As a lead up to the Halloween celebration at Caribbean International Academy (CIA), grades 11 and 12 students had a great way to get the primary students excited not only about Halloween, but the subject drama as well.
As part of the drama programme at CIA, students learned all about the different ways that masks and theatre make-up are used, one of these ways being that people can play a totally different character.
The drama teacher, Ms. Sylvia Carty, decided to spice things up by having the students complete their theatre makeup segment by actually having to face-paint live models.
Montessori and CIA Primary students were more than willing to help accomplish this!
Over the course of two days, some 80 primary school students had their faces painted, and left very pleased with their newly painted scary, silly and artistic looking faces.
In the two weeks prior, the older students learned to research makeup looks and prepare worksheets which they then used to create the real painted faces. Painting all of those faces taught the students to try new things as they explored their creativity, and it was lots of fun!
Ms. Carty said that the project was a great success, and that the students gained confidence and had much more talent than they initially gave themselves credit for.
Before this big day, the same students also painted each other’s’ faces as part of the drama course. They started off by learning about different makeup styles, how to research styles for the project, and of course about the application of makeup.
Each student had to do research, prepare worksheets and be ready to be tested on their knowledge and skills. They then painted each other’s faces during a two-day test.
They had to pick two of the following categories: Horror, Fantasy, Clown, Drama, Animals and Old. Despite many doubts in regard to their artistic abilities, they set to work, surprising themselves with their skills and how much fun it was.
On the BIG DAY, the drama students spent hours using water-based body paint to turn their young friends’ faces into works of art. The paint they used was safe for sensitive skin. It could be easily removed with a washcloth, water and soap; but of course, the young models enjoyed their face paint and wore it as long as possible.
Theatrical makeup may be as old as Halloween itself. Halloween is a prime occasion where the line between the day-to-day and the theatrical comes together and is celebrated!
Makeup is played with; and skeletons, witches and goblins appear. Students had the freedom to have their creative way. Some exaggerated their spooky designs while others opted for the cute and silly side of things. Others chose to follow in the good ole days of drama/comedy masks.
All in all, theatrical makeup has paved the way for many modern genres of makeup. It’s a fascinating realm. Even though this was a graded assignment for the drama students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the application of stage makeup, they expressed how satisfying it was to achieve a makeup application that their models could enjoy and wear with pride.
