Make Up Meeting

Met with Sarah, who's the make-up student assigned to the production, today to discuss our ideas for make-up for all characters and the orchestra. Sarah said, despite the up and coming summer show, she's had alot of ideas. We started by discussing the 4 main characters, from this we agreed:

• Narrator - Try and get John to grow a moustache to try and evoke this homely, grandpa figure. Sarah suggested some subtle aging as John has such a strong face but nothing too much.
• Princess - Pretty, natural look. Warm the skin tone a little. As for the hair we decided to try an up do of the era but distress it a little to look like shes slept in it in her fever but still suggests the era.
• Soldier - Want to try and persuade this actor to cut his hair in a military WW1 style. It might be good for him to grow a moustache however, we decided we wanted to maintain a youthful look to make his naivity obvious.
• Devil - For this character make-up decisions are quite difficult due to the time allowed and the fact that it's on stage. We decided upon some speedy contouring with black eyeshadow at the cheekbones and darkening of the eyes - creating quite a gaunt face - as if the Devil exterior has taken over and sapped the strength from her body. That was all we decided upon but Sarah wanted to call in the actress and do some experimenting with latex and make-up techniques to practise with time and what's affective. We agreed that attention should remain on her face and the headress - make up didn't want to be too OTT. As for the hair Sarah suggested the idea of setting the hair in rollers during the interval. Doing this would allow her  to create a slick up/ androgynous look for the violinist and then release the hair for the devil as huge full curls - which sounds perfect.

Devil's other characters
Again here, time is a serious constraint. Here are the ideas we had for the characters so far:

Old Man - age lines, synthetic brows
Cattle Merchant -experiment with synthtic beard
Clothes Woman- Some curls from beneath bonnet (previously concealled by hats)
Violinist- Androgeny


As for the Orchestra, we decided upon giving Nick and email to see which of the men would be prepared to grow their own moustache. A natural moustache would be best as it can be emphasised with powder and a sythentic moustache may be difficult as all the men except Mark play wind instruments. Hair might not be such an issue depending on their opinions on hat wearing as hats will be part of their uniform. This also worth querying. As for the women we decided quite a natural look, understated but also to do their hair in an authentic style. Sarah suggested a 'land army' look which is perfect - a little rough around the edges eg. mud on cheeks to suggest their in put in the war effort.

Reflection:
This meeting was great to get a fuller picture of each character with Sarah's ideas and know how. As Sarah has worked on a lot of AUCB shows she has great experience and is very familiar with the actors which will hopefully mean she can persuade them to change their hair! It's going to be great seeing our expertise to come together and form the character. From this meeting we decided to set up a  facebook group for the actors and ourselves so we can discuss our ideas openly with them and see how they feel about our suggestions. As well as this we can arrange meetings to try out some different make-up affects.