By Elizabeth Bennett
Several years ago, a student with slashed wrists walked up to the information desk in the Wilkinson Center and asked for help. The attendant, seeing the dripping blood and gaping wound, promptly passed out, hit the floor and had to be taken to the ER.
This is part of the reason why students in the theater make-up class, TMA 267, are no longer allowed to leave the building with make-up wounds.
'You''re not with ''grossy/gory'' make-up because it looks too real,' said Sarah Lock, grad student and make-up teacher. 'With everything else you can. They don''t really think you''re freaks in the , but if you go outside of the building and walk around campus it does draw attention to you. It''s not very often you see people have weird things stuck on their faces.'
Theater make-up, despite its frivolous appearance, is a three-credit-hour class that meets twice a week. The syllabus is divided into sections teaching different necessary make-up skills, including Old Age, Middle-aged, Glamour, Stylized, 3-D, and, that old favorite, Grossies and Gories.
'My favorite probably just the section where we got to do cuts and bruises and stuff,' said Heather Stutz, a junior majoring in biology. 'I hated the beard section because the hair is so messy.'
Lock said her least favorite was Old Age. 'First of all, it''s really hard. Then you put layers of latex to make it wrinkled, and it sticks to the hair on your face and it makes it very painful to pull off. And the students whine and whine and complain and moan.'
TMA 267 also has a surprisingly diverse enrollment.
'Most of the students are , but we''ve had English majors, biology, chemistry majors. I guess they love make-up,' Lock sad.
Stutz, a biology major, is living proof. 'It was my fun class and, well, I just like make-up. I heard good things about it, and just thought it would be fun, basically.'
'I love it,' Lock said. 'I think it''s one of the funnest things to be able to change your face just with shadows and highlights. It''s fascinating.'