Magic behind the scenes
Hair and makeup often unsung talents of the stage
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
ARVIAT
While actors and directors enjoy the adulation of the crowd and the attention of the critic's quill, others quietly dedicate a lifetime's worth of talent behind the curtain.
Kim Dymond gives some new life to Rose Kalluak's hair as she prepares for her role of Piffle the Elf during the Arviat production of Dear Santa this past month. - photo courtesy of Damaris Nutarasungnik |
Performers tug at heartstrings, thrill emotions, whisk audiences away on journeys of fantasia and fill theatres with the soul-cleansing sound of laughter, but their talent would find it hard to soar so highly without the magic and reality created by those who toil behind the scenes.
A show's music, special effects and costumes are art forms in themselves, but those who apply makeup and style hair bring an audience into the actor's world with a delicate touch.
Far from the big budgets of Broadway and the pomp and dignity of the Stratford Festival, the importance of their abilities cannot be understated in the world of community theatre.
Kim Dymond and her student volunteers do makeup for John Arnalukjuak High School's Arviat Drama Club.
Dymond said they consult with director Gord Billard and the actors themselves when preparing for a performance.
She said they make sure the hairstyles used are not what the actors would wear in normal life, fit the characters being portrayed and are almost always something fun.
"Some of the boys had longer hair in our recent production of Dear Santa, so we curled it up and out, which they would not normally do, but it made them look like little elves" said Dymond.
"For Santa Claus, we had to get wigs and a fake beard to glue onto the actor using stage glue for hair pieces.
"We had two wigs for the show so we had one for normal Santa, and one for when he went for the ride with the sleigh salesman."
The female student volunteers helping Dymond are members of the school's Skills Nunavut hair club.
Dymond said Billard tells her who is playing what role a week or two before the show, and she seeks them out to see the length of their hair and what they can do with it.
She has everything ready to create their magic when her volunteers arrive for dress rehearsal.
"I talk to the girls to see who's most comfortable doing what styles, and we practise during the dress rehearsal or the day before.
"I can't do braiding at all, but I have two volunteers with me right now who are phenomenal at it.
"They have amazing skills, so I let them be creative with the styles they're doing.
"I tell them what I'm looking for in some characters and let them do the rest."
Dymond has been helping with the Arviat casts for about five years and cites the Grinch as her most memorable character.
She said the Grinch's hairstyle was, by far, the messiest she's had to deal with.
"Gord (Billard) did the makeup on his face, and I donned gloves, jelled his hair and put in the green makeup. Everything the Grinch touched was green and, at the end of the night, we had quite a job washing his hair out before he went home.
"It was the messiest and funniest job I've done."
Courtney Cribb has been helping the troupe with its makeup for the past two years.
Cribb runs the Skills Nunavut cosmetology club and also uses its members for the stage productions.
She said Dear Santa went quite smoothly for the group, as she had six girls who were there all the time.
"There wasn't a huge number of characters in this production, so each of the girls knew they had two characters to work on," said Cribb.
"In the past we've had times when the cast arrived close to show time and that really slowed us town because we were trying to do all the characters at the same time.
"Timing really is the huge issue."
Cribb said makeup helps young actors become their characters.
She said some tend to be a little nervous when it's their first time having makeup applied.
"Once you get the make-up on, however, you can see the actors gain more confidence and get excited.
"You can tell they're ready to go on-stage.
"Lots of times the characters aren't supposed to look attractive - like the ugly stepsisters - but the kids have been practising for months and have an expectation of how they're going to appear.
"When they finally see what they look like, they're usually pretty excited because they feel it makes them look more believable in their role."
Cribb said her group goes through a lot of wipes, makeup sponges and brush cleaners during an average show.
She said they ran out of sponges during this year's performance.
"The girls were trying to use anything that might work, like little dry cloths, little cotton pads and even their fingers.
"They had to get in there and figure it out on the fly.
"When it comes to what we do, it's important for the audience to believe the characters they see on stage.
"But it's even more important for the actors to feel like they're the characters because, when it comes down to it, it's all about how they feel going out on that stage, so that's really our goal."
