 Yertle the Turtle One of the joys of retirement is being involved with our local community theatre and being cast in various musicals. I am still re-cooping from Seussical where I was Yertle the Turtle, the judge at the end of the show when Horton is put in trial for talking to a speck, loitering and sitting on an egg. The director also decided that the turtle be included in other scenes—“McElligot’s Pool,” “Chasing the Whos,” “Circus McGurkus,” and “Solla Solew.” I was very happy to be in just one scene, but we do what the director wants, right? As I was a member of the chorus the makeup was very simple—cheekbones, nasal labial, eyebrows and eyes—making everyone somewhat alike. The costumes were simple as well, jumpsuits with added headgear—fish, hands, etc. Even though I was in the chorus, I wasn’t costumed like them but rather as a turtle, so I decided at the last minute that the one thing that made a turtle unique was his mouth. I used an eyebrow pencil to make the lines around the mouth and tried to use a brush and clown white to do the highlight, but it was difficult and smeared. After two evenings of muddy lips I then came up with a brilliant idea—why not use the lightest under-eye concealer (CG Invisible)? And VIOLA—success! It didn’t smear and stayed on throughout the run of the show, even after drinking water. This should work well for any of your students who have trouble with age makeup, if aging is absolutely necessary. (See Chapter 18 on hair and makeup in The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide) It might be more expensive than clown white, but the results will be well worth it. As I am an "older" individual, I didn’t need to do much with the nasal labial—no highlight required. Several days later I added the brown lips using the eyebrow pencil as a lip liner. (Lovely wig, isn’t it?) Next time, we will talk about a great animal costume. |
