Stage, dance and screen
Theatre and dance makeup and the looks of film stars. 52 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
Stage, dance and screen have their own faces: the painted veshams of Kathakali, the kumadori of Kabuki, the lianpu of Peking opera, the masks that change in a flash in Sichuan opera, the faces of Theyyam and Yakshagana, and the looks of film stars that became everyday fashions. Many of these traditions are taught for years and recognised by UNESCO.
Faces that tell the story
In Asian classical theatre, a face tells the audience who a character is. Kathakali's green pacha marks heroes and its red-marked kathi proud villains. Kabuki's red lines mark heroes and its blue lines villains. Peking opera uses red for loyalty, black for integrity and white for cunning. The painting takes hours and is often done by the performer.
Screen looks
Film turned stage methods into fashions. The pencil moustaches of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, the cat-eye frames and winged liner of the 1950s, the bindis and kajal of Indian film heroines and the aviators of 1980s cinema all spread from the screen. Contouring, once a stage trick for flattening light, became an everyday look in the 2010s.
Famous stage, dance and screen face guides
Still to be written: Kathakali, Theyyam, Yakshagana.
Further reading
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Theatrical makeup: Mrgarden 2342, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kumadori: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Peking opera makeup: Art Poskanzer, CC BY 2.0, source
- Bian lian: Yongxinge, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pencil moustache: Roland Godefroy, CC BY 2.5, source