Practical Make Up For The Stage By T W Bamford

Extract from the foreword: In spite of a mistaken movement in the direction of naturalism on the stage, which encourages actors to speak in a drawing-room” voice, almost inaudible to any one farther from the stage than the front row of the stalls, and to appear on the scenes with hardly any make-up on their faces, it is generally recognized that a certain amount of over-emphasis is essential on a stage divided from the audience by the proscenium frame and flooded with a light of intense brilliance. Just as the voice of the actor must be pitched in such a way as to carry to the farthest seat-holder in the house, so must his face and features be accentuated if his expression is not to be lost. This then is the primary object of make-up, for a face in which the eyes and mouth had not been defined would appear flat and featureless under the glare of modern stage lighting