Anyone who has seen Tovah Feldshuh's star turn as Golda Meir in "Golda's Balcony," playing Off Broadway at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater (MET), has to be struck by Feldshuh's extraordinary makeup job, which brings to life the late 72-year-old prime minister of Israel.
And doing the makeup is no easy feat, notes first-time makeup artist Trevor McGinness, who, on average, takes an hour and a half to complete the job. "Because Golda is a historical figure, you have to get the makeup right—audiences know if it's authentic or not—and, at the same time, keep in mind the actor's face, so that the result is believable.
"For example," he continues, "Golda had severe, thick eyebrows, but because Tovah's face is so much smaller than Golda's, the eyebrows had to be toned all the way down. Our goal is to suggest the eyebrows. If we were to literally reproduce them to look like Golda's eyebrows, they'd be overwhelming on Tovah's face. It's a delicate play of proportion."
McGinness, hitherto the costume shop supervisor at MET, describes the painstaking process of doing Feldshuh's makeup, starting with his exhaustive study of photos (dozens) spanning 40 to 50 years in Meir's life.
But that was just the first step. The second step involved hours and hours of film watching.
"John Caglione, Jr., who designed the makeup, filmed himself putting the makeup on Tovah—the whole process from the beginning to the end," recalls McGinness. "And I've now watched the film six or seven times, going fast forward and back and taking lots of notes. I've generated three pages of notes. And before I touched Tovah's face, I worked on a plastic cast of her face."
The preparation served him well. Nonetheless, there are challenges galore. The first—after piling Feldshuh's hair up and pinning it down beneath a wig cap and then cleaning her face with an alcohol pad—is situating her prosthetic nose (made with foam latex), he says.
"You always have to play with it, make sure it sits right, before gluing it to her skin with a medical-strength adhesive. I start gluing it at the bridge of the nose and move my way out to the center. In the beginning, I was worried I'd get the glue in her eyes. So far, I haven't, although it has gotten on her cheek. But it comes off easily enough with thinner.
"Once the glue dries, the [prosthetic] nose is solid, but not uncomfortable and it doesn't limit Tovah's facial expressions. The prosthetic moves with her nose. If she crinkles her nose, the prosthetic nose will crinkle, too.
"I will then apply an acrylic-based face paint mixed with a special glue, painting it over the nose and its edges," McGinness continues. "It gives the nose a base color and seals it. I then quickly cover her face with some base makeup to match the nose and start aging her face with highlight and shadow."
Again, McGinness makes the point that while he is trying to evoke Meir's face, he always has to be mindful of Feldshuh's, using her smile lines as the launching pad for the aging process.
Still, it is Meir's face he is charged with forging.
"With brown rubber mask greasepaint, I give Tovah's face contours to suggest Golda's jowls, and I apply some shadow between her eyebrows and eyelids to create the little pockets that Golda had in those spots," McGinness remarks. "And I highlight the shadow on top of and beneath the pockets. All the colors have to be mixed."
McGinness admits that getting the colors just right took him some time to master. But the fact that he has had art training has helped him considerably. He also has manual dexterity. "I have a degree in costume design from Boston University. After all, I know how to sew and how to mix paints."
Nonetheless, each night he will stand out in the audience to see how Feldshuh's face looks.
"In the beginning, the lines were too dark and makeup-y," he recalls. "I'm learning how to create a more cohesive and natural look."
Although McGinness landed the makeup gig out of economic necessity (the theatre's), he hopes to try his hand at makeup again. He concedes his appetite has been whetted for more historical figures.