Ingredients: layers of makeup, a prosthetic and a wig

Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – When Melinda Grimble saw her son for the first time in full costume as the Beast, she couldn’t tell who was under the layers of makeup.

William Grimble, one of the stars in Albion High School’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” on March 22-23, was transformed into the menacing character. He wore claw feet, a long wig, horns, and a prosthetic on his face.

“When he was in full makeup and hair, I didn’t recognize him,” Mrs. Grimble said.

William Grimble smiles before undergoing a makeover to become the Beast. He has some facial glue on his nose.

William’s costume was months in the making. Gary Simboli, the musical director, fused two wigs together, using hot glue to join a blond haired wig with a black one. The blond wig matched the color of the Ben Kirby’s hair. He plays the prince before William was turned into the hideous creature.

“With the black wig, I needed to darken up his hair,” Simboli said.

The long black tresses add to sinister mood with the Beast.

Albion performed Beauty and the Beast nine years ago. Back then, the Beast had a simpler costume. Simboli added a prosthetic with horns and a nose to the costume this time. Instead of having William do a quick costume change near the end of the show, when he is transformed back into the prince, Simboli had Kirby reappear as the prince.

That meant Simboli could develop a better costume for William, who wouldn’t have to wipe off the makeup and beast-wear for the musical’s final act.

Simboli and Grimble agreed to let a photographer show the process of turning the high school senior into the Beast.

It was a Saturday morning, the second day of the show, on March 23. William arrived in the chorus room at about 10 a.m., two hours before the curtains opened at noon. He was freshly showered after the previous night’s performance.

Step 1: Apply spirit gum, a facial glue on William’s nose. That will help hold down the rubber mask that includes the nose, wrinkled forehead, horns and hair.

Step 2: Apply a cream base makeup. It “even outs the skin tone,” Simboli said.

By the end of the show, many of the students are tired, and would otherwise have dark circles under their eyes. “The makeup makes them look fresh and vibrant,” Simboli said.

Step 3: Apply the mask and wig. William presses the mask to his nose, trying to get it to stick to his skin.

“Suddenly it’s quite warmer in here,” he said once the mask is on his head.

Step 4: Simboli uses several bobby pins to secure the mask and wig to William’s hair. They forgot the bobby pins the previous night, and were relieved the mask and wig stayed on during the fighting scene with Gaston.

Step 5: Simboli uses liner pencils to “enhance the natural features in a distorted way” on William’s face. The students that play older characters have lines drawn on their faces. Simboli wants them to look older. He tries to follow the natural contours on the students’ faces. That’s tricky with teen-agers.

“They’re so young they don’t have wrinkles,” Simboli said.

He has an image of William as the Beast from the previous night. It’s on a cell phone. Simboli liked how the Beast turned out, and he uses that image as a guide on March 23.

Gary Simboli, the high school musical director, helps William Grimble with his makeup before a performance of Beauty and the Beast on March 23.

William Grimble, in full costume, performs as the Beast in Albion’s production of Beauty and the Beast.

Simboli adds reddish-orange and yellow lines to William’s face, in addition to brown and white. The reddish-orange and yellow match the prosthetic. The brown shows recesses and shadows. The white: “It pops on stage.”

Simboli took a makeup class at Geneseo State College, where he was a music major three decades ago. He has a makeup book opened in the chorus room. He refers to the book while working on the Beast and some of the other characters.

It takes Simboli about 20 minutes to turn William into the Beast. Simboli’s last touch: a dark flesh-tone of lipstick. That will make the Beast’s lips more distinctive on stage.

Simboli is pleased with the makeover.

“It’s Disney,” he declared. “It has to be larger than life.”

William isn’t quite done. He is sent to Val Pettit, the choreographer who is helping with makeup. She puts powder on William’s face to help the makeup set and not be so shiny. Then she shoots his face with Barrier Spray, which seals the makeup and helps prevent it from running. The school rents many of the costumes. The spray helps protect the costumes from running makeup.

Pettit said there is bound to be some drips.

“These kids sweat a lot,” she said. “They work hard on stage.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – Jeremiah Knight of Albion opened Knight’s Pride, a custom carpentry shop with fine arts, last month at 120 North Main Street. Knight is pictured with a “hall tree,” a bench with hooks to hang coats.

ALBION – Six years ago Jeremiah Knight spotted some cedar in a house that had been demolished. The wood and the pile of debris were headed to a landfill.

But Knight wondered if he could make something from the cedar. He fished the wood from the pile of ruins, took it home and made a toy box. He tried more projects, always using wood that was doomed for either a landfill or a burn pile.

Knight in six years has made cabinets, benches, chests, beds, wine racks, rustic shelves, tables and lots of toy boxes – all from discarded wood, sometimes more than a century old.

“It was all headed to the dump,” he said Thursday about the old wood.

Knight, 31, gave up a good-paying construction job in Rochester to open Knight’s Pride, a custom cabinetry business, on March 20 on 120 North Main St. The site also sells and displays fine arts from local artists. Knight’s mother, Kim Muscarella, runs an art gallery in Albion. Many of her paintings and creations are on display in her son’s shop.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Jeremiah Knight sits on a one of the hall trees he made from reclaimed wood from an Albion home that was knocked down. Knight left a construction job to open his custom cabinetry business on Main Street.

“I’m building a customer base and I know more good things are going to happen,” he said. “I want to be part of the optimism in Albion. I want to support my community.”

Knight doesn’t like to see good material go to waste. He feels the same about gasoline and time. He didn’t like expending those resources in the long drives for his construction job.

He touts the benefits of his business. “Number one, it’s American made,” said the Army veteran. “It’s custom-made, and it’s made from reclaimed materials. It’s becoming highly sought after with the whole green movement.”

Photos by Tom Rivers – William Grimble, in full costume, performs as the Beast in Albion’s production of Beauty and the Beast.

ALBION – When Melinda Grimble saw her son for the first time in full costume as the Beast, she couldn’t tell who was under the layers of makeup.

William Grimble, one of the stars in Albion High School’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” on March 22-23, was transformed into the menacing character. He wore claw feet, a long wig, horns, and a prosthetic on his face.

“When he was in full makeup and hair, I didn’t recognize him,” Mrs. Grimble said.

William’s costume was months in the making. Gary Simboli, the musical director, fused two wigs together, using hot glue to join a blond haired wig with a black one. The blond wig matched the color of the Ben Kirby’s hair. He plays the prince before William was turned into the hideous creature.

“With the black wig, I needed to darken up his hair,” Simboli said.

The long black tresses add to sinister mood with the Beast.

Albion performed Beauty and the Beast nine years ago. Back then, the Beast had a simpler costume. Simboli added a prosthetic with horns and a nose to the costume this time. Instead of having William do a quick costume change near the end of the show, when he is transformed back into the prince, Simboli had Kirby reappear as the prince.

That meant Simboli could develop a better costume for William, who wouldn’t have to wipe off the makeup and beast-wear for the musical’s final act.

Simboli and Grimble agreed to let a photographer show the process of turning the high school senior into the Beast.

It was a Saturday morning, the second day of the show, on March 23. William arrived in the chorus room at about 10 a.m., two hours before the curtains opened at noon. He was freshly showered after the previous night’s performance.

Step 1: Apply spirit gum, a facial glue on William’s nose. That will help hold down the rubber mask that includes the nose, wrinkled forehead, horns and hair.

Step 2: Apply a cream base makeup. It “even outs the skin tone,” Simboli said.

By the end of the show, many of the students are tired, and would otherwise have dark circles under their eyes. “The makeup makes them look fresh and vibrant,” Simboli said.

Step 3: Apply the mask and wig. William presses the mask to his nose, trying to get it to stick to his skin.

“Suddenly it’s quite warmer in here,” he said once the mask is on his head.

Step 4: Simboli uses several bobby pins to secure the mask and wig to William’s hair. They forgot the bobby pins the previous night, and were relieved the mask and wig stayed on during the fighting scene with Gaston.

Step 5: Simboli uses liner pencils to “enhance the natural features in a distorted way” on William’s face. The students that play older characters have lines drawn on their faces. Simboli wants them to look older. He tries to follow the natural contours on the students’ faces. That’s tricky with teen-agers.

“They’re so young they don’t have wrinkles,” Simboli said.

He has an image of William as the Beast from the previous night. It’s on a cell phone. Simboli liked how the Beast turned out, and he uses that image as a guide on March 23.

Gary Simboli, the high school musical director, helps William Grimble with his makeup before a performance of Beauty and the Beast on March 23.

Simboli adds reddish-orange and yellow lines to William’s face, in addition to brown and white. The reddish-orange and yellow match the prosthetic. The brown shows recesses and shadows. The white: “It pops on stage.”

Simboli took a makeup class at Geneseo State College, where he was a music major three decades ago. He has a makeup book opened in the chorus room. He refers to the book while working on the Beast and some of the other characters.

It takes Simboli about 20 minutes to turn William into the Beast. Simboli’s last touch: a dark flesh-tone of lipstick. That will make the Beast’s lips more distinctive on stage.
Simboli is pleased with the makeover.

“It’s Disney,” he declared. “It has to be larger than life.”

William isn’t quite done. He is sent to Val Pettit, the choreographer who is helping with makeup. She puts powder on William’s face to help the makeup set and not be so shiny. Then she shoots his face with Barrier Spray, which seals the makeup and helps prevent it from running. The school rents many of the costumes. The spray helps protect the costumes from running makeup.

Pettit said there is bound to be some drips.

“These kids sweat a lot,” she said. “They work hard on stage.”

ALBION – When the Albion Main Street Alliance needs help with a community project, whether its crunching numbers from a survey of residents or fixing planter boxes for downtown flowers, the organization can count on Albion high schoolers.AMSA often turns to students to help with projects, a partnership that is drawing national attention among “Main Street” designated communities. Albion in 2008 adopted the Main Street program through the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Students have worked on several initiatives, including building and fixing planters through a technology class, using a CAD program to design a sign along the canal directing visitors to local services, and completing a parking study in the downtown. Many of the drama students each fall also portray famous Albionites in Mount Albion Cemetery as part of annual “Ghost Walk.” Proceeds from that event have been used for some AMSA projects.

AMSA director Katelin Olson and Sue Starkweather Miller, Albion’s grants manager, will discuss the AMSA-school partnership in New Orleans as part of a national “Main Street” conference on April 14. They shared the Albion successes in October 2011, during a national preservation conference in Buffalo.

Starkweather Miller said students are enthused about the Albion projects. They don’t want to just be asked to clean up after an event.

“One of things that is helpful when you are looking to connect students to their community is to make it meaningful service,” she said.

The Ghost Walks and other heritage projects have taught students about local history, including some of the prominent Albion residents from more than a century ago who shaped the town. Starkweather Miller said those residents, and their ambitions and service, inspire the teen-agers today.

“It is very meaningful history to them,” she said. “It builds pride and a sense of place.”
Olson and Starkweather Miller both said it’s unusual from a school district to connect so well with a community organization. Other districts and “Main Street” groups want to hear about the success in Albion.

Olson said the key is for the adults to trust the students with work “that is important and engaging.”

Her main advice: “Don’t just ask them to clean up after an event.”

Olson also will be presenting at the Urban Affairs Conference in San Francisco on April 6. She will be sharing the benefits of the “Main Street” program compared to a Business Improvement District. Olson said a Main Street program spreads into the whole community, focusing on more than a downtown. She sees a BID as very business-focused.

“We’re a civic-engagement organization,” she said.