Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020 - 49

Stage Makeup 11th Edition
By Richard Corson, James Glavan, and
Beverly Gore Norcross
Routledge, 2019, 470 pages
Paperback $74.95; Hardcover $200 ;
E-book $67.46
Reviewed by Margaret Mitchell
Almost 80 years have passed since the
first readers of Richard Corson's Stage
Makeup began using it as a manual and
teaching tool in 1942. Over the past seven generations, it has become known as
" the Bible of Makeup. " The beloved and
usually tattered, coffee-stained edition
of Stage Makeup that sits in many of our
bookshelves often dates our training in
the theatre. Even if we own subsequent
editions, we carry nostalgia for the edition with which we first learned makeup
application. Many of the familiar illustrations and techniques are present in
the new 11th edition, but unlike past
Corson bibles, when the reader opens
this book, it will be like Dorothy opening
the farmhouse door to Munchkinland.
The eleventh edition contains 1,568

As our art form and industry evolve,
a movement toward inclusion is also
evident in this latest edition. The
authors discuss diverse issues
related to various skin tones without
the language of ethnic labels.
color images and 109 black and white
images. (By contrast, the tenth edition
contains 31 color images and 384 black
and white images.) Authors Glavan and
Norcross and the editors at Focal Press
have upended Kansas and given us Oz,
a remarkable feat in the uncertain financial climate of publishing.
Upon opening the book for the first
time, the breadth of color images is the
immediate wow factor; however, the
addition of many new demonstrations

signal to the reader a major visual and
textual revision. Although the many familiar guises of Richard Corson still
greet us like an old friend throughout
the pages; the new pictorial demonstrations and directions are generally far
more detailed than those in previous
editions. Mainstays like making and
applying a bald cap, aging a face, or
making wounds are all present, and
expansions to this edition abound. The
detailed creation of zombies, the transformations of drag queens, casting demonstrations, and techniques for HD TV
are just some examples of the expanded
content. The color images are far more
informative than the former black and
white ones, and the additional process
pictures greatly aid the reader.
Glavan and Norcross have reorganized and revised previous material.
The table of contents is broken up into
individual operations for easier reference. In some cases, a former chapter
or appendix has been subsumed into a
larger new chapter. The material covering health and safety procedures and
behaviors has been updated. Now that
the book is primarily in color, the chapter on color theory comes to life. The
authors have also expanded this chapter to include a history of color theory,
as well as a color mixing worksheet for
students.
Changes in the industry are evident
in the expanded material on special effects and prosthetics, makeup for film
and television, and in the chapters on
wigs and facial hair. For these topics,
the authors collaborated with Academy
Award-winning special effects artist
Matthew Mungle; director of wig and
hair design at the Academy of Makeup
Arts, Michael Meyer; and film and TV
makeup artist, Tara Cooper. Their input
on special effects and prosthetic demos
include multiple examples of making
dentures, as well as casting and molding procedures with more detailed images and directions. Improvements in
the chapter on beards and moustaches
include updated demonstrations for
developing a pattern for facial hair and
FALL 2020 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

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Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020

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