In the depths of Cahn Auditorium on a cold Tuesday night, 10 hair and makeup assistants gather in a windowless dressing room, facing bright bulbs and funhouse-like mirrors. The vanity is littered with supplies: brushes, beauty blenders, wig caps and glue fill up the plastic organizers barely containing the chaos, and the smell of hairspray and rubbing alcohol engulfs the tiny room. It’s not glamorous, but in another week, this room will be full of queens – drag queens.
It’s 10 days before opening night of Kinky Boots, and School of Communication third-year Mark Park, the show’s wigs, hair and makeup designer, is giving the stage crew a live tutorial on how to place wigs and block eyebrows. Donning round glasses and a half-up half-down hairstyle, Park carefully strokes the model’s brows with their slim fingers. Park is already three layers deep into gluing down the model’s eyebrows before the silent, focused crowd.
“Now we’re gonna do the wet layer,” Park says, explaining that moisture in the final layer of glue will help the setting powder stick. The crew can add a drop of water, or...
“Do you want to lick it?” Park asks. They extend the purple stick out to the model’s mouth, and the actor takes a swift lick.
“Hell yeah,” Park chirps as the group erupts in laughter. “It’s nontoxic guys, don’t worry.”
Kinky Boots, the 81st Annual Dolphin Show, is Park’s 16th student production as hair and makeup designer in just over a year. Premiering Friday at Cahn Auditorium, Kinky Boots tells the true story of a struggling shoe factory owner who forms an unlikely partnership with Lola, a drag queen, to develop custom footwear for drag queens and save the business. It’s up to Park and their team to turn the actors who play Lola and her “Angels” into drag queens.
Park says they’re one of the few dedicated hair and makeup designers at Northwestern, but they actually started as a dancer and actor in 2019. They occasionally tried special effects makeup for Halloween costumes, but it wasn't Park’s focus.
When COVID-19 hit, Park went home to Incheon in South Korea and enlisted in the Korean army. “That’s actually where I found my passion for hair and makeup,” Park says.
In the two years Park spent in the military, they were stripped of their creative expression. Park says they had to shave their head and couldn’t wear any makeup. The military also dictated Park’s wardrobe, down to how it was organized.
“You don’t get any decision at all on how you want to look and how you want to portray yourself,” Park says. “That’s where I realized how much of a story your own hair and makeup can tell.”
In a week-long break from the army, Park spent an entire day developing a special effects makeup look. With no budget or formal training, Park used Q-tips, glue and black nail polish to design two spiders on their face, then used latex, tissue paper, red food coloring and corn syrup to create a bloody gash on their shoulder. “This was the first time I was like, ‘I feel like I did something,’” Park says.
In 2022, Park returned to campus and started focusing on hair and makeup design for film and theater. They took their first dedicated hair and makeup design role in early 2023 for The Frogs, a student-produced musical. Now, with 15 productions under their belt, Park only works on shows with unique hair and makeup, like special effects or drag.
When Park takes on a show as hair and makeup designer, they always start by reading the script twice: first to get a sense of the story, then to analyze the show for hair and makeup design, including personality traits, character development and day changes. Park compiles all of their notes in a spreadsheet to get a sense of how many looks they’ll need to design for each character.
Park started this process for Kinky Boots over the summer. To ideate the looks, Park met with the Wigs, Hair and Makeup Associate, Weinberg second-year Sarah Carley, and five design assistants — all of whom Park consistently praises. The team spent months researching drag culture and the styles of the show’s settings: Northampton, England and Milan, Italy.
Park says the biggest challenge for Kinky Boots was developing the looks for the six “Angels,” the drag queens who aren’t given backstories in the script. The hair and makeup crew met with the costume team and decided to design from the boots up. They landed on six themes to inspire the looks: goth, butterfly, floral, thunderstorm, disco Barbie and graffiti.
With the ideation and research complete, Park sketched out the hair and makeup looks for all the characters. They spent weeks creating the designs, then further adjusted them after casting late fall quarter. Even during tech week, the design team is still putting everything together, but of course, they have to be ready for opening night.
Park is grateful for the talented team and full budget for Kinky Boots, but they say hair and makeup is often a low priority in student film and theater productions at Northwestern. Sometimes Park is stuck with a low budget and small staff. Sometimes their designs are cut entirely. Park thinks the hair and makeup team enhances the story when given the opportunity.
“In my mind, if a character changes costumes but the hair and makeup remains exactly the same, they are essentially the same person — just in a different outfit,” they say. “I really like to see the differences and the storytelling through hair and makeup.
The School of Communication only offers classes in hair or makeup every two or three years, Park says, and they’re usually taught by graduate students, not industry professionals. “There’s a real lack of opportunities and guidance,” Park adds, especially as someone considering a career in hair and makeup design for film and theater.
This might explain why Park refers to hair and makeup design as a “niche” field, with talented artists choosing to focus on other passions. Park has had to cut back on performing to focus on hair and makeup. “There are definitely people who are equally — if not more — talented than I am,” Park says. “It’s a matter of whether they want to actually take the role of designing for a full-scale production.”
Park is being modest. I got a taste of their talent last spring on the set of Kori + Carter vs. The School, a student zombie film I reported on for NBN. I offered to be a zombie extra, not realizing that meant sitting for hours as Park gave me bloody, latex wounds — but Park made it fun. While I was amazed by their artistry and expertise, I also enjoyed the comfort and laughter that comes when you’re in Park’s chair.
Now, backstage at Cahn, Park is finishing up the tutorial. Using the back of their hand as a palette, Park draws on the model’s new eyebrows, talking through each careful motion. The demonstration reminds me of a Bob Ross tutorial. The model, now wearing a lavender wig and thin brows, smiles at themself in the mirror as the onlooking crew showers compliments like “snatched” and “gorgeous.”
Come opening night, I’ll be watching the performance, but I’ll also be thinking about Park and the assistants drawing on eyebrows and making sure nobody’s wig falls off.