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

126 Chapter 5 Designers and Technicians
Makeup reflects ancient roots. These young African women have applied bold geometric face paint in a centuries-old
design for their performance of a traditional dance-drama of the Ivory Coast based on an ancient hunting ritual. The
design, originally intended not merely to entertain an audience but to suggest a magical transformation into the spirit
realm, continues to carry at least the resonance of that meaning today. © Charles & Josette Lenars/Encyclopedia/Corbis
Some obvious examples of such traditional makeup
and “making up” are still evident, particularly in European
and Asian theatre. The makeup of the circus and
the classic mime, two formats that developed in Europe
out of the masked commedia dell’arte of centuries past,
both use bold colors: white, black, and sometimes red
for the mime and an even wider spectrum for the circus
clown. Avant-garde and expressionist playwrights also
frequently utilize similar sorts of abstracted makeup, as
does French dramatist Jean Genet in The Blacks, which
features black actors in clownish whiteface. The work
of some contemporary American playwrights, such as
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Ntozake Shange, ironically
and critically draws on the shameful legacy of white performers
using “blackface” makeup. And Asian theatre
has always relied on the often dazzling facial coloring
(and mane-like wigs and beards) of certain characters in
Japanese kabuki, Indian kathakali, and Chinese xiqu—
not to mention the violently expressive makeup often
seen in contemporary avant-garde productions in Tokyo.
In some productions, however, particularly in
smaller theatres, actors go onstage with no makeup at
all. Some directors, particularly in realistically acted
plays, approve of this, believing it adds to the naturalness
of the characters. Other directors, particularly in
musicals or broad comedies, dislike it because they feel
the actors’ faces will “wash out in the lights.” There is
no fixed consensus on this debate, but avoiding makeup
altogether does bypass the initial reasons for makeup’s
creation: to announce the actor as a performer and to
call upon the supernatural, mysterious, and thoroughly
theatrical elements of the theatre. Theatre artists have