An Affair with the Theatre

Did you know that Frankfurt is the home of the largest english-speaking theatre in continental Europe?

I only found out about this after I started helping out there. That's right, I've been appointed the in-house make-up artist for the new play, Brave New World.


My boyfriend is one of the lead actors in the production, hence my involvement. Also, it's sooo much fun! I get to paint a good dozen of actors and actresses, one of them actually gets a bodypainting all over his chest, arms and back - every night of the week!

Of course director Michael Gonszar and the fantastic mistress of costumes Nina Luecker have their ideas as to how the make-up is supposed to look, but I get a lot of artistic freedom with the actual designs. I also like to talk to my "victims" in the make-up chair to make sure they feel comfortable with my work. They get to check their faces halfway through the process, put in their ideas and wishes and so on. This way, everybody tends to be happy with the results - maybe with exception of myself because sometimes I just don't get WHY ON EARTH some of the make-up-madness is neccessary.
WHY does that one androgynous character have a blue face with white lips and massive falsies? (You can see for yourselves, she's in the picture above on the left)
WHY does the "savage" have to be green and red? And I mean green and red all over. I asked the actor about that and he said he plays a ninja turtle, which is really not the case, but he sure looks the part :)


I have to admit I'm quite glad that many of the actors are perfectly able to do their own faces. The others have been very sweet and patient with me, very creative and very much fun. On top of that, I have a lovely "assistant" on some nights, so I actually get to watch some of the play.

Of course I highly recommend going to see the piece :) It's a quirky, colourful yet thoughtfully planned production, with many passionate actors, whose love for their profession radiates from the stage. They take a rather wordy, lenghty play, make it fun and exciting to watch and leave you breathless and with lots of food for thought after the show.

Oh, and it's only 15€ cover, with reduced prices for groups and students. There are still tickets available for next weekend, so hurry and get yours :)