On Thursday I was delighted to take a group of Year 10 Btec Acting students to the Victoria & Albert Museum to participate in a professional make-up workshop. Arriving at 12.30 we had lunch followed by a tour of the museum. The students that visited the performance section were delighted to be able to try on costumes as worn by actors in famous past productions!

At 2pm we all moved to the lecture theatre where we were met by Mel & Sarah, our make-up artistes. Some of the students seemed a little apprehensive at first being worried about the potential of acting as guinea pigs! Thankfully, Sam took on the role and over 25 minutes was transformed from the student we all know and love to an 80 year old lady. The transformation included the adding of basic lines and foundation before adding character by use of lake to suggest the woman liked an occasional drink.

 
The final part involved the whole group who first watched a demonstration on how to apply wound and scar make-up before the group got to work on each other. Running wounds, bruises and multi-coloured mosaic-like patterns sprung up as we looked at injuries in various states of repair - or not as the case may be! Charlie looked as if she had walked straight from the set of Casualty while Alec looked ideal for a role in Shaun of the Dead!

 
All in all a tiring but enjoyable afternoon for all. It was great to see the students giving free rein to their imaginations and my abiding memory will be of Ryan, hopping around like a renaissance artist while daubing Joe's face. Priceless!

 
Alan Mitchell.