Behind the Scenes: Makeup and Masks

Facing Angela opens this weekend! 

How stoked are we? Way stoked. 

With the premiere of Facing Angela approaching in matter of hours, our artists are busy perfecting their designs. You've probably heard us making a big hullabaloo about the makeup and masks in this show and for good cause, 'cause they are pretty righteous. 

Here's a sneak peak at the backstage goings-on before tonight's preview performance: 

Casey Cunningham applies makeup to start Angela transformation. Photos by Gerard Van Halsema.

Makeup Designer Aly Renee Amidei does some makeup detailing on Susan Myburgh.

Masks, are you ready for your close-up?

Angela's masks designed by Sarah Scanlon and Joshua Davis

Christine Vrem-Ydstie applies makeup to create Angela' distinctive bruise pattern.

Susan Myburgh paints on some icky bruising. 

                             

Angela bonding time with Susan Myburgh and Julie Cowden.

                           

Oh, Angela. That's doesn't look so good, sweetie. 

We're super proud of our actors and designers, but we still need some help making all of this happen. So, how can you help? Two ways.

1) Come see the show! Tickets for Facing Angela are on sale on the Athenaeum's website. 

2) Donate to our Kickstarter. We have 4 days left to raise a little over $1000, and we know we can reach out goal with a little help from our friends. 

Sage advice from Cecil. 

GAME ON.

Behind the Scenes: Publicity Photo Shoot

By now, you've probably seen the awesome photos that we've been using for the promotional materials for Facing Angela.

They really are something else, huh?

On the day of the photo shoot, three of our five Angelas (Casey, Christine, and Susan) were ready to transform from pretty ladies to pretty ladies with slight to severe facial abrasions. Mask and Makeup Designer, Sarah Scanlon was there to facilitate their transformations. 

Sarah started with Susan, whose Angela had the most severe injury. 

Susan Myburgh (Torn Angela) and Sarah Scanlon (Mask and Makeup Designer)

After starting with some general bruising, Sarah had a brilliant idea. What if it looked like part of Susan's jaw was made out of exposed metal? How gruesome would that be?! Using a combination of tin foil, tissues, and liquid latex, Sarah was able to achieve the awesomely scary effect. 

Sarah Scanlon (Mask and Makeup Designer), Susan Myburgh (Torn Angela), and our photographer Gerard Van Halsema in the background

After finishing Susan's makeup, Sarah moved on to a lessening degree of bruising and injury with Christine and Casey.

Christine Vrem-Ydstie (Repaired Angela) and Sarah Scanlon (Mask and Makeup Design)

All the while, our photographer extraordinaire Gerard Van Halsema took some amazing solo shots of our Angelas in their varying stages of beauty and decay. 

Casey Cunningham (Angela X) and photographer Gerard Van Halsema

Susan Myburgh (Torn Angela) and photographer Gerard Van Halsema

Once our girls were all ready, Gerard took some amazing shots of them as a group.

L-R: Susan Myburgh (Torn Angela), Christine Vrem-Ydstie (Repaired Angela), Casey Cunningham (Angela X) and photographer Gerard Van Halsema

If we did all this just for the photo shoot, then you should see what we're cooking up for the production! But we need your help to make it happen...

We have TEN DAYS left to reach our Kickstarter goal to make some truly amazing masks and makeup effects for this show. We hope that you'll consider donating to our company and helping us make this show the best that it can be. 

Facing Angela, written by Scott T. Barsotti and directed by Kyra Lewandowski, opens on Saturday, June 29th. The production will run Thurs.-Sat. at 8pm and Sun. at 2pm from June 29- July 28 at the Atheneaum Theatre (2936 N. Southport). For more information, please visit ruckustheater.org. 

Love and Illness: a blog by Facing Angela understudy Natalie Hurdle

"When I first read Facing Angela, it was like a sock in the gut. It felt so personal to me. Like Angela, I have an immune disorder (though, unlike Angela, I’m fortunate that you can’t tell by looking at me), and too many moments in Facing Angela hit uncomfortably close to home. It’s enough of a mindfuck to come to terms with the fact that your body is attacking itself without then having to confront what that will mean to and for the people you love, the people who love you. Chronic illness is profoundly unglamorous, sometimes frightening, inconvenient, not to mention outrageously expensive to treat. Will he be up for all that? Will he always think of me as fragile? Will he know how to support me through flare-ups? Can he still find me beautiful when he sees me sick? It’s a lot of work to love someone with so much baggage to unpack.

The more time I spent with the script and in rehearsal with the brainy and brilliant creative team, however, I started to feel that this was a story about all of our secret fears in marriage and commitment—that immune disorder or no, we all bring some kind of sickness into our relationships: dysfunction, addiction, self-absorption, insecurity, jealousy... all the ugly shit we carry around is corrosive.Facing Angela started to feel more like the story of what happens when that sickness is taken to an extreme and the toll it can have on what matters most to us. At least in part. 

There is a lot going on in this sucker. I can’t wait until an audience falls down the rabbit hole with us."

- Natalie Hurdle, Understudy

Sounds like a pretty cool show, huh? 

We think so too, but we need your help to make it happen.

Please consider donating to our Kickstarter campaign. Every dollar counts!

Facing Angela, written by Scott T. Barsotti and directed by Kyra Lewandowski, runs June 29-July 28 at the Athenaeum Theatre (2936 N. Southport). 

For more information please visit ruckustheater.org or athenaeumtheatre.org. 

Angela is coming. Piece by piece.

The Ruckus has a new show coming to a theater near you...

Angela has lost her face. Acquiring a new face alters more than skin and tissue, cutting into Angela's relationship with her husband, Wes, and mutating her sense of self. As Angela re-constructs, re-invents, and re-defines her identity, Wes ceases to recognize the woman he loves, and doubts whether he really knows himself either. This re-imagining of Scott T. Barsotti's 2003 play, explored over the course of the season with the cast and company and directed by Kyra Lewandowski, will delve deep into how we recognize ourselves and those we go to bed with, and the collateral damage of transformative change.

Intrigued?

Excellent.

You can help us make this show even better by donating to our Kickstarter campaign. We've got 21 days to make our goal a reality and every dollar counts. Plus, there are some pretty sweet perks for donating, like a makeover by personality Florida Devereaux. 

Stay tuned for more news about Facing Angela...

Facing Angela, written by Scott T. Barsotti and directed by Kyra Lewandowski, runs June 29-July 28(Thurs.-Sun.) at the Athenaeum Theatre (2936 N. Southport).

 For more information, please visit athenaeumtheatre.org or ruckustheater.org.

Writing this photo caption was a blast. Meet Erin and Casey.

Brewed starts its final weekend tomorrow, and we are the most excited. To celebrate, we're going to share some more bon mots from the lovely people who've helped bring the play to life. Next up: Erin Myers, who plays Paulette, and Casey Bentley, our fearless props designer.

Erin Myers (center) stirs a Casey Bentley cauldron, while Charlotte Mae Ellison (right) reaches for a Casey Bentley jar and Stevie Chaddock Lambert (left) sits in a Casey Bentley wheelchair.

What’s your name, and what on EARTH are you doing here?  

Erin Myers. I dunno, acting and stuff.

How did you find yourself to being a part of Brewed?
Got invited to audition and knew I liked Anna's and Scott's work, was
really excited at auditions to discover how super-playable the
material was - how kinetic and active, and how fun everyone there was
to work with.
What about this play (if anything) excites you?
Lots of stuff - the fights, the turn-on-a-dime, love/hate
relationships, but it's becoming really thrilling as we keep running
it to have so many 4, 5, 6 and 7 person scenes in which everyone has
something huge at stake - it makes for a lot of threads of tension
running across the room - really dynamic scenes.

What about this play (if anything) scares you?
I love Paulette - I was thrilled when I was cast in that part because
she's my favorite, but she's not an obviously like-able person - she's
hard on herself, and on everyone around her and she's really angry,
you know?  But she loves her family so much and I hope that comes
through, too.  I hope her dilemma makes sense to people in the
audience as much as it does to me.
If your character was a professional wrestler or fighter, what would her signature move be?
A haymaker with a windup like Popeye - like, one, two , three, BAM!

In five words or less, why should people come see Brewed?

It's hilarious and terrifying.

--

And here's Casey!

What’s your name, and what on EARTH are you doing here?

I'm Casey Bentley and I am designing and building some props.

How did you find yourself to being a part of Brewed?

I'm an artistic associate with Tympanic and a friend of The Ruckus'. Last summer the companies hosted a fight workshop to get geared up for the show this season. I was asked if I could put together a rehearsal cauldron for the event and when someone asks you to make a cauldron, you don't say no. 

What about this play (if anything) excites you?

The people. We have some truly talented folks on this production and I'm happy to be working with every one of them. 

What about this play (if anything) was challenging?

Stevie wouldn't let me cut her legs off. i guess she's not that Method. 

What's your favorite design moment/element of the show?

The violence looks great. I had to remind myself that it's choreographed the other night. 

In five words or less, why should people come see Brewed?

These are no cat fights.

Join us for Brewed, Thursday-Sunday, and catch the sisters before they disappear for good.

Meet the women of BREWED - Susan and Stevie

We've got five more performances of BREWED, and thought it might be about time you meet some of the fine people who've been bringing it to life. First up: Tympanic's Susan Myburgh, who plays machinery maven Roxette, and our own Stevie Chaddock Lambert, who plays lover-of-rules-and-being-picked-up Babette.

Susan Myburgh as Roxette and Elise Mayfield as Lee

What’s your name, and what on EARTH are you doing here?

Hi-o! In real life my name is Susan, but you all can call me Roxette and I'm here to stir things up and start some trouble. 

How did you find yourself to being a part of Brewed?

I think I'll blame Allison Shoemaker for this one. I recall a conversation that went something like this...

Allison: OMGOMGOMGOMG! Susan, you have to read this awesome play about sister and fighting and everything. It's so good. 

Me: Okay. I'll check it out

Allison: No really! Red it. Read. It. Now. (Allison shoves script in my face)

Me: Okay, okay. I'll read it! 

Cut to. Me falling in love with this script and counting the days, minutes and seconds until the auditions rolled around. Allison was so right. 

What about this play (if anything) excites you?

I am beyond excited to share the stage with these six women. In many rehearsals I've found myself distracted by each of their immense amounts of talent. They are all badasses in their own right and bring their badassery to the layered and complex characters that Scott has crafted. If you come to see this show for any reason, it's for them. Really. They are balls to the wall good. I'm so proud to call them my sisters. 

What about this play (if anything) scares you?

Everything. 

If your character was a professional wrestler or fighter, what would her signature move be?

Roxette is a mechanically minded and always trying to fix things up. So, without a doubt, my signature move would be the "Nut and Bolt."

In five words or less, why should people come see Brewed?

[REDACTED FOR SPOILERS AND STUFF]

Stevie Chaddock Lambert as Babette, Erin Myers as Paulette, and Dana Black as Juliette

What's your name, and what on EARTH are you doing here?

I am Stevie Chaddock Lambert, and I'm playing the role of Babette in Brewed.

How did you find yourself to being a part of Brewed?

Well, in the summer of 2011 (I believe), I saw a staged reading of Brewed at Strawdog. I was completely enthralled with it. I laughed and cried and gasped and couldn't stop talking about it for months. I thought, "This show is really something special, and I need to be a part of it." Then The Ruckus (my company) started seriously discussing the possibility of producing it with Tympanic and things started to fall into place. I auditioned for it last summer and was BEYOND thrilled when I got cast. 

What about this play (if anything) excites you?

Everything. When it comes down to it, Brewed is about relationships. How these six sisters interact with each other. How they exist with each other. How they love each other. Isn't that really the basis of all great stories?

What about this play (if anything) scares you?

Babette. She is this wonderfully complex character that Scott created, and there is so much going on inside her head. I just want to bring her to life with honesty. 

If your character was a professional wrestler or fighter, what would her signature move be?

Oh, now you know I can't tell you that! I can't give away all Babette's secrets. You'll just have to come see the show to find out...

In five words or less, why should people come see Brewed?

It's all girl Fight Club.