How to Succeed as a Makeup Mistress (and Really Try)
It is the second night of Thoroughly Modern Millie—Reading Memorial High School’s fall musical. Props crew is double checking their items against their list. Lighting, sound, and curtain crews are reviewing their cues. Backstage, 16 year old Serena Campbell is also busy at work. Her main goal of the night is to maintain her credibility as one of three makeup mistresses—and prove that she can handle the makeup work for a show all by herself in the winter.
In the theater world, makeup mistress is the title for the makeup artist who oversees the rest of the makeup artists. They often have meetings with the director of the show to discuss how specific characters should look. Campbell does not remember exactly how she got into the business of being makeup mistress. “I remember not knowing how to use eye shadow and hating it” she recalls. “Then I experimented and gradually became more obsessed with makeup”.
In the theater world, makeup mistress is the title for the makeup artist who oversees the rest of the makeup artists. They often have meetings with the director of the show to discuss how specific characters should look. Campbell does not remember exactly how she got into the business of being makeup mistress. “I remember not knowing how to use eye shadow and hating it” she recalls. “Then I experimented and gradually became more obsessed with makeup”.
That obsession is not restricted to the stage. This past May, she
transformed herself and her friends into zombies for the annual Zombie March, utilizing professional makeup techniques to create the illusion of rotting flesh. Every day for school she creates a unique eye shadow look to wear, assuring that she stands out from the rest of the crowd. This evening, despite her mother’s protest, she is exhibiting varying shades of blues around her eyelid and has used black eyeliner to draw what appear to be tree branches coming out of the corner of one of her aqua eyes. When I ask Campbell what she has going for her in getting control over makeup for a winter play she responds, “My experience and talent makes me right for this position and separates me from the rest”. Her participation and hard work in five previous productions is what has gotten her this far. For this show, she “drew diagrams for leading roles’makeup” and “also researched people of the period and information about the play”. All that being said, there are some factors going against Campbell. One of the biggest setbacks is the competition for the winter show. “Because of this, I have to share the position and not do as much or express my ideas as much as I would like to”. |
“I want to continue doing this until I graduate”. Campbell isn’t sure if being a makeup artist is in her future but she doesn’t scrap the idea either. “The show on Syfy called “Face Off” inspired me to take my makeup further. It showed me that I could take my passion into the film industry and create characters and effects”. She will have to come closer to a decision when she starts to look at potential colleges in the next few
months. From an audience perspective, the show goes off without much of a hitch. To Campbell, however, it’s a different story. “I let Alex on stage without makeup!” is the first thing she declares after the show. Even though makeup mistresses are notorious for checking each performer’s makeup obsessively before they are let on stage, one actor had slipped by unnoticed. When I ask her how it could’ve happened, she explains: “I had all of his makeup laid out and ready. He had been standing near the area while I did another person’s makeup. Then he walked away so I assumed he did it himself. After the first scene was done he came back and said he accidentally went on stage without makeup”. Campbell hopes that the incident with Alex won’t count against her since the problem was easily fixed and he was only a minor character. She won’t know for sure until her hopes of being sole makeup mistress are either made true or broken with the winter tech crew list. |