Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 125
Brian d’Arcy James required ninety minutes to put on his makeup to
play the title role in Shrek when he starred in the 2008 family-friendly
Broadway musical. © Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux
Duelist and would-be lover Cyrano de Bergerac has a large nose—
indeed, that’s the axis on which the entire plot of Edmond Rostand’s
romantic-era play of the same name turns. But most actors don’t have
giant noses, so makeup artists need to be experts in prosthesis—the
artificial extension or replacement of human body parts. Here normalnosed
Stephen Rea sports a skillfully created prosthetic proboscis,
overseen by Costume Designer John Bright, in a 2004 production of
the play at England’s National Theatre. © Geraint Lewis
Another realistic use of makeup seeks merely to
enhance the actor’s features in order to make them distinct
and expressive to every member of the audience.
This is known as creating a face that “reads” to the
house—that is, one that conveys its fullest expression
over a great distance. To achieve this effect, the makeup
artist exaggerates highlights and shadows and sharply
defines specific features such as wrinkles, eyelashes,
eyebrows, and jawlines. Such simplified, emboldened,
and subtly exaggerated makeup, combined with stage
lighting, creates an impression of realism far greater than
any that could be achieved by makeup or lighting alone.
Ceremonial makeup goes beyond realism altogether.
This category includes makeup that is stylized
or represents the actor as a superhuman presence. The
face painting of the traditional Chinese xiqu actor, for
example, like the mask of the Japanese nō performer
or the African shaman, can endow the person applying
it with at least the illusion (and perhaps the inner
feeling) of spiritual transcendence. Like the war paint
applied in tribal rituals, ceremonial makeup allows the
audience to imagine the performer becoming larger than
life—a divine ascendant to a higher world. This apparent
enhancement of the actor may even be thought of as the
“up” in “makeup.”