Makeup artist about make up a bloody good face

  
James Kleyle saw extras portraying a sort of sideshow — a dog boy, acrobat, strongman, juggler — bathed in the ghoulish, spooky, washed-out colors that make the red of slashed throats of the doomed all the more dramatic.
Long Island native Hyman, a veteran of many PTP productions — "Dracula," "Mid-Summer Night's Dream" and "Seussical"— began working with "anemic" colors, the foundation of which "takes the life right out of a person," she said of the thick lavender-esque base. "It covers any rosiness."
The hue "porcelain" is used as a highlighter while a charcoal blue is a contour, a color that Hyman has used when preparing actors in disaster drills to look cyanotic. The only color on an actor's face aside from the occassional slash of red is the color of their hair and eyebrows, Hyman said.
An art teacher at Thomas G. Pullen Arts Focus School in Landover, Hyman knows she's done her job well when she literally scares people out of the theater.
The actors are responsible for some of the terror too.
For "Sweeney Todd" actors came to the makeup chairs without vanity.
"This cast really embraced the makeup designs," Hyman said. "They were OK with not looking pretty."
"For the theater, you are altering somebody, whereas with [everyday] makeup, you are enhancing [their] features," she added.
"With actors, I examine the shape of their face and how they use their features when portraying their character. I look for what's unique about each actor's face; for example if they have really expressive eyebrows, or play up a scar they have, or if they have a slightly crooked nose,. The important thing is when they look in the mirror they no longer see themselves, they only see the character."
For the current production, Hyman is working with a team of about eight others on hair and makeup, while some actors are adept at doing their own.
In community theater, where everything is done for love alone and not for money, every warm body counts.
Factor in day jobs, family and other commitments and shows are made up of actors and backstage personnel who really, really want to put on a good show.
And since the show must go on, in a pinch, just about anyone can do anyone else's job.
Being able to do a variety of backstage jobs helps get your foot in the door of theater, Hyman said.
Auditioning for a role, she only has one body, one voice and if it is not what the showrunners are looking for, that's the end.
But by weilding a makeup brushes and an arsenal of Ben Nye theaterial makeup, Hyman keeps busy behind the scenes.
She is booked for upcoming shows at PTP like the Victorian mystery "Angel Street" and family fare, "Once on This Island."
Those shows — at least from a makeup and hair standpoint — are pretty middle-of-the-road.
"I tend to get a lot of the weird shows," she laughed, but She keeps a "morgue" — photo albums and notebooks stuffed with notes and photos and ideas. She takes mental notes when she sees people on the street sporting a unique look or hairstyle.
Hyman's talent with makeup and hair is natural. She was one of those kids who played with the contents of her mother's makeup bag and come Halloween opted to paint on a face instead of using a mask.
Aside from a few workshops here and there, Hyman has no professional makeup training, instead her skills come from trial and error, reading books and playing around. It's advice she gives to budding makeup artists.