Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Evaluation

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 

Show Nights

Evaluation 

A few pictures of my work

There were four shows over three nights the 18th-19th-20th January with two of the shows being on the 19th January. Each day I would make sure I was professional in both my behaviour and appearance, including making sure my kit was cleaned each night ready to use again the next day. I would say I was one of the MUA's that took charge and tired to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible, whether that was keeping an eye on the schedule, finding solutions to any issues that popped up, communicating, and helping the other MUA's if they needed a hand with anything. 

On the second night of the shows we had one of our year one MUA's off bad, so the makeup looks she was scheduled to do needed to be split between myself and the other MUA's. We looked through the schedule and shuffled things around to make timings work with the extra looks. I was able to fit one of her characters into my time lots on both the 4pm and 7pm shows that night. One thing I realised though out this, is that I enjoyed it even more the busier the night was. The Tuesday we give ourselves a lot more time than we needed to get everyone sorted, so when it came to the Wednesday we changed out timings and started working later. This was also our night with two shows and two MUA's down so we were a lot busier and there was constantly something to do which I find is always better than just sitting around and waiting! You don't feel like you have been there as long when you are always busy.

One of the actors who played Grandpa Joe really did not like having to have the beard put on as it irritated him, but as the show had parts that had previously been filmed the beard needed to be used. So to show some understanding and empathy towards the actor we shuffled the schedule around and moved his makeup until the latest we could, which meant he had the beard as little time as possible. Also while applying the beard I was informed that he had trouble speaking with the beard close to his mouth so I tried to keep the wool as neat as possible around the mouth area and didn't put the hair above his lip instead I used clown white to fill in above his lip to help the look still blend together. I kept checking to make sure he was happy as I was doing his makeup, even checking in with the director to let her know about his concerns and how i planned on accommodating as much as I could. He said he also didn't like the beard being to messy but as this is part of the characters look I couldn't tidy the beard to much so I just used hairspray to help keep the beard in place and hopefully not irritate him to much.

I have learnt that teamwork and communicating with your other MUA's is the most important thing for working on a show like this! there were times when some of the MUA's hadn't communicated with us what their intentions for the night was which could have left us with just myself and one other MUA for all the changes backstage if this hadn't of become known in time! The whole performance would not have been able to happen without teamwork between all the MUA's, we all had to help each other out and jump in wherever was needed when we were finished with our actors or ask another MUA to jump in and help with yours. This was even more important during the makeup change overs while the show was live. We had to get the actors changed from their original characters into their next characters and back on stage in roughly 25-30 minutes with only a handful of MUA's to do this. We had between 5 and 7 makeup and wig changes to do each night depending which cast was on, so we all had to jump in with each other doing wig caps and wigs while the other is finishing the makeup off and get done as quickly as possible.

Throughout the shows we were constantly trying to keep the makeup department clean and tidy, making sure everywhere was disinfected at the end of each night where possible between each actor. On the last night during the makeup change overs for the show the fire alarm went off and the whole college got evacuated. This was of course unexpected but as soon as we were told there was no fire we got straight back into the building and got the actors finished up with either their hair or makeup ready to go back on stage. The upside to this was some of the actors that where already of stage got a chance to get a quick touch up if needed or in some cases just a pat down to dry them off and some more powder added.

I really loved working on this production and with the other MUA's including some of the second year MUA's who helped out with the makeup as mush as they could, one of the second years in particular helped out with everything myself or the other MUA's needed whether it was makeup, wrapping hair, wigs, moustaches she would be up for helping. We all tired to support each other wherever we could, making sure makeup looks where strong enough, or correcting when they were blended to much, taking working photos for our evidence, checking in with each other to make sure we were all managing. I feel there is still a divide in our group and we tend to split in two groups still but this is something we all need to work on.

Sarrah’s evaluation.

 

Sarrah has shown a whole range of skills during and before the Charlie production. She completed a great deal of the planning and played a big part in the making of the face charts. She instinctively took charge from the begging and was constantly on people finding out had been done and what still needed doing. Sarrah helped me a lot when I needed help with some of the actors when they wanted a change to the makeup or when I needed help with putting the wigs on the Oompa Loompa. 

 

I think Sarrah showed empathy in her work as one of the actors got a bit upset over the show and he came in crying so Sarrah immediately comforted him and reassured him that tomorrow would be better and he calmed down a little bit after that she also offered him a hug as well. She also showed a great deal of problem solving as one of the other actors who played a main part as grandpa joe which required a beard however the actor wasn’t comfortable with getting a full beard on, but it was necessary that he had a full one. So, Sarrah had to tell him that he couldn’t not have one on which didn’t create the best atmosphere, but she kept going and finished the rest of the makeup reassuring him the whole way through. 

 

Sarrah also showed a good example of teamwork and communication as if anyone had a problem she was the first to step in and help solve it she also stepped in when one of our team members was ill and she took over one of the makeups she was supposed to do on top of her own that she was already doing. This also was shown when it was the late shows as we needed around 5 people to stay back, and she stayed for 2 of the 3 nights until around 9 and there was a bit of a communication problem on one of the nights with the other team members but she was one to sort it quickly as some wanted to watch the show but suggested that 2 stay and the rest could go. 

 

By Libby Todd.