Mask work is a centuries-old theater practice that transcends nations and eras. From the exaggerated visages of commedia dell’arte to the spiritually significant faces of Japanese Noh, the art of masking enhances character work and storytelling by enabling actors to explore a spectrum of emotions and narratives. Putting on a false face to temporarily become someone else is the essence of acting.
This theatrical practice calls on performers to either literally or symbolically wear masks onstage to enhance character work and portray heightened emotions.
Generally, masks emphasize particular traits, allowing actors to explore personas in a purely physical way, without the need for dialogue. When you’re wearing a mask, it’s all about your physicality and body movement.
The history of mask in theater
Ancient Greece: Thespis of Icaria, often called the first actor, used various masks to play a variety of characters. In the early days of theater, mask performance was used to make political commentary, share stories and history, and show reverence to the gods—particularly Dionysus, god of “wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness, and wild frenzy.” But masks also served a logistical purpose. It’s believed that they helped to amplify actors’ voices in giant amphitheaters, and their exaggerated expressions were more easily readable to audience members located far away from the stage.
Commedia dell’arte (16th and 17th century Italy): This early form of improvisational theater employed masks to signify recurring stock characters like Pantalone (the greedy old fool with a bony facial structure, bushy eyebrows, a hooked nose, a mustache, and a long forked beard), Columbina (the mischievous maidservant, who wore a half-mask so as not to hide her beauty), and Harlequin (the witty, lovesick valet in a black mask with small eye holes, arched eyebrows, and a wrinkled forehead).
Noh drama: Masks are incredibly important to this dance-based form of Japanese theater, which was established in the 14th century. Carved from pieces of cypress, Noh masks can be decorated to signal the age and gender of characters or to portray demonic and supernatural entities. Often, they’re painted with fairly neutral expressions, so performers must be highly skilled in subtle movements.
Modern use: Today, theater-makers use masks in novel ways. Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski, who is considered one of the founders of experimental theater, often used masks in his teaching. The stage musical adaptation of “The Lion King” famously employs complex masks (designed by Julie Taymor and Michael Curry) to represent African animals in a uniquely abstract, stylized way. Cirque du Soleil performers use masks to create a shorthand for characters so they can focus on the physicality of their performances.
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Performers should consider the following when doing mask work:
- Physical awareness: “Wearing a mask means committing fully to physicality. Your entire body becomes the instrument for conveying thoughts, emotions, and narratives,” according to the U.K.’s Trestle Theatre Company.
- Expressiveness: “With a mask, you are no longer relying on facial expressions. Instead, you use the body, the breath, and the space around you to convey the inner life of the character,” says famed actor and dancer Lindsay Kemp.
- Vulnerability: “The mask is a tool that leads the performer to a state of vulnerability and heightened awareness, allowing the body to express what the face cannot,” wrote legendary educator and director Keith Johnstone in his book “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre.”
- Voice modulation: Theater-based public speaking expert Dr. Gary Genard says, “When facial expressions are no longer visible, actors instinctively use vocal coloration and gestures to fill in the emotional gaps, making their performance more dynamic and engaging.” He recommends practicing with a neutral mask in his public speaking program, the Genard Method.
- Audience engagement: “The mask helps to create a state of discovery, of openness, of receptivity. The actor must be physically available and alert, allowing the body to tell the story,” wrote French theater practitioner Jacques Lecoq in his book “The Moving Body (Le Corps Poétique).”
“The Oresteia” by Aeschylus (458 BC)
Aeschylus’ three-part ancient Greek trilogy (“Agamemnon,” “The Libation Bearers,” and “The Eumenides”) tells the vengeful tale of the cursed house of Atreus. In 1981, Sir Peter Hall staged a production in which the entire all-male company wore large, unmoving masks. “What their production established very quickly is that although the faces were unaltered—the same the whole time—nonetheless, you very quickly began to read some kind of emotional expression into the masks,” Oxford University scholar Oliver Taplin said in an interview with the National Theatre.
“Atsumori” by Zeami Motokiyo (14th–15th century)
In this Noh drama, the warrior Atsumori falls in battle, only to be resurrected as a ghost disguised as a grass cutter. It’s essential that Atsumori’s mask capture the peaceful yet melancholic essence of the young samurai.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare (1595)
Set in a magical woodland, this comedy follows four lovers, a troupe of amateur actors, and the fairies who manipulate them. The whimsical and hilarious qualities of the play are often enhanced by the use of masks, like the one worn in the scene where the Fairy Queen Titania is enchanted to fall in love with the donkey-headed Bottom.
“The Lion King” by Elton John and Tim Rice (1997)
For the Broadway production of this long-running Disney adaptation, director Julie Taymor represents the animals of Pride Rock through puppetry and mask work. “When I was thinking about ‘The Lion King,’ I said, ‘We have to do what theater does best,’ ” Taymor told Drama & Theatre. “What theater does best is to be abstract and not to do literal reality.”
