Skip to main content

Cool Classes: Stage Makeup


Reagan Sieger (left) and Patrick Smith begin transforming themselves into old men.

- Stage Makeup -

Reagan Sieger and Patrick Smith aren’t grumpy old men, but at least they look that way thanks to a little stage makeup.

Sieger is only 18, in his first semester at Salt Lake Community College, dreaming of someday becoming a stage actor in New York. Sieger and Smith, 24, with aspirations of acting in film, are taking Jon Clark’s stage makeup class.

Theatre 1223, as it’s known in the SLCC catalog, didn’t draw a single taker when it was first offered in 2006. But timing is often everything. In 2011 special-effects makeup artists began competing with each other on a show called Face Off on the Syfy network. SLCC offered the class again in 2012. “We were just overwhelmed,” said Clark. “Most people who signed up were interested because of the show. There were only a few theatre majors.”

Students look on as Jon Clark (right) demonstrates a makeup technique.

It was a cool class then – and it still is. But nowadays most of the students are theatre majors, required to take Clark’s class, which is fully transferrable to bachelor degree programs in theatre throughout Utah. He teaches students how to appear three dimensional under stage lights. On a September morning in the Green Room near the Black Box Theatre on SLCC’s South City Campus, they’re learning how to make themselves look old.

“I’m hating this with all my might,” laughs Jaycee Chenoweth, 18, as she applies a thick purple goop to her otherwise spectacular eyebrows. “I hate anything on my eyebrows.” But the Alta High School grad loves film acting, has been in a few commercials and knows the value of being able to do your own makeup – and it’s one less person to hire, she notes. “It’s a good skill to have,” she says.

Chenoweth chats her way through class while applying her “old lady” makeup in the mirror with new friend Payton Wright, 19, a graduate of Taylorsville High School who loves theatre and plans to make it her career path. “I think a life you don’t live doing what you really love and makes you happy is boring,” Wright says. “That’s my biggest fear – being bored.”

Payton Wright (left) and Jaycee Chenoweth show off their "old lady" makeup.

Clark’s class is anything but boring. By the second day of class, he had students applying fake wounds to their skin. They’ll transform themselves into “fantasy” characters of their own design later in the semester.

“I love this class,” says Sieger, who grew up with seven sisters. “I just like makeup. I have always had an interest in doing makeup.” His goal with theatre is to help audience members feel something they’ve never felt, maybe even change a life the way seeing theatre performances as child did for him.

Smith, Sieger’s buddy in the mirror, wants to portray characters on screen who tell important stories that help people understand the world and themselves a bit better. At the end of class, looking more like old men than young actors, the two ham it up in the mirror and adlib their way through some funny dialogue. “I really like the idea that I can just make myself into whatever,” Smith says. “It just takes a little bit of time.”

Reagan Sieger (left) and Patrick Smith get into character at the end of class.

Jon Clark (right) admires the transformation of student Kiersten Knighton.


Popular posts from this blog

SLCC's Undergraduate Annual Research Conference Registration Deadline

Salt Lake Community College’s annual Undergraduate Projects, Performances, Presentations, and Research Conference (UP3RC) is set to take place on April 2, at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, offering students a chance to showcase their academic achievements, fostering a culture of intellectual exchange.  The UP3RC is an annual event designed to celebrate and highlight the academic accomplishments of undergraduate students. It provides a supportive environment for students to share their work, hone their presentations skills, receive constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful discussions with their peers and faculty. All SLCC departments and programs, including faculty and staff, are encouraged to support and visit the day of the event. Students with their poster from last year's UPRC event “The goal of this event is to make sure every school and student is given the opportunity to participate,” says Dr. Kamal Bewar, interim director of the STEM Learning Center, who is chairin

SLCC Business School is Utah’s First to be Named Exclusively After a Woman

Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) proudly announces a partnership with the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation to modernize its Business Building and transform its School of Business. The improvements are made possible through a generous $10 million gift from the Miller Family Foundation and Gail Miller, the largest-ever single cash donation received by the college.  SLCC is renaming its Business Building the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Business Building in honor of the Miller family’s legacy and contributions to the community. The business school will be named the Gail Miller School of Business in recognition of the strong business acumen Gail Miller displays as a community leader and as the owner and immediate past chair of the Larry H. Miller Company. This name change will make SLCC home to the only business school in Utah and one of only a few in the country to be named exclusively after a woman.  “We are deeply humbled by the generosity of Gail and the Miller fam

You’re Invited to A Party! Open House Kicks off New Herriman Campus

  Complimentary food truck fare, live music, and family activities spotlight new campus.   There’s something for everyone at the upcoming Herriman Campus Community Open House on Friday, August 4 (3:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.). See schedule below.   The public is invited to celebrate the opening of this new campus with festivities that include free local food truck fare, live music, and a Mocktail Mixer, where you can mingle with others, including Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) and University of Utah (U of U) faculty.   Families with kids can engage in face painting and a craft station, see the Super Mario Brothers movie, and high-five mascots Brutus, Swoop and Yeti.   This is an opportunity to have some summer fun for all ages and to check out the Juniper building on the new 88-acre SLCC Herriman campus.    At the open house, prospective students and their families can meet SLCC and U of U faculty and staff, take a tour the building, or even check out the Application & Transfer Lab a