Mime Makeup
Unit(s): Stage Movement/Mime
Preparation: 1. Protect your costume from makeup. (Mime is usually performed very close to an audience and makeup will be noticed if it gets on the costume.) 2. Look at your face in the mirror. (Relax your fingertips, trace your jawbone from ear to ear: continue up along your hairline and back to your hairline and back to your ear. You have outlined your “Mask of Silence.”) 3. Splash your face with cold water to close the pores. (Dry your face) 4. Take the clown white tub and place warm water in the lid. Dip you fingertips in the warm water and then in the tub of clown white. (Start by spreading it on your face, starting at your hairline and moving down. Smooth it out evenly, but no thicker than is needed to cover your skin color. Cover your eyebrows and eyelids but not your lashes. Bring the makeup as close to your lower lashes as is comfortable.) 5. Smooth out the stroke lines. (Wipe off any excess white and smooth out the application by dipping the fingertips in the warm water. Clean up any stray white on neck, ears or hairline before continuing. Neatness is important creating the simplicity or traditional white face.) 6. Dab on white powder to set the cream. (Remove any excess powder with cotton balls or makeup brush. This is especially important if the performers are under heavy lights. This step can be eliminated without the heavy lights and the performers will not be perspiring.) 7. Create your new eyebrows. (Using your fingernails create two arches above your eyebrows that match. Fill the line with a stroke of black eyebrow pencil or liquid eyeliner.) 8. Outline your eyes. (Draw a line across the upper lid following your lashes. Extend the line slightly out to the side. Repeat on the over lid at the lash line, extending the line out and upward at the corner and connecting with the line on the upper lid.) 9. Draw a vertical line above and below your eyes. (Start the line just below your real eyebrow [now covered with whiteface] and continue it to approximately an equal distance below your eye. Since your muscles around your eyes contract when you close your eyes, you should draw these lines with your eyes open; then connect the upper and lower lines with a line across your closed eyelid.) 10. Outline your mouth. (Create your mouth in proportion to your other new features. It may be slightly larger or smaller than your real mouth.) 11. Fill in the outline of your mouth with red moist rouge. 12. Outline your whiteface with a black line. (The line should follow and enhance the
natural shape of your face.) 13, Spend some time in front of a mirror and experiment with smiles, eye movements, facial changing. 14. To take off the makeup use cold cream in small amounts and wipe off with theatrical paper. After all makeup is removed, wash face in warm water and dry. 15. Clean up the work area and put up the makeup for future use.