Mask-terpiece Theater
Composer, mask masker and campus artists collaborate for April 21 performance
Issue 14 - 04.13.06

BY RHONDA ROSS
Staff Writer

To most people, a mask is a disguise, but to Rob Faust, a mask can be revealing. Faust, who lives in Canada, is the founder and director of Faustwork Mask Theatre. He will make his Cowley College debut on Friday, April. 21, in the Brown Center Theatre.

The performance, titled Face: The Music, A Symphony of Masks, will blend the creative talent of Faust with that of the Winfield Regional Symphony and its director, Cowley’s instrumental music instructor Gary Gackstatter. Gackstatter commissioned the Mask Symphony and composed the original music for the premiere.
The evening will fuse the work of many campus artists and performers.

Behind the Curtain

In Mike Fell’s 3D Design II classroom, a line of more than 20 faces, most of them white, some brown, meander along a corner countertop, waiting to dry so they can be painted.

They are expressionless, for now, though each one has the distinct facial features of the model that posed for it.

Jessica Robinson, a sophomore art major and one of Fell’s Design II students, said the class has been working on the masks for the past two weeks. The mask-making process began with volunteer models from the acting class. Student actors will also wear the masks as part of the concert performance.

“We started out with Vaseline on the face to keep the hair from sticking to the plaster,” Robinson said.

Then the plaster, a combination of clay and paper maché, was applied. Some of the masks use newspaper while others have brown paper bags mixed with wallpaper paste.

“The brown paper bags are stronger,” Robinson said.

One model, freshman theater student Laura Durham, said the plaster felt “really gross” and made her slightly claustrophobic.

Durham was under the impression that the process would only take about 15 minutes, but it was at least 45 minutes, she said. Robinson heard that someone fell asleep during the application process.

The Design II students will use clay sculpture to create the expressions for the faces. Robinson said the masks will convey a variety of facial expressions from fearful and bored to demonic and flirtatious. “They’re all really different,” she said.

Durham saw a picture of a mask that was used as a reference for the design students. “It had tears made of sparkly jewels going down the cheek. It was pretty,” she said.

Behind the Mask

A world-renowned artist, Faust has earned rave reviews for his productions that feature masks that he designs, creates, and wears. He has performed at The Kennedy Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as other venues throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Posted on the Faustwork Mask Theatre website is the following quote from Oscar Wilde: “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth.”

Faust described his work as “cutting-edge.” His website said it is a “self-exploration that eventually comes to life through movement in dance or theatre.”

Faust and his mask theatre have remained popular with audiences since 1983. “I’ve noticed consistently that everyone responds,” he said. “There is a universal appeal to all ages and mentalities, from corporate to grade school.”

Well, maybe not all ages; Faust said that small kids are frightened.

“I would say, those pre-kindergarten and younger,” he said. He has seen some young children end up on a parent or teacher’s lap during a performance. Many of his shows are recommended for ages 6 and over.

Of all the faces Faust wears, his favorite is a hippie. “It’s not even a mask; it’s a wig,” he said. “I also have one that’s a gruff boss-type. He’s kind of a jerk, but he has a heart of gold; and I love to do the creatures,” he said.

The masks are sometimes used to make subtle statements of a political nature. “I sing a song in character, that I wrote, and get the audience involved – and then I turn the screw,” Faust said, laughing.

Faust and Gackstatter have worked together in the past when they collaborated for Prairiefest.

Behind the Scenes

Faust is happy to once again be working with Gackstatter, who he said was “very talented.” “One of the things that’s exciting working with Gary is the inherent musicality; making the music visible through the movement of the mask,” he said.

For example, Faust explained that, “even the way an actor walks across a stage has different music. An old man might musically walk ‘whomp, whomp, whomp’ where a younger person’s walk would sound like ‘tlat, tlat, tlat’.”

One added twist for Faust and Gackstatter was that, lacking mental telepathy, they had to collaborate by phone and e-mail. Faust said Gackstatter needed a little help visualizing some of the characters in order to compose the music for them.

He told Gackstatter to “picture Jim Carrey on crack,” for one of the characters, and a “post-apocalyptic grinding jungle” for another.

“The biggest challenge was to make each piece unique yet related to the whole, because each mask is a completely different person with completely different requirements,” Gackstatter said.

Another interesting element for Gackstatter was that Faust doesn’t follow a script. “Rob’s show is nearly all improvised, so making the music elastic enough to fit his wild mood swings was a big challenge, but great fun,” he said.

Gackstatter compared his compositions for the mask symphony with his music from his earlier Cartoon Symphony, “in that I conceived each melody in relation to the face and mood presented to me,” he said.

But he said one huge difference will be keeping up with Rob, because Faust doesn’t ever do things the same way twice. Gackstatter is sure that there will be a lot of surprises.

Faust also alluded to surprises, though he refused to elaborate. “It’s a secret,” he said. “You’ll have to come and see.”

“I don’t want Rob to feel he is separated from us,” Gackstatter said. “We need to be one entity in performance. I am hoping that we end up with something so unified that it can only exist when everything works together.”

Best of Show

A Master’s Art Reception will coincide with the Mask symphony performance. Fell said the reception will feature the “best art pieces of those students who will be moving on or graduating.”

The artwork includes work from art and graphic design classes and can be viewed in the Wright Room of the Brown Center both before and after the symphonic production.

Faust will be on campus the day before the mask symphony conducting workshops for the drama and 3D art classes. He will also lead a workshop at the Arkansas City High School.

The mask symphony will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21. Tickets are on sale at the Cowley College Bookstore – $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students.

For ticket information, contact the bookstore at (620) 441-5277, or (620) 441-5275. To learn more about Faust’s work, go to his website at www.faustwork.com.