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Show I 2 The Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday, November 13, 1982 Costume painting trick of theater magic part By Lourdes Z. Lee Columbia News Service When a costume NEW YORK designer, Carol Oditz, was ordered to make earthbound actors look ephemeral for a production of Shakespeares The Winters Tale," she used an old theater trick painting the costumes. Colors and designs were painted on the white silk costumes. When the stage, a huge plexiglass disk, was lighted from below, tbe costumes because translucent, making the actors look otherwordly, as if they were floating, light and luminous, over the boards. Can Trick Eye Between the treatment of the costume and the lighting, you can trick the eye a lot," Ms. Oditz said. Illusion and trickery are, of course, the stuff of theater; and costume painting, little known outside the trade, is as much a part of the theater's magic as makeup and lightning. "As long as theaters been around, paintings been part of it," said Martin Izquierdo, who paints costumes and makes headgear and masks. One of the craft's most common , tricks is making new costumes look bke old rags. "It's not like dragging said Mary it across the floor, Macy, one of only four or five costume painters here who make their living solely from the craft. "You dont deaden colors, you enrich them. To age a costume, the painter must first change its silhouette, tugging it out of shape. Then u is bleached and dyed. Putting os Color "We take part of the original colors out and then put other colors back in," Ms Macy said. The color gray is never used to shade or dirty a costume. Instead, painters usually turn to the original colors green shades or complement "dirties" red, for example, and blue shades orange. It may take Ms. Macy, who aged all the Cockney costumes for the recent Broadway production of "My Fair Lady," a day and a half to age one costume. Some jobs take longer. The robe worn by Ian McKellan as Salieri in the opening scene of Amadeus was sent back to her five times before the director, Peter Hall, was satisfied that the "faded colors were rich enough to with- - Canny storage idea DEAR HELOISE: Whenever I use canned goods and only part of the contents is used, instead of putting the unused portion in some other type '"K of container, I V t L I attached it to two clothes line poles and have all the holes I need for coat hangers. They never blow off the line. C.S. Clark DEAR HELOISE: I would like to share this hint for the storage of food in the deep freezer. Do you have UFOs floating around in yours? Sometimes the label comes off or the writing becomes etc., or I think I will remember what is in the package, but I dont. Now, I wrap the food in foil, and then insert it in one of the free transparent bags that we put produce in at the supermarket. With a dark pencil I write the contents, date, etc. on a small slip of paper, and slide this in on the transparent side of the bag. With twist seal snug on the top, the excess bag trimmed off, I have a neat, identifiable package. Martha Baron indis-cernabl- e, Heloise This really helps because not only can I see at a glance what is stored, but 1 can also see how much is in the can. Besides, it saves washing another Mark Hodges container! one less dish to wash is Having reason enough for using the can, right? But the rest of the idea is super, too. Besides being able to view the contents easily, the label on the can makes it a cinch to spot. I wouldnt recommend storing acid foods such as tomatoes in the can. These foods will turn dark and develop an off taste. Thanks for a really nifty hint. Heloise DEAR HELOISE: My son lost a contact lens on a stretch of pato terned, carpeting so it was impossible to see. A friend suggested taking the vacuum hose wand (no attachments) and covering it with a nylon stocking and vacuuming the area. Sure enough, the contact was picked up, saving considerable expense. She had used this same trick to pick up pins off the floor after sewing. Works! Harriet Gibbs DEAR HELOISE: Here is a little clothes. I trick I did for drip-dr- y of galvanized bought a strip strap iron (the kind plumbers use to hang pipes). Mine cost around a dollar for the 10 feet. Send your favorite helpful hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 32000, San Antonio, Texas 70216. She can't reply to your letter personally but the best hints received will be used in her column. Nuptial hi-l- Comstoek-Timolh- y Beverly North Comstock and Don G. Timothy were married Friday at the home of Will Rogers, Salt Lake City. A reception honored the couple after the ceremony. Management seminar set Your Most Marketing You Important Product" will be theme of a conference for women Tuesday at Hotel Utah. Learning Resources Inc., a nonprofit organization, will host the conference which will feature motivation, marketing skills, advancement techniques and networking philosophy. Brenda Merrill, managing director of LRI, Alice Durrant of Utah Women, Shelly Bumick and Margo Williams, Suzie Smith and Tim Hall bom will be speakers. The conference will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. For further information contact Professional Business Management Associates. Mrs. Timothy The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur North, Salt Lake City. The bridegroom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Wes E. Cochran, Midvale. He attended Brigham Young University. Symposium dated Utah Symphony Guild is having an evening symposium Tuesday at 8 p.m. Ryan Selberg, principal cellist, will be speaker. Refreshments will be served. For further information and reservations contact Mrs. Dennis J. Caldwell. o MUMS THE WORD I - Chrysanthemum weave chairs now specialty priced. Utahs finest wicker and rattan store, naturally! 10-Monday through Saturday 815 East 2100 South Salt Lake City. Utah 84105 (801) 6 , 486-930- 7 effect of stand the washing-ou- t stage lights. Undoing Aging Process Undoing the aging process, on the other hand, can be much easier. During last summer's New York Shakespeare Festival, a shows costumes were sent out for dry cleaning. The cleaners clothes regarded the as a professional challenge. Despite the steaming that had been done on the costumes to set the dve, the cleaners managed to make the new "old" clothes new again. Painting is also used when a detail or fabric design cannot be created any other way. One of the sketches hanging in Ms. Oditz's living room is of a ballerina wearing an antique shawl for a skirt. "You really cant wear an old shawl for dancing," she 6aid. "It'll tear to pieces." So it was sewn out of Miliskin, a stretch fabric, and its design and age were painted on. An Ideal Canvas Ballets stretch fabric is the costume painters ideal canvas. It absorbs paint and dye well while it loses flexibility if it is embroidered too heavily. Willa Kim, who costume painters said pioneered the extensive use of the craft in the 1970s, has developed a painting technique fo tights and unitards that accentuates muscles and lengthens dancers legs. Certain muscles of the buttocks, behind the knees, at the top of the calves and at the Achilles tendons are shaded; the knees, inner thigh muscles and the ankle bones are highlighted with light colots. Costume painting has remained largely experimental, and it is only recently that courses in the craft have been offered. Ms. Macy has said that all a painter needs to know is how a fabric takes certain dyes and paints. Ms. Macy, who taught a course to graduate costume design students at New York University, learned the craft while working for well-age- d dirty-lookin- g Mary Macy, costume painter, paints coat of dye onto silk In her Manhattan studio. Painted costume company. Bryan Kollman, another costume painter who plans to teach a course at Yale University, entered the field as a painter of Japanese kimonos. fabric was used to make leaves on costumes for Broadways "Sophisticated Ladies." Not many Broadway shows today use costume painting on a large scale. With the cost of aging a costume going as high as (250, Ms. said many designers and producers still consider costume painting a luxury. However, Mr. Kollman said that It has become increasingly more popular as desig-Macners see what it can do." y |