First Performance Make-up Do's and Don'ts

[hart]

My first performance is this Saturday. It is not the big performance, just a little preview at a museum. I really don't wear much make-up, period, so I just want to get some helpful feedback. What are the biggest differences between stage make-up and daily make-up in terms of its application? What is too much and what is not enough?

[Treefrog]

Hart -- will you be dancing at the Museum of Science and Industry, by any chance? Our kids are dancing there Sunday.

 

If so, normal street makeup will be fine (powder, blush, eyeshadow and eyeliner, lipstick, mascara). The stage is small, the audience is arrayed fairly closely to the stage, and the lighting is not much different from ambient.

 

I feel for you. I, too, seldom wear much makeup of any kind, so putting it on for a performance is a struggle! (I am in the party scene for our Nutcracker -- if you are interested in doing this next year, PM me!) The biggest challenge I've found is the eyeliner. Practice, practice, practice with that one! More than once, I've just created a big smear and had to abandon the whole thing as we got too close to curtain time.

[Garyecht]

Just as an aside, I vividly remember my first performance on stage before a paying audience that wanted to be entertained rather than watch someone they knew perform. There were 8 females and me, the only male. We had come to the end of our last rehearsals and everyone huddled on the floor to discuss---makeup. This huddle lasted an hour! I wanted to die, get sick, stick needles under my fingernails, anything to get out of there. It was painful.