Musical Makeup Tips

Makeup is just as important as sets and costumes in creating the overall magic of a theatrical production on stage. When every character is in makeup, the show looks finished and purposeful and helps the audience see the character’s facial expressions more easily, which greatly adds to the audience’s experience of the show. We want all the weeks of hard work put into High School Musical to come together with the fabulous finished product, therefore we are asking EVERYONE to come to the performance call time with makeup already applied for stage according the directions below unless you have already made arrangements with one of the directors:

1. Start with a clean face and some light moisturizer to protect the skin from over-drying.

2. Foundation/Base: If you do not already have some at home, you can purchase any brand of foundation makeup available (i.e. Covergirl, Maybelline, L’Oreal, etc.) in either a liquid or cream form. Using a cosmetic sponge (the wedge style works best and can be purchased in a small bag from any store that carries cosmetics), apply a generous layer of foundation in a color closely matching your natural skin tone starting at the center of your face and blending the makeup outward toward your forehead, cheeks, and blending all the way down your neck and ears to cover any skin that is exposed when wearing your costume. 

3. Powder: After applying foundation/base, use loose or compact cosmetic powder to set the base and prevent it from fading and wearing off during the shows. Powder can be applied with a large cosmetic brush or with a powder puff.

4. Blush: Apply color with a cosmetic brush to the apples of the cheeks and blend outward and slightly upward toward the ear. Apply the color a bit stronger than would be worn on a daily basis.

5. Lips: Lip color should be applied (Boys too!!) using a natural slightly pinkish lipstick color. 

6. Eyes: The eyes are the most important feature for facial expression. The audience needs to be able to see your eyes!! Girls should apply brown eyeliner along both top and bottom lash line and then apply a generous amount of mascara to accentuate lashes. At the bare minimum, boys need to apply brown eyeliner along the top and bottom lash line to accentuate their eyes for the stage. It is also helpful, but not mandatory, to use mascara (Don’t be embarrassed- all men in professional theater wear it!)

7. Eyebrows: If you have fair eyebrows, it is a good idea to accentuate your brows with a brown or natural color eyebrow pencil or eyeliner. Simply lightly follow your natural brow.