Carol Gates' Website

Syllabus

Theater Makeup Q1 & 2, 2008-2009

 Course description:  This is a course in makeup for theater, designed to familiarize students with basic techniques, materials, color choices and applications, aging the actor, facial hair techniques, prosthetics, and makeup design for specific applications.  We will be designing for our black box theater, so keep in mind that the audience is very close.

Students are expected to help Michael Oliver produce his plays by assisting with the makeup, particularly The Bacchae, from January 26, 2009 to February 14, 2009.  This is an important commitment, even though it will begin after class is over, and will not be graded.

 Focus skills:

Manage materials and time to accomplish goals

Work creatively

 Portfolio items:  Makeup Design Notebook and Makeup Morgue

 Grading:

Makeup Design Projects            60%

Class Participation                     20%

Makeup Morgue                        20%

Makeup Design Projects:

 #1 – The ingénue

#2 – The leading man

#3 – A middle-aged character

#4 – A very old character

#5 – A fantasy character

#6 – A character with prosthesis

#7 – A character with facial hair and baldness

#8 –A character with a mask

#9 –A kabuki character

#10 – A main character from The Bacchae

               You can make more than one design for #10 – You stand a better chance of                      your design being chosen.

Final Project

A character from The Bacchae based on the winning design.

The Makeup Design Notebook:  This will include a life-sized photograph of your self.  Each project is worth 100 points (5% of your grade) except the Final Project, which is worth 200 points (10% of your grade).  All projects must be photographed and entered into your makeup design notebook, accompanied with a completed makeup worksheet, the tracing worksheet, and a character profile worksheet. Michael will assist in judging the #10 project and will choose the winner. This design will inform the entire ensemble’s makeup for the play. The final project will be done for a specific actor in the play.

These designs will be graded be graded on completeness, creativity and technique.  On the due date of each design you will have that class period to execute the design on your own face.  You will have to be familiar with the materials and techniques to finish on time, and take a photo of the result.

Makeup Morgue:  This can be included in the Makeup Design Notebook, if it is large enough.  Over the course of the semester you should collect at least100 relatively large color pictures that illustrate such things as different parts of the face, hair styles, historic looks, fantasy makeup, facial hair ideas, male and female faces and features at different ages and different racial looks, wounds, scars, hair styles etc.  There must be annotation for each entry, and dividers indicating the category.  One category should be for The Bacchae.  You can find pictures from the Internet, magazines, photos you take of interesting faces, or a newspaper.  Worth 400 points, or 20% of your grade.  The makeup morgue will be graded 4 times during the semester.

Classroom Participation:  This will be worth 5 points per day, for a total of 20% of your grade.  This allows for 2 “free” absences – after that, you will lose 5 points per absence.

You will be graded each day for coming to class on time (1 point), having all your supplies (2 points), and participating in the class activity (2 points).

Class Supplies:

Liquid face soap

Astringent

Small Towel

Baby wipes, cold cream or other makeup remover

Old shirt that does not pull over the head

Disposable camera with flash or other camera of your choice.  This is so you can take   

   pictures all of your work

1 brown paper grocery sack, large

3-ring binder for Makeup Morgue

You will probably want to buy a personal makeup kit, for hygienic reasons, and so that you can practice your faces at home.  However, we will order all the makeup together to save on shipping costs. The kits cost $12-$16

 Home Supplies:

Makeup

Face soap

Astringent

Baby wipes, cold cream or other makeup remover

Colored pencils, for make-up designs on tracing paper and makeup worksheets

Remember to take home tracing paper, a makeup worksheet and a character profile chart to work on your makeup design projects.  You can get the last two online from my portaportal.com site.  On the right, go to Guest and type in carolgates, then click on the left triangle at Theater Makeup for the drop-down box, and click on what you want.