MAY
24

Simple Stage Costuming and Make-up Tips

By Margaret F. Johnson 

During her thirty-seven years as a drama teacher, Margaret F. Johnson also served as the Montana State Thespian Director from 1972–1992 and established the yearly state convention in partnership with the University of Montana.  She has directed over 190 productions, from children’s theatre to full-blown musicals.  She is also the author of The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide books. 

One of the joys of retirement is being involved with our local community theatre, allowing me, as my husband says, “To chew some scenery!”  Each time I’ve been cast, I learned something new.  The idiom about the old dog isn’t true.  This old dog has learned several “new tricks” that I’d love to share with you:  disguising girls as boys, creating easy animal costumes, using simple makeup applications for aging, and making a super easy hair gel.  Even if you can’t use these tips now, I hope you archive this article in case one of these tips might help you in the future.

Disguising Girls as Boys

You know that whenever you need to cast a crowd of boys (pirates, gangs, lost boys, etc.), there never seems to be enough of them trying out.  Why not cast girls?  I’m not saying change the roles to girls, but costume the girls so they present themselves as boys.  With these three steps, most girls can give the illusion onstage of being a male:  making sure the costume is loose to hide the female figure, covering the hair with a hat, scarf or bandanna, and emphasizing the eyebrows and adding some facial hair.

I was cast as a male pirate in The Pirates of Penzance.  First, the costumer gave me a pair of short pants, a loose shirt, a vest, and a sash.  Since the clothing was baggy, it effectively hid my figure.  Second, I needed to cover my hair.  I put my hair in a ponytail and covered it with a scarf.  Finally, adding bushy eyebrows and a beard completed the transformation.  The eyebrows are often overlooked, but are a great way to transform a female’s face into a man’s, especially if the man is supposed to be older.  Use clown white or brown eyeliner, but try not to use stark black unless you are going for a stylized look.

Creating Easy Animal Costumes

In Seussical, I learned a wonderful, easy make-up tip along with a great way to costume animals.  I was Yertle the Turtle, the judge at the end of the show.  The director also decided that the turtle be included in other scenes.  I was very happy to be in just one scene but we do what the director wants, right?

After observing several turtles at a local pet store, I realized one thing that makes a turtle unique is how it moves, particularly with its tongue and mouth.  I used an eyebrow pencil to make the lines around and over the mouth, and I tried to use a brush and clown white to do the highlight.  Unfortunately, this was difficult, and it smeared.  After two evenings of muddy lips, I came up with a brilliant idea — why not use the lightest under eye concealer (CG Invisible)?  Voilà!  It didn’t smear and stayed on throughout the run of the show, even after drinking water.  Several days later I added the brown lips using the eyebrow pencil as a lip liner.  (Lovely wig, isn’t it?)

Our production also included yellow and purple monkeys.  The designer needed to create a costume that would allow the actors to move easily — they had to swing on rings suspended from the ceiling among other climbing activities.  She started with a yellow turtleneck and yellow tights.  Then made the “crop top” and bloomers out of purple fur.  I suppose you could use sweats, however, I don’t think they would be as effective as the fake fur.  She also added wrist and ankle bands, which were visually wonderful.  Makeup for the monkeys was very simple — just clown white around the mouth.

Beyond this, it was up to the actor to create the animal with gestures and actions along with various sounds.  Especially for children’s theatre, the simplicity of this costume would work well for any animal you need to dress.  It lets the actor be creative and come up with a great variety of movements and gestures to convey the animal, then invites the audience to use their imaginations.

Simple Makeup Applications for Aging

While playing Old Sally in Oliver, I learned about under eye makeup.  She was a drunken sot who dies in her one scene just after admitting to stealing Oliver’s mother’s locket when his mother died giving birth to Oliver.  Again I started with white eye brows.  I decided to darken my teeth, have a cough, and make myself look like I was on death’s door.

I used the eyebrow technique I had used for the pirate, adding dark purple shadow above and below my eyes.  It carried much better than dark brown or black.  Next came the creases to my upper and lower lips with brown liner much like Yertle.  Finally, I added the crease lines between my eyes.  I also was very lucky to have a great costume that enhanced this very simple makeup.

Making a Super Easy Hair Gel

When directing Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck needed to have spikey hair.  We tried everything from sprays to gels and nothing worked.  As a last resort we tried Knox gelatin, and it worked great.  I’ve used this same hair gel in other roles where I felt the hair had to be severe, such as a version of Marge Schott in Damn Yankees and Dr. Sawyer in The Miracle on 34th Street.

This recipe works like a charm:  Mix one package of gelatin with 1/3 cup hot water.  Allow it to stand for several minutes, and then heat it up in a microwave till it is clear.  After cooling, comb through the hair and set it in the style you want.  When the rehearsal/performance is over, all you have to do is wash the hair.