Troll Queen Theatre Mask

Back in my late teens-early twenties, I occasionally made papier mache masks for theatrical/costume purposes.  Though I never achieved the mastery of mask-making that my classmate Doug Witt did (see his work here – it’s terrific!)), I’m proud of the work I did.

This Troll Queen theatre mask was created for a one-act play called ‘Under the Bridge,’ for the character ( duh) of the Troll Queen. The features were sculpted from plasticine onto a plaster mould of the actor’s face.  I then applied a very light layer of vaseline to the sculpt, and covered it in papier mache.  once removed and cleaned up, this papier mache cast was attached to a basic blank of the actor’s face with more papier mache, at which stage the ‘hair’ and the elastic (to hold the mask on the actor) was attached as well.

Troll Queen Theatre MaskI then painted it to finish it.  In hindsight, this mask is probably too dark to really read on stage; if I was doing it again, I’d be much less subtle about the highlights; the paint job is more appropriate for costume parties or close-up theatre, like street theatre.  Overall, however, both myself and the players were pretty happy with my work. Troll Queen Theatre Mask

Troll Queen Theatre Mask

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