Hair & Makeup Designer

The HMU Designer sets the hair, wig, and makeup style for the entire show. It requires a lot of research and a lot of work to design every hairstyle and makeup chart. But in the end, with Designer status you get the satisfaction of influencing the style of an entire production.

Madame Butterfly

Utah Festival Opera Company & Musical Theatre (UFOMT)
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Steven Schmid
Director: Valerie Rachelle

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Utah Festival Opera Company & Musical Theatre (UFOMT)
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Mallory Prucha
Director: Brad Carroll

Hunchback Notre Dame utah festival opera ufomt

The Pirates of Penzance

Utah Festival Opera Company & Musical Theatre (UFOMT)
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Amanda Profaizer
Director: Brad Carroll

Pirates Penzance utah festival opera ufomt

The Music Man

Utah Festival Opera Company & Musical Theatre (UFOMT)
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer:Lydia Semler
Director: Valerie Rachelle

A Christmas Carol

Hale Centre Theatre
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Kristy Draper

Time periods vary on this depending on which silhouettes the costume designer wants to use. Christmas past can be 1820's—Empire or more mid century which is Romantic. Current time period could be Romantic, Crinoline, or Bustle (1850-1900). This is still all considered Victorian, as well. I chose to set it in the Romantic period, to match the costumes, but the chorus never had time to change wigs from past to present so they just stayed the same.

The ghosts were very fun to design for. Marley's scene was done in blacklight, so I had to do an almost reverse makeup for him. Christmas Past I wanted to look ethereal...and it looked great onstage.

Makeup for Marley

For this production of A Christmas Carol, Marley was under blacklight. So I started with a normal light plot, and during tech rehearsal, I sketched with the understanding that the white (page) was the face and I was sculpting it with the black (pencil). I basically had to work with negative space to get the effect I wanted. So the actor did the black and white makeup as sketched on the paper, and then added some color on top of it as the lighting design would shift from blacklight to regular light during the scene. He looked scary both ways.

The Drowsy Chaperone

Old Lyric Repertory Company
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Dennis Hassan

The Wizard of Oz

The Utah Festival Opera
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Carey Hanson

My makeup designs were inspired by the traditional books by L. Frank Baum instead of the movie. The books were written almost 30 years before the movie came out, so there were some differences that I could justify to the director. For example, I didn't put my Wicked Witch in green face paint like the traditional film, instead I used heavy eyeshadow in green. This made the shows makeup design stand out from other productions; but also allowed the singer to make a very tight costume change back into the nosey neighbor.

Don't be afraid to fight for your design, but you need research to back it up and to pick your battles so you don't get a reputation for being difficult.

Cosi fan tutte

Seattle Opera - Young Artist Program
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Anthony Baker

The Seattle Young Artist Program performs two operas a year to highlight upcoming singers. I was able to design this 2003 production. Time period 1788—late Georgian, Gainsborough.

Naughty Marietta

Utah Festival Opera
Hair & Makeup Designer: Melyssa Swensen
Costume Designer: Judith Ryerson

Time period is 1830—this is Georgian, but a specific hairstyle called Biedermeyer. These are the kind of outlandish hairstyles you see on Cinderella's stepsisters. This operetta was set in New Orleans.