Into the Woods week 10

Into the Woods 

Evaluation

week commencing 09.05.22

setup

This week we planned to go over the

arc to get set up and make sure we know our way around everywhere, figure out where our rooms are, watch rehearsals, see the size of the stage, see what the lighting is like and get

comfortable with the actors.  

Thursday - Show day! We were in from 10am on the morning to make sure we were all organised and the

makeup room was all set up with each

station having face charts and names and all our makeup set out ready to go.

We also had spare stations set up that we could use for doing hair as the room only had so many plug sockets so this would save us reaching over people’s makeup stations.

I love to be really organised and ready for anything I am the type of person to over prepare and make sure I have everything I could possibly need, whether that be a 100 brushes to make sure there is no cross contamination between actors, extra makeup choices incase looks change or I end up doing looks I hadn't planned on, deodorant! we get really warm and each show I've worked on someone has asked me for some at one point or another etc. I think this helps me stay flexible and feel prepared for anything that could change on the night.

The show didn’t start until 7pm which would give us a lot of time to do hair and makeup around the actor's rehearsals and mic checks etc.

stepsisters hair

We did have a makeup and hair schedule made for both Thursday and Friday but due to us not knowing the actors schedule we just had to grab the actors as we could when the director was able to spare someone, by 2.30pm we managed to get about half of the hairs done then they were needed to do a full-dress rehearsal which meant we now had to wait for this to be finished as we weren't able to take any of them through it.            The show is 2 and a half hours long, so this took us up to 5 o’clock makeup start (we originally had this planned for 3pm). As a group we were starting to get a bit anxious so we made sure we were fully set up to go and decided that since the schedule was already out the window, that we wouldn’t go with our set characters and just grab which ever actor was free and get them ready as some of the makeup looks where simpler that others, we didn’t have time for any of the actors to be waiting about for set MUA’s.  

Earlier this day we had two actors come down and find us to say they needed hair and makeup doing for the show as they had just been told they are in the show for a couple of minutes right at the end. I remembered this while we were sat waiting so I went and found them to see if we could steal them away and get their hair and makeup done while we were waiting for the rehearsal to be done.

They had decided to already do their hair and makeup, but I asked them to still come down so Libby and I could just check over it and see if anything needed changing. My actor had previously tried to curl her hair but it had dropped out and was quite frizzy so I redone this for her, also her makeup was really light for stage, so I used my contour palette to add some definition and colour to her face I also added some definition to her eye socket and topped the makeup off with a nice pink blush, she already had a strong red lip herself. 

 

one of the extras

Once we finally managed to get the actors down to finish hair and makeup it was already half 5 which meant it was all hands-on deck to get everyone finished and ready for stage. We were all stressed out about this but didn’t panic and got the job done in time! We just treated today as a dress rehearsal for us as we didn’t manage to have one including the makeup looks before this.

I would say the stepmothers makeup was the one I was most looking forward to doing as this was my own design and this look was one of the few that has been the same right from the very start of the planning. The actor playing the stepmother commented that she was 'the most glamours granny' she loved the look!

This was one of the problems we had ran into throughout the planning of the show, I was told a couple of weeks back that this actor was double case and would now be playing Little Red Riding Hoods Granny! This massively stressed me out, as this makeup had been signed off from the start and I was really not looking forward to another change but I also know this is all part of being a makeup artist and remaining flexible as much as we can to fit around the directors vision. Once I had spoken with the director himself about this problem, he told me this wasn't a makeup change and the actor was just going to change costume and put on a head scarf.

stepmother (Thursday)

I was really happy to hear this! I managed to take a few photos while this was going on and after looking back on them, I could see where I wish I had of had more time to correct things such as the lips on the stepmother where patchy on my photos. I did try to get backstage to find the 
actor before she went onto to correct this but she was already on the stage, from the audience 

point of view this wasn't noticeable at all just my own personally view.

I also manage to do the stepsisters makeup this night, these where my original hair and makeup looks I had scheduled to do already, other than I didn't have time to do the stepmothers hair this time and one of the others stepped in and done this for me my schedule pretty much stuck too.

one of the stepsisters

This night Kaitlyn, Libby and I choose to watch the show and the other four MUA’s stayed backstage for the quick-change overs we had. While we watched the show, we also took notes on how the makeup looked from the audience and under the lights so that we would be able to amend anything for tomorrows shows. 

 

Notes

  

• Rapunzel – darken the purple, maybe outline and this wasn’t strong enough on stage

• Cinderella – darken the contour once she changes over, sort her hair out as all the curls fell out

• Stepsister – add a bit more contour, looked really pale, add lip colour 

• Stepsisters – made the eye makeup bigger and bolder couldn’t really see it 

• Witch – looked amazing! 

• Red Riding Hood – looked amazing! 

• Rapunzel's hair match looked good from stage would never tell she had

• brown hair! 

• Stepmother’s makeup really stood out! 

• All the actors where amazing! 

• 
  

I was so glad to see that the Wolf mask worked really well on the stage as when I had made this as a solution to our quick change over for the actor between becoming the wolf and the prince, I had been worried that it might have been to big and cover to much of the actors facial expressions, but by placing it onto his head almost as if it was a cap really did work well. The mask also helped the audience visualise the Wolf more than what some of our other makeup ideas for the wolf had. I did add some sponge to the inside of the mask on the day just to add a bit of comfort to the mask as it was a bit hard on his face and I didn't want it to be uncomfortable for him.

The Wolf mask made then actually on stage!

Friday - We got to the arc for 10am again today as we knew things would be a lot quicker today as there were two shows on, the first one being at 2pm. Once all the MUA's were in I shared the notes Libby and I had taken for the previous night and discussed how we could improve things for today not just the makeup looks but the whole lead up to the shows as well. The actors and director were already coming down into the room by this point so we got straight on with the actors hair while we had them, which didn't end up being for long as they were needed at half 10 for another rehearsal. I was half way through my actors hair so just asked her to leave it how it was, pinned up and I would finish it off when she was next free, at least we manage to get some things either done or started before they needed to leave again making less work for when they returned.

while all the actors were rehearing myself, Libby & Kaitlyn nipped out for a little break, we made sure this was OK with the others first and told them to ring us if they needed us. It wasn't long and we got a call saying the actors were back, we went back down into the room and I got straight on and finished the stepmothers hair off then continued onto her makeup.

The director had noted this morning that he loved all the looks we did for the show but if we were able to make any of them bigger he would love this, so as we had time today we all agreed on the characters that can go bigger to make them more over the top or add more gems or sparkle to give the director just what he wanted.

stepmother (Friday)

I loved the fact I managed to do both the hair and makeup for the stepmother today as I had chosen both of these in the planning and I would get to see exactly what I have envisioned for the character in my head. I did go bigger in my design slightly still making sure it was the same design as was planned. I made the wing shape of the eye makeup even bigger and took it further out and also brought it more in towards the bridge of her nose, I also added a gold glitter on top of the shimmer to give the look extra sparkle and also added more contour and blush to the actors face. I made sure I double checked the lip was good before I was all done with this look. I think the makeup definitely looked better today even though I loved it yesterday 🙈 I believe there is always room for improvement when it comes to makeup.

(left) Thursdays makeup                      (right) Friday's makeup 

I love getting feedback from the actors, while I was doing her makeup Loraine (the stepmother) told me how much she loved the look and that she had had lots of comments on the look the night before.

Once I had finished with the stepmother I got straight on with the stepsisters hair, while I done this Kaitlyn was doing this actors make up, I did give Kaitlyn a little encouragement along the way as she tends to doubt her abilities even though we all believe in her and know she is fully capable of doing the makeup looks sometimes she just needs a little reassurance. Since there was only Libby & I that can do the hair styles for the sisters and we were both busy doing these, I had another actor waiting for me to do her makeup, I let Ella take this one as she was finished with her looks and since this was only Cinderella's basic makeup look this would only take her a little amount of time but would save the actor having to wait around for myself. I was more looking forward to doing Cinderellas change over between the show.

 

once everyone was finished we did a quick hairspray on the actors to make sure there hair wouldn't move! hopefully this would all stay in ready for tonight's show as well. 

We discussed as a group who would be doing the quick change overs this afternoon as we all can't fit into the room backstage neither will we all be needed. we decided since myself, Libby and Kaitlyn were already doing them tonight as the other MUA's will be watching the show that they could do the change overs this afternoon and we will sort the two extra actors out again while the show is on. 

After the first performance on Friday was finished we had a feeling the actors would be going straight to grab something to eat as they hadn't had change all day but we made sure we were down in the makeup room just in case ready for when they are. We knew we wouldn't have as much to do this afternoon, would be mostly touch ups, maybe redone some curls, and put Cinderella and Jack's mothers makeup back to being poor as they are the two makeup changes throughout the show. 

I really enjoyed getting to work with the higher education actors, they are all so lovely and appreciate everything you do for them. I use to be such a nervous/anxious person especially around new people which is something I'm massively learning to over come, and people like this make it so much easier. They are all so lovely to talk to which helps us keep them calm before their shows and in turn keeps us calm. I thought this whole experience was going to be a lot more stressful than it was. The atmosphere was always rather 'chill' even when we were under pressure!

We got everyone's touch ups done, whether this was just a bit of extra powder, or correcting makeup. The stepmother came to me as her lip makeup had somehow managed to get all around her lips, she noted she had been touching her mouth a fair bit throughout the show. I fixed this no problem for her, redone her lip and touched up her powder. I added to the stepsisters makeup making the purple lines bigger and adding the purple also underneath the eye, and giving her a purple lip instead of the nude she had previously had. 

More little changes but I think it works!

(left) stepsister Thursday                 (right) stepsister Friday

Since this was our last show we made sure we packed the room back up and cleaned the tops and mirrors down the only things we left out were the hair and makeup bits we needed for the change overs as tonight was our turn to wait backstage we went upstairs and set our things out ready, we knew we had roughly 20 minutes before Cinderella's change over so we went and grabbed a quick drink before going back to wait in the room. 

I really enjoyed being backstage it seemed like we were more involved in the show this way, we had the dressing room door open while we were waiting as it was so hot backstage and we didn't have any windows or ventilation in the room, god knows how the actors cope being on stage under the lights as well! we got our things set out ready for Cinderella coming backstage as we knew we only had a really small amount of time before she was needed back onstage, I discussed with the others that if we all take separate 'to do' things on her that the look should go really quickly. I would do her eyelids and add the extra powder and contour to her face while Kaitlyn and Libby worked on getting all the gems stuck on her face

 

When she came in one of the other actors got her quickly out of her costume and into her dress then she sat down ready for us, I quickly pinned her fringe out of the way and dabbed her face with some tissue as she was really hot (obviously) we got to work on our little tasks trying not to get in each other's way to much but with 6 hands on her face this was going to happen 🙈 I decided not to do the winged liner on her eyes as the silver i had used and the glitter made it sparkle enough not to mention the gems! I added a bit of gloss to her lip to take away the matt look and as her curls had dropped out and her hair was looking a bit messy I just twisted the curls on either side together to make this look tidy and she was done!

(left) Cinderella poor - makeup done by Ella             (right) Cinderella princess change over

We managed to change Cinderella over to a Princess in just 3 minutes! 

This was only possible by us all working together as a team! This was the one thing I was nervous about through out the planning knowing we only had a really small amount of time for this change over. 

Yes the makeup was far from perfect, not exactly what I had planned out for her (I made the face-chart when we thought we had the full 20 minute interval to change her) but I had came up with a solution to this quick change which I shared with the other MUA's yesterday before they did the change over and made sure they had the makeup to do this. 

 The overall look being for theatre, I think worked really well.  

Now Cinderella was done we didn't have nothing to worry about all we had left to do was Jack's mothers change over and a couple of touch ups if needed through the interval.

We decided we would all just work together again on these. 

We had Josh (the actor who played the wolf, now the prince) come to us as he had a couple of black marks on his face off the mask this was a easy fix, i just removed the black and touched up with a bit of foundation.

I was giving the actor playing Rapunzel a touch up of powder and she asked if i could add some sparkle to her look, i went over her purple eye makeup in a purple/pink glitter to just add that extra touch. 

Loraine (the stepmother) came in for a touch up on her lips.

While I was doing this Libby and Kaitlyn took some tissue and powder to check over the actors that didn't come to us, as once the second half was starting again we would be packing the rest of the makeup up and heading home. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this show and am really sad its over, just as you get into the swing of things I could easily have done this longer! 

I loved getting to collaborate with all the other departments involved in APTA. I love seeing how creative everyone is not just my team, but the actors and directors also, seeing how they bring characters to life, how they make the set,. how props are made I think is amazing! 

the Giant in the top right hand corner

so creative with the set made out of random things

Jack with Milky White nicknamed Chanel by the makeup team (made by my fellow MUA's) 

   Since getting our final assignment back in March, we have had to work together as a team (I think we have always done this really well) and also collaborate with the HE actors and directors.
I think it's fair to say we are a mixed group when it comes to ability's and we have some stronger members than others but we all used this as a good thing and played to our strengths knowing we are all trying to get the same outcome at the end.
For example some of us aren't particularly strong readers (myself included in this I have dyslexia) so instead of everyone breaking the script down two of our team decided to do this then feedback all the information that applies to us as MUA's. 
I'm good with numbers and looking for bargains so I volunteered to do the budget also roping Libby into this along side me.
Other people aren't as confident doing sketch book work so they focused more on our folder work, care cards, allergy tests etc.
We all worked to our strengths just making sure we all still done our fair share of the work! I'd say overall we are really good at communicating as a team and also with others, making sure we take everyone;s points and ideas on board but also getting ours across if we run into a problem.
Looking back through the directors ideas from the start to how the show ended up been, I think it changed a little, this could have been from when we have shared our ideas and mood-boards with him. It didn't end up as council estate/90's chav as he planned as he liked our thoughts on more the hungry games and the 100 vibes having the big difference between the rich and the poor characters, when I shared our ideas with the actors themselves they also preferred this style as they were in charge of there own costumes and they had more ideas for these type of looks. I believe the director had been really happy with everything we have brought to the table throughout the production planning most of the feedback we got was that 'I love it! but don't be afraid to go bigger!' sometimes this wasn't possible due to characters but were we could we did!
          I think we made the actors designs and hairstyles really suit the characters which always helps them get into their roles even more. 

Since the show we had discussed as a group what we thought of the overall makeup looks now that we had blown up images to see and if we had to redo a look what we would change and why. I choose to recreate Rapunzel's makeup look and see if I could improve it the way I would of if the show would have been on for longer. 

Rapunzel done by Libby

The makeup above was the Rapunzel done by Libby on one of the show nights although this was a beautiful makeup we thought the look itself could have been bigger and stronger some how. 

Rapunzel done by me 

The makeup above is the redesigned and improved makeup look for Rapunzel that if we had to do this again this would be a better choice than the previous look. I have made the eye shape bigger and brighter, I also added a shimmer shade over the top of this to make it stand out even more so I've outlined the shape and added bigger different coloured gems. I've used a gel liner to make the wing a lot stronger, I kept the base makeup just as strong as Libby had done then added a bright pink, over drawn lip to finish off the look. I think this all really does elevate the makeup design, and fits into what the director is always wanting which is for us to do bigger! 

I can't wait for my next opportunity to collaborate and work on another show with everyone again!