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L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
20
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February 22 - March 19, 2016
Wigs and Makeup
SARAH HATTEN,
wigmaster and makeup designer
Our department’s biggest running crew this season is 14
for
Der Rosenkavalier
, where everyone has a wig – or two or
three! The crew’s average number is probably 12. We need the
maximum – as many as 26 – whenever we do
The Magic Flute
(for all the slaves in their green body makeup), and
Aida
(priests,
slaves, Egyptians, Ethiopians). The crews, hired on a show-by-
show basis, have varied backgrounds. Some went to school for
theater, while others are theater-loving cosmetologists who have
learned on the job.
Our principal makeup artists have a lot of experience
working one-on-one with performers, both in wigs
and
makeup.
In the average show, each of them may have from one to three
principal performers that they’ll be responsible for. For
Der
Rosenkavalier
, with 27 named roles, they have to take care of more
people and work faster!
We handle all kinds of fast changes. It was especially
challenging last season in
The Passenger
, in which Daveda Karanas,
who played Liese, went back and forth from 1960 to the 1940s –-
and
every
change was fast. Onstage there was a space in the ship’s
smokestack, and all Daveda’s changes took place there, since in
that show you couldn’t leave the stage without being seen. It was
dark, and Daveda was there with the wig/makeup person, dresser,
and stage manager – pretty tight quarters!
For any production, I note what’s required for principals, chorus,
supernumeraries, actors: do they need makeup? Makeup and beard?
Makeup, beard, and wig? Each person on the crew is then assigned
to what their specialty is. Our running sheet incorporates wardrobe,
wigs and makeup. It shows what crew member is responsible for
each person who’s onstage, and we make sure that crew member is
available for any wig and makeup changes.
To be good at this kind of work, you need the ability to read
people’s personalities very quickly. You also have to go with the
flow and make adjustments at any moment. We may have done
all the paperwork and set everything up, but it could all change
once we get onstage. Flexibility really is Number One.
Props
CHARLES REILLY,
property master
There are 16 of us on the props crew, although everyone
doesn’t work every show. When I have 14 guys – for example, in
this season’s
Der Rosenkavalier
and
Romeo and Juliet
-- it’s seven
on stage left, seven on stage right. It’s broken down to cues, which
we learn through the rehearsal process. We’re collaborating all the
time with wardrobe and wigs/makeup. For example, in
Nabucco
,
with a chorus of 82, our crew set up quick-change booths using
the whole width of the scenery-handling area backstage.
In performance, the trickiest show this season has been
Wozzeck
. The drapes needed to open right on the downbeat of
the music beginning each scene. For the highly synchronized
scene changes, every prop had to be ready for the singer, despite
it being pretty dark backstage. With
my full crew, as well as electricians
and carpenters, it was really poetry
in motion, how all the scene changes
worked for that show!
This season’s
Figaro
was tricky
because of the oversized bed in Act
Two. The designer wanted to fly it in,
but that couldn’t work, given its size
and what we would have had to clear
above it. We needed to carry it onstage,
and it took all departments joining in
to lift it! We had 90 seconds – a really
big scene change that had to be as quiet
as possible.
Principals’ wigs for
Der Rosenkavalier
, ready for the performance.
Makeup artist Deshawn Bowman at work before
Der Rosenkavalier.
The prop table for
Der Rosenkavalier,
one of the repertoire’s
most prop-heavy operas,