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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"40339","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"makeup"}}]]The museum's next production, The Tortoise and the Hare, will be in Lilly Theater from March 16 to April 21, 2013! In this blog post, Lilly Theater Manager Krista Layfield shares how costume and creative makeup can transform actors into animals.
For the Tortoise and the Hare production, one of the concepts of the show was that the characters raced each other as a sporting event or pastime, like some people play baseball. We wanted their clothes to be like the jumpsuits that you see race car drivers wear. Brian Horton, the costume designer, initially drew renderings of racing jumpsuits—but he had trouble making the human shape appear more animal like. So we decided that they should dress in exercise clothes like people wear to the gym. This would more easily facilitate adding realistic fur, feathers, ears, and tails to the costumes.
Along with this concept we wanted the actors to have creative makeup to look more like animals. We didn’t want to create masks for the actors, because the masks would hide the expressions the actors would have when performing and sometimes younger audience members can find them scary. I had recently seen a production of Puss n’ Boots in St. Louis that used makeup and hair styling to create the face of the cat. I thought that this production would be a good opportunity for us to try a technique that had not been done in the Lilly before.
I discovered that one of the TCM staff members in Dinosphere, Mary Malooley, had experience with creative hair and makeup design. Mary presented a lot of research from other shows using makeup techniques that made actors look like animals. She also created renderings of how the makeup would look on the actors' faces. Mary did a very good job of explaining how to add the makeup in steps starting with fur or hair-colored foundation. The next step was then adding eye shadow or crème makeup which would highlight, narrow, or broaden cheeks and noses depending on the particular animal’s shape. She then used eyeliner pencils to create whiskers and eyebrows. Once the basic colors and lines were done, she then blended the colors and lines to make them look more realistic.
Now that you've learned how these actors are transformed, watch This Week's WOW to see the makeup magic in action!
