Category Archives: Stage Makeup Class

Stage Makeup Class Pages 5: Copy of Welcome Letter

[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].

Welcome Letter in Screen Reader Format

Welcome to Drama 112 Introduction to Stage Makeup!

Salutations! 

 I am your teacher Tara Maginnis. I am also normally the Costume Designer for the faculty directed plays we usually do at DVC  Links to an external site.each year, as well as the teacher of  DR113 Beginning Costume Design each Spring. You can see all the fun stuff I get up to at DVC as well as the weird research projects I do at home at my personal website  https://TaraMaginnis.comLinks to an external site.  

If you need extra help or information at any point in the semester you can contact me at:

  1. Cell Phone/Text: XXX-XXX-XXXX (11am-11pm except while driving or during meetings where I will call/text back when I’m able.)
  2. email: Email@email.edu (or from your Canvas inbox)
  3. Email response time 24 hrs on weekdays, 48 hrs on weekends, the exception to this is tech weeks of our shows when normally I am at DVC for absurdly long hours and things may go slower than usual weekdays. (I too need to sleep occasionally).

Welcome! 

  I am pleased to welcome you to Drama 112 Introduction to Stage Makeup This class is not anything like a regular cosmetic makeup class where you primarily learn how to “fix” things wrong with people’s faces. While we have one lesson on “corrective” makeup (because it is in the catalog, so we have to), I personally believe that “THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!” In my class you will instead learn how to make yourself look older, angrier, happy & sad, how to look like a person of another gender, how to look like an animal, a gothic horror, a person with a funky nose, or scraggly beard, a crime victim, a kabuki actor, a drag diva, and ultimately a mythical creature. We are not here to learn to “fix” your face, we are here to play with your face so we can help you, (or the people you make up) become a character.

Dates

Our course will meet face to face in the bowels of the PAC on Mondays and Wednesdays starting August 22 and ending December 7 .  To get there, find the PAC and follow the brightly colored signs I will post on the first day to find the splendid “Costume Dungeon” level of the building where PA-3 is located. However, besides meeting face to face you may also access the class Canvas page from the time DVC chooses to let the class come online on and until your DVC Insite/Canvas login credential dies.  Since Covid ran amok, most everything for doing the class remotely is also there, so if you have to stay home with quarantine( or a hangover), you can catch up online!  We are “High-Flex” so you can Face to Face or do stuff asynchronously as life demands.

This is not an online course, but you may use the online interface Canvas on your hours, at your pace if life interferes.  You should also check out the Canvas site because it has a wealth of good extra info like videos for different ages, genders and skin tones, and more detailed information than can be put in an 18-page syllabus, and (lots of fun silly animations and links.)   

Individual Needs 

Information from the DVC Website:

Students who require alternative formats for course materials or adaptive equipment because of a specific disability can request them through the Disability Support Services   https://www.dvc.edu/student-services/disability-support-services/ office.

If you are struggling with basic needs such as food, housing, medical  https://www.dvc.edu/basic-needs/health.html or mental health services     https://www.dvc.edu/enrollment/counseling/wellness.html, money for textbooks, etc, check out DVC’s Basic Needs Page  https://www.dvc.edu/basic-needs/index.htmlLinks to an external site. to access our many resources for your well-being ranging from telehealth services  https://www.dvc.edu/basic-needs/timelymd.htmlLinks to an external site.food pantry https://www.dvc.edu/basic-needs/food.htmlLinks to an external site. and money for textbooks and school supplies  https://www.dvc.edu/basic-needs/covid-19-emergency-grant.html (like a makeup kit)!

DVC also recognizes that students may have technology needs. Students in need of assistance can check out assorted tech items by going to the Technology Loan Page  https://www.dvc.edu/online-education/technology-loans.htmlLinks to an external site.  to fill out a form for requesting the equipment. If you have questions, please contact Kristina Gomez

Course Expectations

Show up, do your makeup research, renderings and makeup and have me take your photos.  If you do stuff at home, take your own photos.  In either case post your photos online so we have a record of them and I can give you grade points.

Required Course Materials

  1. A Full-size deluxe crème (oil-based) student theatrical make-up kit [needed by Week 3, and available at the DVC bookstore or online]
    1. Examples:
      1. https://stagemakeuponline.com/collections/ben-nye/products/ben-nye-theatrical-creme-makeup-kit?variant=32011359060099Links to an external site.
      2. https://www.mehron.com/creamblend-all-pro-makeup-kit/Links to an external site. (great kits for dark skin tones)
      3. https://www.graftobian.com/product/student-theatrical-makeup-kit-deluxe/Links to an external site. (sold at DVC Bookstore)
      4. https://us.kryolan.com/product/supracolor-kitLinks to an external site.
    2. A multicolored face paint palette with bright colors is highly desirable, but not required if you do all your makeup projects at DVC (where we have loaner face paints).
      1. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/JY0BTVNNZ1P1?ref_=wl_shareLinks to an external site.
    3. 4 or more flat nylon/takelon angled or straight “shader” brushes about ¼-½” wide [needed by Week 4]
      1. Examples:
        1. https://www.michaels.com/white-synthetic-brushes-by-artists-loft-necessities/10122057.htmlLinks to an external site.
        2. https://www.joann.com/folkart-angle-5-pack-brush-set/15247877.htmlLinks to an external site.
      2. 2 or more packages of makeup remover towelettes [needed by Week 3]*
      3. A jar of cold cream [needed by Week 3]*
      4. Wash cloth or ripped up towel piece [needed by Week 3]*
      5. A bar of soap [needed by Week 3]*
        1. *Any of these you don’t already own can be had for $1 at any 99c Only store.
      6. Mirror
      7. Textbook: Links to an external site. A Guide for Makeup by Robin and Stuart Carlson, 1982 ( https://archive.org/details/guideformakeup00cars  With a free PDF)  Why, you may wonder, do I have this kind of simple PDF text?  Because I must assign a text, yet there is no really good general theatrical makeup textbook available that does not have 90% of the content geared to white people.  Ditto for crummy textbooks.  I can’t reasonably be telling you to spend $40-80 on a textbook that may be 90% useless for many of you, so I’m assigning a free one, which does have some good basic info, even if it too is geared to white people.  Please when you go off and become a great makeup artist, WRITE A BOOK that is properly inclusive. (I’m just a costume designer, or I’d have done it already.)
      8. If you wonder why there is very little information for people of color in stage makeup books, it has to do with legacy systemic racism in theatre. During the era when stage makeup books began to be written (in the late 19th Century) almost all stage roles in Western theatre were performed by white actors. Much of the early history of Western stage makeup books is all about how to makeup white people as people of other races.  If this historical topic interests you, you can see scans of many of these early makeup books, whose influence is still felt in the present day on my site at http://taramaginnis.com/theatrical-makeup-history/Links to an external site. Be warned, there are a lot of disturbing images in these books!

Stage Makeup Class Pages 4: There Is Nothing Wrong With Your Face!

[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].

Watch this video where I explain the whole theme of the class in the weirdest way possible:

Grab a mirror and start making faces.  Don’t be shy, go for it!:

Man pulling face
Laughing Jester
Two court fools grimacing.

Think that I’m telling you to do something I don’t do myself?  WRONG!

Tara smiling and frowning animation
Tara smiling in wonder animation
Tara making multiple facial expressions
Tara wiggles her lips from side to side
Tara squints and laughs

“Tara’s Glasses” AlbumLinks to an external site.


Then watch this video and start to feel your face to find the bony bits:

So, now, feel your face, and the bones and muscles as you move your face.  Find the indent near the back of your jaws, find the subtle ins and outs of your forehead, the edges of your eye sockets.  Feel the bone and cartilage of your nose and the location of your brow ridge in relation to your eyebrows.  In the next few days, whenever you feel tense, pull out a mirror, flex and massage your face and start looking at the interesting component parts.  It is relaxing, and will help you in the coming weeks!


Always remember,

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!!!

Beautiful female heads opening in a loop revealing another identical head looking at the viewer, calm and repeating endlessly.
Animated Gif of simple mask like faces falling into each other in a mesmerizing inward tunnel-loop of calmness.
Animated Gif of assorted smiling face photos of differing kinds all with eyes looking at the viewer.

Stage Makeup Class Pages 3: Meet Your Professor: Tara Maginnis

[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].

Tara in trick hat with ears that move

I am very pleased to have you in my class.  Really, I actually am. You student people are fun!  If you are in doubt check out 10 years of photos of how much fun my DVC makeup students are. Some facts about me: 

Tara on her 1st birthday with  her mother Marion Maginnis
  • Born in Northern California.
  • Went to a California Community College (College of Marin).
  • Transferred to San Francisco State University and got a BA in History.
  • Got a MA in Theatrical Design at CSU Fresno.
  • Got a Ph.D. in Theatre History at the University of Georgia.
  • My dissertation was on Fashion Shows, Strip Shows and Beauty Pageants.
  • Tara in Russia 1994I once presented papers at two conferences on the same weekend in Los Angeles. One was a UCLA Conference on Burlesque, the other a Strippers Convention!
  • I worked as a Professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks for 18 years.
  • You can vaporize hot water into a cloud instantly there in Winter.
  • I’ve been teaching stage makeup classes since the early 1990s.
  • I took a year off to live alone in St. Petersburg, Russia in the mid 1990s as a hippie theatre artist.
  • I don’t speak Russian. I can’t do times tables.  I will likely be unable to remember your name or connect it properly to your face. (This is part of why I take your “mug-shots”.)
  • As my mother was dying in 2007 and her vision was messed up, I read her all 7 Harry Potter books out loud, including doing all the funny voices.
  • I obsessively collect 1860s-1920s men’s detachable shirt collars.  
  • I watch MSNBC while I cut up my old soda bottles into flowers like this:
  • I have been working at DVC as Costume Designer for the Drama department since 2008.
  • You can see my costume designs here.
  • If you need to contact me you can always text or call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX 11am-11pm, but if you just want to visit at my office half “hour” this is when it happens: Tara Maginnis Office “Hour” Mondays & Wednesdays 1-2pm in PA 121 (cubicle off the Greenroom with giant wooden scissors in the window).

Stage Makeup Class Pages 2: Week 1 Schedule: Syllabus, Mugshots & Info!


[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].

Monday January 23: Pick up the Syllabus. Explanations about makeup kits & have me take your class “mugshot” photos.

HOMEWORK: READ THE SYLLABUS, FIND A KIT, MAKE FUNNY FACES IN THE MIRROR, TODAY AND EVERY DAY THEREAFTER.

Wednesday January 25:  Split into two groups to watch the Short Makeup Videos in the Men’s Dressing Room, and then do Practice Drawing Makeup Renderings on Face Outline Sheets in the Make-up room by turns.


Go on to page 3

Stage Makeup Class Pages 1: Explanation & Greeting Page

So, while I’m primarily a costume designer/tech, I’ve been teaching intro to stage makeup classes since the early 1990s. In 2005-6 I filmed a bunch of videos (or rather Kade Mendelowitz of the Theatre and Film Department of UAF and owner of Multimakers) filmed me while I made up my face and talked), so when I moved to a place where they wanted makeup classes of 20-30 people enrolled at DVC, and two 1hr 25 minute sessions weekly but the makeup room is crowded with anything over 15, It was handy to split the class into two groups that alternated watching me do the demo by video in the men’s dressing room (or eventually at home online) and doing the makeup in the makeup room.

You can find all the videos at my YouTube Channel The Costumer’s Manifesto at my Makeup Class Playlist.

However, if you are a teacher who uses the Canvas learning system, you can also go to Canvas Commons and search “Tara Maginnis” and find a bunch of class pages that go with these videos that explain to my own students how to do the assignments that go with the videos. Additionally, I inserted a bunch of YouTube videos of other folks how-tos on people of other genders and skin colors than a middle aged white chick (what I was when I did the videos), so students who needed advice from a male or non-white perspective could easily find these.

However, if you don’t use Canvas, or are a student who has been locked out of it at the end of the semester, I’m going to copy and paste a bunch of this stuff here as a mirror. If you are a teacher feel free to copy and paste anything you want (That is why it is on Canvas Commons) but do please remove my phone # from pages and insert your own contact information in it’s place, since every single semester I get a lost student who thinks I’m their professor and phones or texts me, and it typically takes between 30 minutes to an hour to track you down for them… I’m going to try to remove my info on these versions, but I may miss one.

So this image above is a screencap of the first page which has the usual recommended distance delivery stuff:

Introduction to Stage Makeup

This is Drama 112 Introduction to Stage Makeup

Salutations!

This is your teacher Tara Maginnis (contact info below).  I am pleased to welcome you to my introductory course in theatrical makeup. “This course presents the study of the aesthetics, materials, and procedures of stage makeup. Including “corrective” makeup, aging techniques, makeups which are in line with a play’s given circumstances, character makeup applications, makeups which accurately depict historical eras and cultural demands, and abstract/linear makeup design projects will be covered.” —DVC catalog.

By the end of the course, you’ll learn (and execute) a wide variety of types of stage makeup and finally build a portfolio of your work!  If you need extra help or information at any point in the semester you can contact me by text, email or phone XXX-XXX-XXXX .  I am also at DVC after our class on Mondays and Wednesdays till 8pm most times, and also come in Tuesdays and Thursdays (In Spring semester only) for teaching my Costume Class 12:45-5:35 and work after Dinner from 6:30-8pm those days .  So, Monday-Thursday, text or phone me to find where I am hidden in the vast PAC building if you need me. When you can’t get here to see me, I’m usually conscious for phone or text 11am-11pm, though I won’t be texting while driving, in a meeting, or the shower… 

You already have all you need right here…

Moving image of magical makeup face: Starman

Lots of what you want to know is right here though.  Because Covid forced all of us to go online, nearly everything you need for class information-wise is right here on Canvas.  Get sick with Monkeypox (or just a cold), and miss class?  It is all here and you can catch up.  Even before 2020 most of this class was also mirrored online and I’ve always allowed students to do work at home when they need to, or watch class videos online instead of watching them in the Men’s Dressing Room.  You can come in and play in our splendid makeup room and have me do my personal photo shoot of your makeup (SO MUCH FUN!!!), or you can mess about with your face on the weekend and turn it in online.  This is not advertised as a “Hi-Flex” class, but you can mostly treat it like one.  

However, to begin, you must start somewhere, so I suggest you go each weekend to Modules  even if you are coming in to class for every session so you are prepared for your class work.  Go step by step through through the weekly assignments in order.  Or you can just go to the silly  “Magic Button” to be taken directly to the Modules:

Magic Button!
  • —– Tara Maginnis
  • Phone/Text: XXX-XXX-XXXX (11am-11pm)
  • email:  PUT YOUR TEACHER EMAIL HERE
  • Response time usually 24 hrs on weekdays, 48 hrs on weekends

Go on to the Next Page