Students at the O2 before the workshop
Make-up and prosthetics demostrationYear 12 BTEC Art and Design and Year 10 Music students benefitted from a fantastic trip to the O2 to see groundbreaking new opera Monkey: Journey to the West. They also took part in a workshop designed to give them an insight into interdisciplinary practice within the visual and creative arts.
Monkey: Journey to the West brings opera right into the 21st century with the combination of music, martial arts, stunning costume and make-up design and fabulous animation, choreographed to fit with live action, created by Jamie Hewlett, the mastermind behind animated musicians Gorillaz.
During the workshop students were allowed backstage to see the show’s actors being made up. They also got to take part in a singing workshop, where the instructor had them rapping in Mandarin in under fifteen minutes. Following the workshop students viewed a matinee performance of the opera.
Here are a few of the student’s observations about the things they saw and learnt;
It was amazing to see the prosthetics being stuck on. They are attached with glue that stays tacky; the amount of glue used depends on the amount the person sweats. It takes 30 minutes for the make-up artist to apply the make-up; prosthetics take longer, sometimes over an hour. Every character in the show has their own make-up artist. The prosthetics are made in the same way a dentist would make a mould of your mouth. Often the face is airbrushed to make the prosthetics look more real.
Sarah Moss, Year 12
The way the costumes moved with the performers was great. I especially liked the costumes of the gymnasts, especially the shrimp. It wasn’t complicated and allowed the actress to move but I really liked the legs that were attached to her back.
Hazel Whiles, Year 12
Monkey: Journey to the West brings opera right into the 21st century with the combination of music, martial arts, stunning costume and make-up design and fabulous animation, choreographed to fit with live action, created by Jamie Hewlett, the mastermind behind animated musicians Gorillaz.
During the workshop students were allowed backstage to see the show’s actors being made up. They also got to take part in a singing workshop, where the instructor had them rapping in Mandarin in under fifteen minutes. Following the workshop students viewed a matinee performance of the opera.
Here are a few of the student’s observations about the things they saw and learnt;
It was amazing to see the prosthetics being stuck on. They are attached with glue that stays tacky; the amount of glue used depends on the amount the person sweats. It takes 30 minutes for the make-up artist to apply the make-up; prosthetics take longer, sometimes over an hour. Every character in the show has their own make-up artist. The prosthetics are made in the same way a dentist would make a mould of your mouth. Often the face is airbrushed to make the prosthetics look more real.
Sarah Moss, Year 12
The way the costumes moved with the performers was great. I especially liked the costumes of the gymnasts, especially the shrimp. It wasn’t complicated and allowed the actress to move but I really liked the legs that were attached to her back.
Hazel Whiles, Year 12
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