Mikado Makeup Class
On February 9, our cast was blessed by the presence of makeup artist George Dougherty, (yet another) former Hollywood relocatee to our native town. (George's impressive volume of work includes Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, E.T., and doing the Klingon makeup on Star Trek.).
George is very good — and a lot of fun! He didn't have time to "do" all of us, so he took a few victims from our cast of 32 and made up a girl, boy and one of our principals. Here are some of the highlights.
Meet Yara
Yara's blond hair and blue eyes are anything but Japanese.
I don't know why George selected Yara as a victim. Perhaps it was because she was helping Jordan and I hang the lights and she was hamming it up on stage. In any event, she was our first transformation — and a dramatic one with her blue eyes and thick blond hair. Here goes:
Step 1: Yara's massive blond do is tucked into a
"I'm robbing your convenience store" hat.
Step 2: Clown white grease paint is applied.
Love the lips, George!
Step 3: Lips.
Step 4: Eyebrows and shade.
The final result with wig and costume.
Contrast this image with the first image, above. Of course, we couldn't do anything about the blue eyes, which I personally found "wrong" looking because the rest of her looked O so very Japanese. And the really weird thing was that Yara started acting Japanese after this makeup was applied; she bowed and walked in small steps, served us tea, etc. Amazing.
Meet Jordan
Yup, Jordan is my boy. He was drafted into the Chorus at the last moment by the director, who also happens to be his mother. (He's a theater nut, too: he's in this play, the next play and the play after that as well.)
Yup, it's a John Belushi wig.
I made this shot extra big so you could see the line that George
is painting under Jordan's chin. The makeup is to look mask-like.
Unlike girls, Japanese boys in the Mikado have black lips and eyeliner. We (because I also get made up this way) also have black fingernail polish. The girls have red.
Far from the Blue Man Group, but turning very Japanese.
The final result.
Jordan had to keep his makeup on until he got home later that night. His little brothers, fond of using Mommy's makeup from time-to-time, were enthralled.
Parting Shot
Birds of a feather.
I read about this on the Internet, on the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 (somewhere), someone noted that the aliens on the show who wore similar makeup would eat lunch together. It's just human nature to gather together in groups that look like whatever you look like. In this case, after Yara got made up, she took a seat way off to house right all by herself. After Jordan got made up, he sat right next to her.
Okay, Dan. Where is your makeup?
Remember that this was only a class today; it was not a day for us all to get made-up. George is good, but he said it would take him a full week to make us all up individually. So we sat and watched.
Monday (February 11) is our next scheduled rehearsal, full dress with lights and makeup. I'll be updating this site then and you can see me in full makeup and dress. Oh, and I get to carry a sword. Cool.