Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1983 - 31

discover the truth about "aniline" dyes. You
will learn what types of dyes to choose for
cotton, wool, silk, linen, rayon, and even for
the whole range of hard-to-dye synthetics.
You will find out exactly which assistants the
various dye types require and give up, once
and for all, the indiscriminate pouring on of
salt in every situation. Each type of dye is
defined, brand names are given, and the
process for using each one appears in numbered steps, clearly stated.
Another particularly valuable section is
the one on constructing steamers for selling
dyes. Instructions for assembling a kellletype steamer, a cake-tin steamer, a trashcan
steamer or an inverted trashcan steamer are
presented on pages 158 and 159 in clear, welllabeled drawings. There are also detailed
directions for building a steam cabinet for
less than SIOO in materials.
The book concludes with an appendix including, among other things, metric conversion tables, a fabric burn chart, silkscreen
mesh equivalents and a list of common solvents; a glossary of dyers' terms; a selected
bibliography; and a list of suppliers for the
products mentioned in the text, complete
with addresses.

and yet-with the exception of nicely detailed
sequences on the ordering and wearing of
wigs and hairpieces-it offers nothing by
way of suggesting materials or techniques
that has not been common practice for years.
On the contrary, some of the methods suggested in Makeup jorrhe Thearre, Film, and
Television are quite primitive, especially
those involved in the casting of false noses or
parts of the subject's face. The paucity of
good information in these sections probably
is intended to avoid overlap with the author's
other text on three dimensional makeup.
Curiously, one chapter with thirteen photographs is devoted to illustrating some of the
results obtainable with foamed latex prosthetics with no other purpose than 10 tell the
reader that closed molds and foamed latex
processes are beyond any but the best
equipped and most expert.
Any actor looking for a basic text on the
art is going 10 be frustrated and even misled
by some of the book's information-or lack
thereof. One subject generally presumed to
be of fundamental importance in learning the
craft of makeup is, of course, color. Baygan
does not discuss color, insisting" ... it is the
character being portrayed-not the actor,
Fabric Painting and Dyeing For The director, makeup artist, or anyone else-who
Themre is beautifully illustrated with a hand- will dictate the right shade of foundation."
some color section in front and clear, well- What choices the character might have and
placed black and white photographs and how the character makes the choice known
drawings throughoul. It is a book every to whoever applies the makeup is never excostume designer and technician should have plored. The author is adamant on the point;
within easy reach. Even if your budget is he does not use any color photographs beminiscule and your idea of adventuresome cause, he explains, of having" ... seen too
fabric dyeing is mixing twO packages of Rit many actors blindly trying to copy the makeinstead of using only one, buy this book and up colors they see in photographs-with the
read it. You will find many simple techniques most unfortunate results." He does not exapplicable to any situation and I bet you will plain what is different in having actors
not be able to finish reading the text without "blindly trying to copy" black and white
photographs from a book designed to stand
deciding to try at least one.
0
Rosemary Ingham
on a makeup table open 10 the appropriate
Free-lance costume designer pages" ... where you may refer 10 it as you
Charlollesville, Virginia
work" (outside back cover).
There is an unexpectedly tentative discussion of highlight and shadow, which seems
Makeup for Theatre, Film and destined 10 leave the beginner uncertain as 10
Television, a Step by Step Photo- how to proceed. But there is no ambivalence
graphic Guide by Lee Baygan. ew York: at all in the text about applying liquid latex
Drama Book Publishers, 1982.202 pp., 916 directly to the bare skin including "a generous layer" 10 the eyelids. As some people
ill., 529.95 cloth.
are highly sensitive to liqid latex, its use
Lee Baygan's Makeup jor Themre, Fillll might well have been accorded some cautionand Television is a big, handsome book with ary note at least equal to the warning about
more than 900 black and white photographs collodion.
A veteran of television, Baygan gives
and a novel "stand-up" binding. At first
glance, it looks very promising, indeed. It some advice about makeup in the theatre
addresses the problems of doing makeup for which experienced theatre workers will find
black performers and has a wonderful per- quite unconvincing. While he rightly decries
spective on makeup as only one component bad theatrical makeup, he seems not 10 unof the actor's art, complementing gesture, derstand or appreciate scale or contrast, but
voice, and costume in the creation of a char- only 10 condemn the amount of makeup used
acter. The chapters are admirably concise -"more makeup," "copious makeup."
and well illustrated with clear, straight- 1\lost amazing of all is the conclusion that
forward pholOgraphs arranged in logical given a production (and a makeup room)
with adequate lighting facilities and design,
sequences.
the
actor need only stand five feet from a
As a text, however, the book is pen'erse
and exasperating. It is expensive (nearly S30) mirror and examine the makeup. Then Bay-

gan advises: "If you do not look made up,
if you cannot detect the work and the materials used, your makeup will register in any
theatre, regardless of its size."
Even in what might be useful addenda,
the book is frustrating. Neither the list of
sources nor the glossary is in alphabetical
order or any other kind of order. The former
lists many companies with no clue as to what
they supply. (The most intriguing is the
Oriental Trading Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong.)
The glossary, on the other hand, dutifully has
an explanatory entry for "Toothpick."
What is most disappointing is the missed
opportunity to provide a much needed clear
and systematic approach to basic makeup for
the individual actor who wants to learn the
craft or to develop skills. The Baygan book
seems to aim at that goal; its author is
doubtless capable; but the text is poorly
thought out, unnecessarily redundant, and
largely without adequate information or
originality.
C
George Black
University of Virginia

Film Costume: An Annotated
Bibliography by Susan Perez Prichard.
Metuchen, ew Jersey: Scarecrow Press,
Inc., 1981. ISBN 0-8108-1437-4,577 pp.,
532.50 cloth.
The corollary to the saying that "you
can't tell a book by its cover" is, in this instance, that you can't tell a book by its title.

Fillll Cosrume: An Annorated Bibliography
is a surprisingly interesting work from which
one can learn, among other things, that D.
W. Griffith once rejected an auditioning actress but bought her hat so Mary Pickford
could wear it in the film, and that 20th Century lost money on a picture because Gary
Cooper's hat was too small. This and much
more is included in the annotations Susan
Perez Prichard has wrillen for each of her
3672 bibliographical entries.
However juicy the annotations-and
many are-this book is not 10 be taken lightly. It is a highly valuable reference work by
a serious and capable scholar who scoured 70
years of literature on film 10 produce this
comprehensive guide. A scholarly examination of the subject is long overdue.
The book itself inspires confidence by its
lack of visual pretension: it was designed and
produced as a working tool. There are 481
pages of entries organized alphabetically by
author and an 80 page subject index. Information retrieval is easy.
In her modest four page introduction,
Prichard puts the innuence of film costume,
the designers, film literature, and her methodology concisely illlo COlllexl. She ends her
introduction with the promise of a supplement in due course. It is an event worth
waiting for.
Brian Arnoll
Toronto

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1983