Orestien (theatre play) blog
These blogs were written by me when I was working on a huge show at the Folkteatern theatre back in 2009.
I have added it here on my web site because I was so over worked and tired that some interesting comments started to happen that was not quite like me....
So it becomes a look into the not so happy thoughts that maybe should be shared too?
Blog Excerpts from http://orestien.blogspot.com/
Written by Lars Carlsson
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Report of the makeup department
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The day has been spent with clay up to my elbows.
A face is just about to emerge from a lump of clay.
I can't reveal how this is used yet but may be able to tell you more a bit later in the process.
The expectation is that I sit one more day to go before I am satisfied with the look of it and can cast a mould of it to finally make a copy of the silicone mask.
Every Wednesday I will be blogging a bit and show what happens in the mask shop.
Wednesday
23rd
December 2009
A very Merry Christmas to all!
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Hey hey!
Thought not write something tonight but since the pictures were already taken, and Christmas is still a few hours away, I thought you could see the first moulded silicone heads and mould I made of the sculpture you've seen in recent weeks. When rehearsal begins again after the new year I'll show Mr. Noren this and see what he thinks .......
This degenerates into a pure worm blog now, but I hope more people will go ahead and write a little soon. All are working their asses off though! and time well not yet.
But now I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas ridiculous! I'll do my best to enjoy it!
A very Merry Christmas to all!
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Hey hey!
Thought not write something tonight but since the pictures were already taken, and Christmas is still a few hours away, I thought you could see the first moulded silicone heads and mould I made of the sculpture you've seen in recent weeks. When rehearsal begins again after the new year I'll show Mr. Noren this and see what he thinks .......
This degenerates into a pure worm blog now, but I hope more people will go ahead and write a little soon. All are working their asses off though! and time well not yet.
But now I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas ridiculous! I'll do my best to enjoy it!
Wednesday,
December 16, 2009
The week that passed.
The week that passed.
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Since the last
blog
post has
makeup
department
not had
as much
because
most of the time
was spent
running
"Sugar Pills" (a
theatre show) and
to pack
down.
But
little
has
been time
with
anyway.
The sculpture you saw last week made clear and you can see it above. Tomorrow morning I will begin the casting of it for it to be a silicone mask.
My collection of casts of our actors is now almost complete. I made a face cast of Niklas Hjulström last Friday and now they all (except two) combined on the bench to get the masks if they need it.
Niklas also had to put up with the cast of his arm in a scene where he should not have any.
Why, you ask?
Come and watch the show you will see.
Here I want to show how things are done, but by revealing something about history. Something to be a little secret!
In the same breath I can say that we (the mask and props dept.) In between days will deal with creating sets and return amounts skeletal remains and animal carcasses.
For fun? Nah ... Come look! Hopefully it can be a bit scary!
Do not know if I will write something the day before Christmas Eve because we are free then but if I have something good so I throw it.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!
Lars, Make-up and wig maker
The sculpture you saw last week made clear and you can see it above. Tomorrow morning I will begin the casting of it for it to be a silicone mask.
My collection of casts of our actors is now almost complete. I made a face cast of Niklas Hjulström last Friday and now they all (except two) combined on the bench to get the masks if they need it.
Niklas also had to put up with the cast of his arm in a scene where he should not have any.
Why, you ask?
Come and watch the show you will see.
Here I want to show how things are done, but by revealing something about history. Something to be a little secret!
In the same breath I can say that we (the mask and props dept.) In between days will deal with creating sets and return amounts skeletal remains and animal carcasses.
For fun? Nah ... Come look! Hopefully it can be a bit scary!
Do not know if I will write something the day before Christmas Eve because we are free then but if I have something good so I throw it.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!
Lars, Make-up and wig maker
Wednesday,
December 30, 2009
Bones, bones and more bones
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Bones, bones and more bones
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Hope
Christmas was
great
for everyone!
We have been in the days merged props and masks Department in a joint operation on a cozy little horror effects for the show.
To symbolize all victims made it appear a lot of skeletons on stage. Of course we want to make anyone upset, so we we manufacture bones of moulded plastic. We cast of authentic leg sections to make it as authentic as possible.
But we can guarantee that no animals have been killed just for this production!
Several of the bones actually have at any time been on the undersigned's plate.
Many of the bones are from Christmas turkey and a lovely lamb a few days before!
Then we were very grateful to borrow a bag (!) Bones from Natural History as they cleaned from a deer that was in a car crash. Thanks for the loan if someone from the museum are reading this!
Now we put the activities for this year and will be returning next decade!
Happy New year!
We have been in the days merged props and masks Department in a joint operation on a cozy little horror effects for the show.
To symbolize all victims made it appear a lot of skeletons on stage. Of course we want to make anyone upset, so we we manufacture bones of moulded plastic. We cast of authentic leg sections to make it as authentic as possible.
But we can guarantee that no animals have been killed just for this production!
Several of the bones actually have at any time been on the undersigned's plate.
Many of the bones are from Christmas turkey and a lovely lamb a few days before!
Then we were very grateful to borrow a bag (!) Bones from Natural History as they cleaned from a deer that was in a car crash. Thanks for the loan if someone from the museum are reading this!
Now we put the activities for this year and will be returning next decade!
Happy New year!
More moulds
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There are so many holidays now so you lose track of days. Over now until Easter!
Wednesday 6/1, Epiphany, I probably should not work today but it did so anyway because I work from my own studio so I work whenever the urge strikes.
So today it was a form of Lena B Nilsson face that I'll sculpt something in soon.
More on that later
.Wednesday 27th January 2010
Now I feel that the premiere is approaching!
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It feels right now like I am trying to learn to juggle, but have really lousy ball sense
Then to make it extra difficult so uses 25 balls simultaneously.
How is it going? So there ...
It happens lots of things all the time and they pulled between watching the repetitions and getting his sculptures and moulds ready. You want both but if the moulds are completed, there are no masks, and it is fact!
I have worked as a make-up artist for 20 years but never made this much work for a single show before.
It is absolutely hysterical much to do and February will be a lot of overtime.
Munk breed that I had on me get licensed now be released a bit and I can say what my pictures depict.
It's good because it was boring to say "Do not say ..."
Those of you who visit us here on the blog must of course get something extra!
On some of the older blog pictures you can see a bald man. This is a revenge goddess scene will be full of the last act, when they crawl out of the ground to judge Orestes and Elektra. Cosy!
In this picture you can see the first drafts of Orestes masking in the first act before he shows who he is (top right) and a rough sketch of the god Apollo who is going to be completely inhuman and little alien corpses (top middle).
In the middle to right you see my colleague Linda Bill who sculpts on Erik's Orestes makeup.
Center do you see me as trying the messenger severed arm that I built.
Without the suit, it looks like a big ham steak but with the suit as Lisa Hjerten designed and Magdalena Nilsson with team sewed up the wonderful work out!
It was wonderful to see it all together!
Then the bottom right you see a uppkladdning of a sculpture that I can now delete!
Hooray something was taken away and it makes some possible more to keep up with everything that needs to be completed in a month when we first mask rehearsal. But it feels far away .....
Yesterday and today we have been sitting with Lars Norén and had individual mask talks with all actors and it has felt so good to hear what everyone had to say and also to present what you yourself think. Sometimes I have thought right other times I have been straight to, you know.
But there has been a creative conversation and even though it's four hours since the last session ended, I'm still up in the turns and spinning in my head.
On Friday I'll take a little break and go on a makeup tradeshow in London to see if I can find some great new material that I can use in the play.
See some funny lectures and some beers in the evening is probably impossible to avoid.
Well, next week we heard again with new inspiration and doubling the willingness to work for the fair!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
A lot right now!
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Weekend in London was amazingly good and we sat and discussed silicone moulds to very late at night.
Got some good tips which immediately put to use now. Time well spent!
Now I do not have time to write so much. Worked 13 hours today to catch up with my schedule. Nothing is clear yet, but the torch is on!
In the picture you see the first draft of the next two editions of the vengence Godesses, Apollo, scars to Elektra, a bunch of faceless judges, Orestes makeup and a recent skippad role that never had time to finish.
So back to the clay.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
What can I say?
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This show has been more work than anyone else show I ever worked on.
And then I have still been working on the mask heavy pieces like "Beauty and the Beast" at the Opera.
Above you can see the shapes and sculptures that we have done for the Oresteia.
Every mould you see has taken about a week each to produce!
So some quick counting them = shit loads of time!
Now we are hopefully done with the moulds (if not Lars get more ideas!) And waiting for silicone from Holland to start producing the hundreds of masks that will be needed during the performance period.
Much work remains, and in the middle of this, we will move into the theater again next week after having been out on other premises for over a year. It will be apskönt to have a fixed point again!
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In closing, I thought to mention a few things to make a day like today at work that most others do or would even dream of doing:
Mix fake blood and prick your finger to check the colour, a stay-up stockings on your head for quite natural to say that "it has a good fit," test a syringe with a tube through his fly to simulate a stream of urine, glue all over the fingertips of glitter, think about how you can get a someones calves to be really muscular and hairy, etc., etc. ...
What am I doing?
In eager anticipation of the DHL truck with silicone .....
Friday, February 12, 2010
I spoke too soon!
Just thought I'd say that you should not speak too fast.
The other day I said that all forms were completed unless Lars N find on something new.
So of course he did it.
Now I remove Kim's eyes also so that he has empty eye sockets that look founded scary.
No big problem. I've done it before, but it should be done well.
More sculpting and new moulds!
When to learn to say no??
Maybe not but it's fun to do things too!
You do not want to say that negative word.
Yes! is a much nicer word!
You get no picture of this today for today, I have only worked with our parallel play, Iphigenia.
Believe it or not but there is a lot of masks in it too.
I have gone around and cursed over not having a lot to do in the past but now I keep quiet!
Mr. N challenged us to a meeting to generate debate and questioning him on the blog.
I did not feel that they want it, however, because he is an insanely inspiring, funny and generous man.
It was not exactly the image I had before becoming a manager and you have only seen his plays ...
I remember my first reaction was:
"Hell, now it will never be something fun mask work again ...
Ultra realism, here we go! ".
I have to eat my words on that one!
A little debate maybe I can shake up with this??
What do you think readers when you hear "Lars Norén"?
Would be nice to know! Write a comment in this blog!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Terribly close to the deadline but far from finished
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There are thousands of things left to do and we will not even be close to be finished on our normal deadline is the first mask and costume repeating the 26th
Now I only hope that we will be ready to program photo the following week.
This week (and last week), I have worked over 70 hours in order to catch clear but it will not last anyway. Premiere will be though!
I seams of my colleagues on stage and costume departments that also rips blood right now.
There are lots of osjungna heroes behind the scene!
Today defied all the Folkteatern weather and me and Linda had avprovning of masks on the Eumenides.
Lots of girls like everyone to be bald and old.
Check out the image above and see if you can find them with and without the mask.
This can be scary!
All the best and stay inside the snowstorm! Tomorrow I will be off and not do anything!
Wednesday,
March 10, 2010
To tired to write but still....
Almost there ...
Completely exhausted after working ridiculous hours in recent weeks.
Missed my blog post last week because of this ..
It is supplied with new things to be done all the time and will not stop until in Saturday.
Now I hope that goal is reached, however, for I can no more changes now.
Blood seems to be the nightmare that follows me most right now.
Hope Lars liked the test with the blood I invented yesterday, otherwise we have the dirtiest, bloodiest newly built theater on the planet for this show.
And I do not want to take the hit for it!
Here you get two collages with pictures from the last few weeks of the test makeups and tests.
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First makeup and dress rehearsal last week:
Much of this you will never get to see .... They have been taken away ...
A little sorry for some of them that I liked but I'm not the boss here.
Photos from today:
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A daily updated butchered rabbit, suicide scars and some nasty people.
And Lena and Sara of course.
And calm now, the bunny is made of silicone!
Friday, March 13, 2010
Premiere!!
Bliss!
Three days later I left my assistants in charge of running the show and went on holiday for a couple of weeks.
The Iceland ash cloud came and gave our holiday a week long extension for free!
Thank you dear vulcano! I needed that extra week after this!
To tired to write but still....
Almost there ...
Completely exhausted after working ridiculous hours in recent weeks.
Missed my blog post last week because of this ..
It is supplied with new things to be done all the time and will not stop until in Saturday.
Now I hope that goal is reached, however, for I can no more changes now.
Blood seems to be the nightmare that follows me most right now.
Hope Lars liked the test with the blood I invented yesterday, otherwise we have the dirtiest, bloodiest newly built theater on the planet for this show.
And I do not want to take the hit for it!
Here you get two collages with pictures from the last few weeks of the test makeups and tests.
.jpg)
First makeup and dress rehearsal last week:
Much of this you will never get to see .... They have been taken away ...
A little sorry for some of them that I liked but I'm not the boss here.
Photos from today:
.jpg)
A daily updated butchered rabbit, suicide scars and some nasty people.
And Lena and Sara of course.
And calm now, the bunny is made of silicone!
Friday, March 13, 2010
Premiere!!
Bliss!
Three days later I left my assistants in charge of running the show and went on holiday for a couple of weeks.
The Iceland ash cloud came and gave our holiday a week long extension for free!
Thank you dear vulcano! I needed that extra week after this!
