Transforming into Baba
In April, I performed with my ensemble in our new tragedy, Citizens of Nowhere. I played an elderly character, the great grandmother in the family, who we referred to as "Baba".
Being twenty-seven years old at the time (I'm twenty-eight now) I was going to need a little theatre magic to create the illusion of old age.
The Tools, the Time
Every night before the show, I sat down for one and a half hours carefully painting my face and hands. It was long and focused work, but doing stage makeup and transforming into a role is a labor of love for me.
The tools necessary included:
Ben Nye creme makeup
Blue Eyeliner pencil
Ben Nye snow white hair makeup
Ben Nye Translucent Fair Setting Powder
Brushes, stippling sponge, and powder puff
Black Costume Tooth Wax
Makeup, brushes and sponges - well-used bits and bobs.
My Models
I found these photographs and used them as my source material. I tried to pick pictures of women who looked like my own older relatives and seemed to have similar face structures to my own.
I was fascinated by the way the eyes hollow over the eyelids, and the prominence of the nasolabial folds --- those are the lines going from above the nostrils to down next to the corners of the mouth. After some initial experiments I found that these areas were most important for creating the appearance of very old age.
Why yes, I did use a stock photo on the right. The name of the file was "bored lady".
Techniques from the Greats
One of the key methods used to change the apparent structure of a face is chiaroscuro. Based on the methods developed in Renaissance painting, chiaroscuro uses contrasting areas of light and dark paint to create the illusion of depth.
In theatre makeup, the light areas of paint are called "highlights" and the dark areas are called "shadow".
Chiaroscur-OH YES!
STEP 1
After applying a base layer of middle-toned base makeup, I began with rough strokes of shadow. These spots will be blended to varying degrees.
STEP 2
I followed the shadow with highlight. A general rule to follow is apply a highlight that corresponds to every shadow.
STEPS 3 & 4
I blended shadows and highlights to help make the effect natural. Then, I went in with a brown eyeliner pencil and fine brush with shadow to create all the detail lines.
I love this picture -- it's where the character really starts to come alive.
Please also observe my ensemble partner Jordan in the background doing his own old age makeup.
STEP 5
If I had the opportunity to do makeup like this again, I would experiment more between the last step and this one. I used my stippling brush to add a layer of random shadow and highlight all over the face. This just ended up covering all the good work I had already done and making it appear less prominent.
Another look...
These are images of about the same step, taken on another night. You can see some of the jaw and neck details I used. You can also see how I painted my hair white. At this point, I would apply powder all over to set the makeup.
Put Your Hands Together!
I would then move on to my hands and age them. I applied the same methods of highlight and shadow to make the knuckles appear bonier and to emphasize the appearance of the tendons.
I used a blue eyeliner pencil to draw veins. I also used stippling again to make the hands seem liver spotted.
The Finishing Touches
Finally, I would cover my upper front teeth with black wax, so that they would disappear.
The costume was all that was left before I would step onstage to become Baba.
An Actor Prepares
I'm pretty happy with how this character design turned out. Playing Baba was close to my heart.
UPDATE! Nose Adjustment
I had the opportunity to play this role again this past February, and I added prosthetic wax to my nose as part of the design.
I was even happier than before with the results, and I think it was effective: people who met me in person after seeing the show were shocked to learn that I was in my twenties.
Photo Credit: Terrence McNally at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Citizens of Nowhere, 2018. Pictured: Jesse March, Cleo DeOrio, Idit Kischinovsky, Evan Grande, Kathryn Cesarz, Melanie Schauwecker, Alfredo Romero, Jordan Rosin, 2018