer

• In past, costumes were handled by actor, manager
• Costume designers emerged in last 80 years
• New stagecraft required detail-oriented
  specialists.
• Typical responsibilities of costume designer
• Costume research
• Sketching
• Preparing costume plates
• Assessing color choices
• Choosing fabric

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The Costume Designer

• Large costume houses
• Broadway Costume Rental, Inc. (Queens, N.Y.)
• Western Costume Company (North Hollywood)
• Warner Studios (Burbank, CA)
• Malabar Ltd. (Toronto)
• Rent and make costumes on demand
• Costume Collection and Odds Costume Rental Fur
  (New York City)
• Rent to nonprofit organizations

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The Costume Designer Process

• Design conferences
• Forum for working out overall production plan
• Costume construction
• Director approves designs.
• Designer arranges for construction, purchase, or
  rental of costumes.
• Director and designer examine costumes on actors
  (dress parade).
• Dress rehearsal
• Costumes, makeup, and masks are worn onstage with
  full scenery and lights.

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Makeup

• Enhances the actor and completes the costume
• In theatre, compensates for audience distance
• Helps reveal character
• Age
• Background
• Ethnicity
• Heath
• Personality
• Environment

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Makeup

• Ancient Greeks used white-lead makeup.
• Modern makeup
• Foundation (prevents washed out look under
  lights)
• Cake makeup (less greasy than oil-based)
• Color shadings applied with pencils, brushes
• Synthetic hair, glue, solvents, wax, hair
  whiteners

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Makeup

• Straight makeup
• Highlights an actors features and coloring
• Distinctness and visibility
• Character (illustrative) makeup
• Transforms actors features to reveal age or
  attitude
• Noses, wrinkles, eyelashes, jawlines, eye
  pouches, eyebrows, teeth, hair, beards, etc.
• Fantasy makeup
• Responsibility of designer (as opposed to actor)

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Masks

• Ancient masks
• Originally thought to have supernatural powers
• Enlarged actors facial features
• Expressed basic emotions (especially Greek masks)
• Modern masks
• Masked actor creates different presence onstage.
• Mask must be comfortable, strong, light, and
  molded to the contours of the actors face.

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Wigs and Hair Design Process

• Meeting between wig designer and costume
  designer
• Meeting with actor
• Measurements taken
• Discussion of color and practical considerations
  (e.g., hats, changes to hair during play)
• Construction
• Base constructed of lace
• Ventilated (strands of hair knotted in place)

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Core Concepts

• All good theatrical design enhances the actors
  presence and supports the directors
  interpretation of that worlddeveloping,
  visualizing, illuminating, and enriching it.