Mask design – Tony Fuemmeler

An Italian Summer(y)

Posted on September 2, 2016January 27, 2018 by tony in Familie Flöz, Italy, Mask Images, Sartori, Travel Adventures

Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali

Earlier this summer, I posted about my study with the Sartori in Abano Terme, a small city of 19,000 near the larger city of Padova. Here are a few photos of the rest of that work!

Gesso demonstration. Photo © Pira Pirani

Carta Pesta, Legno (wood), Cuoio (leather)

From our initial designs on paper, we sculpted our masks in clay. Then we made a mold, did a test run in carta pesta (an Italian papier mache), and made modifications as necessary. We then used all of our research to sculpt the wooden matrix, which was used as the base to shape our leather. This entire process took a month. It’s such a wonderful experience to be able to take the time to concentrate on a project like this without other pressures.

Photos ©Pira Pirani, courtesy of Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali

After finishing the masks, we met with Giorgio Bongiovanni of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano to investigate the performance of commedia masks, and later, our own. Fabian Gysling of Ècole Gysling was also there to help us find our characters and play in the masks. The slideshow above is from the public demonstration of our work. Luckily, the theater was air-conditioned.

A Two Week Interval

After completing the Sartori workshop at the CMSG, I had a little time to kill before my next workshop. I spent an extra day sketching masks at the Museo Internazionale della Maschera Amleto e Donato Sartori in Abano Terme. Next, I went to a farmhouse in Chiesanuova to visit my classmate Barbara, and together we traveled to San Miniato to visit mask maker Matteo Destro. Afterwards I traveled north to Malcesine, where I visited costume designer Fabio Toblini. I regrouped with friends to see Marmolada in the Dolomiti mountain range (a UNESCO World Heritage site). Finally, I explored historic Roma. It wasn’t built in a day, and you certainly can’t see it in three (especially in the summer heat). However, I was able to strategize a tour of Caravaggio paintings and some awesome historic buildings (e.g. the Basilica San Clemente) with the kind help of the friends and family of a fellow Portlander! (Molte grazie a Arturo, Anna, Riccardo, Guya, and Francesco!)

Here’s a slideshow sampler of my travels!

From the train station at Peschiera, the bus takes about 80 minutes to reach Malcesine

Mountains girding Lago di Garda, the deepest in Italy.

Serauta: Two gondola cars up from the ground

The train ride to Roma, just in the nick of time.

So many winged skulls in Roman churches.

I took a self guided tour of Caravaggio paintings in Roma.

“Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The Colosseo – named for the large statue of Nero that used to be just outside.

A street near the Vatican–it was starting to rain and I wanted to find a cafe.

Familie Flöz Sommer Akademie

My other study was a two-week course in mask performance and the creation of performance material in ensemble with the Berlin-based company Familie Flöz. Our classes were held in the Abbazia San Giusto, a refurbished monastery on the outskirts of the small town of Tuscania. When I told people in Italy where I was going, they (reasonably) assumed I was mispronouncing “Toscana” (aka the large region we call “Tuscany”). It only confuses the matter that Tuscania is quite near the border of Toscana.

The Familie Flöz is pretty unique. They create original, wordless, character-centered mask performances that often play in a clown-like sense of comedy. (Check out a short film of one of their first shows in 1995, and also a trailer for their show that just swept the Edinburgh Fringe off its feet). I was very curious to find out how they devise their work and the techniques they employ to bring these full-face masks to life.

Though some students came to study how to build masks, and others came for performance training, we all began the work together each morning with a movement class. What an amazing and perfect way to start the day! Apparently birds thought so too, because they would frequently find their way into the studio—screens on windows were rare—and take a long time to find their exit.

The understructures for mask making were made of flower pots.

Marcel explores his character through a walk outdoors.

Part of the molding process utilized silicone.

The first four days were conceived as a quick introduction to all of the subjects we could study more in depth beginning on day five. Not only was it a great way to survey the kind of work we would do, it also gave us an opportunity to see which of the company members had a teaching style that worked for us. In the end, I focused on Alexander Technique & Neutral Mask, Character Building in Full Face Mask, and Devising & Directing Mask Theater.

We spent a lot of time both in and out of the mask as ways to approach building both characters and scenes. Character interviews, partnered movement studies, and improvisations all flipped between these two modes. Another important idea in the beginning of the work was to remove the pressure of producing something—this pressure often only stifles the breath of creativity, and the relative value of a given improvisation can be determined the day after.

On the way we saw the donkeys at the lavender farm

Q&A night with the company. Also the night there was a fire and the electricity went out.

The mask I worked with to devise a scene with my group

A shy duo encounters visitors on the final night.

Curtain call for all the scenes performed on the final night of the workshop

The mask making group trying on their new creations.

We ended the workshop with a large celebration. This included masked characters walking around the grounds of the Abbey as visitors entered, followed by a number of short scenes —including the one our group created about a composer finding inspiration in his everyday surroundings. Then, of course, lots of food and dancing!

When I thought back over my experience, I thought a lot about what conditions made for my best work over the summer. None of these are necessarily surprising, but the combination of these things was important.

Doing one thing at a time
Working in community
Limiting distractions
Being in a supportive culture
Proactive learning: pursuing questions vs waiting to receive wisdom
Listening to my intuition
Daily movement practice / Intentional connection with the body
Remaining emotionally available
Exchange with other cultures

The same might be said of life in general.

Many thanks ! The study with Familie Flöz was made possible in part by a professional development grant from :

Mask Making Workshop in Portland April 29–May 1

Posted on April 9, 2016 by tony in Workshops

Hello all! I’ve been blog-silent, but studio-busy… It’s been a great year of building shows, creating mask pieces for museums, selling masks at Mardi Gras, and making connections with mask lovers, performers and teachers all over. I’m pleased to announce another mask making workshop in Portland. See details below.

—Tony

Design, sculpt, cast and paint your own mask!

Find new sources of creative inspiration, learn about the qualities that promote dynamic onstage play, and discover techniques for shaping a well-engineered character mask. You will leave the workshop with a plaster cast of your face and one painted mask.

“This workshop was really fun and informative, great for a beginner. I’d take it again- Tony is a great teacher!” — 2015 Mask Workshop Participant

WHO:

This workshop is excellent for actors and performers, costume designers and mask enthusiasts at all levels of experience. Ages 18+

WHEN:

6–10 pm Friday, April 29

10am–7 pm Saturday, April 30

10am–7 pm Sunday, May 1

There will be an hour lunch break on Saturday and Sunday

WHY:

Masks are awesome! Though they obscure part or all of the face, masks reveal so much more. Masks are powerful objects that inspire character and transform the people that wear them. They have a part in nearly every culture of the world, they show up in holidays like Halloween and Mardi Gras, and they are one of the original elements of theater as we know it today.

“I’d never realized the depth of faces before. I’ve started noticing expressions in a 3D way, and also the amazing contours of different faces… I now feel confident in trying my hand at making masks- before I would’ve ended up wasting tons of time trying to figure out the basic, and now I have a cast of my face and some good principles.”—2015 Mask Workshop Participant

WHERE:

The Mask Studio, NE Portland

TUITION:

$300. Cost for materials is included. A $50 non-refundable deposit is required upon registration. Check, PayPal, Square, Chase QuickPay accepted.

If you register by Monday, April 18, secure the early-bird price of $275.

TO ENROLL: Email me at tony_fuemmeler@yahoo.com for more information and with any questions about the workshop.

ABOUT TONY:

Over the past 13 years, Tony Fuemmeler has designed masks for multiple productions on the

West Coast and across the country. Locally, he has designed and built masks for productions like the Drammy Award-winning The Snowstorm (Many Hats), The King Stag (Lewis and Clark College), The Velvet Sky, The Adding Machine (Theatre Vertigo), The Storm in the Barn (Oregon Children’s Theatre), and Alice in Wonderland (Nomadic Theatre).

Tony began working with masks at the University of Kansas in a production of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist. After graduation, he spent a year with In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (Minneapolis), and then pursued further training with Bruce Marrs and Joan Schirle at the Dell’Arte International School (Blue Lake, California). In 2014, Tony traveled to Ubud, Bali, to study with master mask carver Nyoman Setiawan, and then to Mumbai, India as a volunteer mask maker for The Maya Project (a collaboration of Teach For India and Artists Striving to End Poverty). Tony is based in Portland, Oregon.

Web: www.tonyfuemmeler.com

Instagram: make_those_faces

Devising mask theater

Posted on January 23, 2015 by tony in Creation Process, Mask Images

Hoping for a Remount in Fall 2015!

Over the course of the last three years, I’ve had the great pleasure to work with Many Hats Collaboration’s Jessica Wallenfels and Eric Nordin (and a slew of other talented artists) on the development of an original work of dance theater, The Snowstorm. It’s been a great journey, and I want to share a little of that process with you in this post.

Beginnings

Creating original work requires a lot of skills, in addition to having a vision for the show. Among these are communication, collaboration, being present, creative problem solving, flexibility, comfort with ambiguity, etc. The process was always a pleasure—largely due to the talents and leadership of Wallenfels and Nordin—and it also took us in many directions.

I played a couple of roles throughout. Initially, I worked as an actor to help develop physical vocabulary for some of the key scenes. Through this process, Wallenfels was able to get a sense of what it would take to tell a clear story through movement set against the music of Rachmaninoff.

Placeholder masks were used the 2013 workshop. We were trying to determine if masks were the right fit for the show. — The Hawk, the Bear, and the Hen in rehearsal for the 2013 workshop at Portland Actors Conservatory. One of these actors was eventually cast in the 2015 production.

A year or so later, after many such experiments, a short evening of scenes was presented. One of the things we were trying to determine was if masks were a good fit for the show. Since it was just a test, we used placeholder masks that approximated the feeling of each of the masked characters.

We found we weren’t sure if masks were the best solution. Early in 2014, Jessica and I met to discuss our thoughts on the approach. I had just returned from Bali—and Jessica had been there herself, years earlier—so we thought we could also explore shadow puppets.

Fox tries to free the chicken — Fox tries to free the Hen

I decided to create a shadow puppet show that used the same two pieces of music in the first scene of The Snowstorm. I performed it with a second puppeteer for a Puppet Slam produced by Beady Little Eyes last spring. After more discussion, we decided that the shadows would likely be too difficult to see clearly in the thrust stage at the CoHo. We held on to the possibility of using both masks and puppets as we began to meet with the entire production team.

The patterns are all from various Russian folk patterns. Though I didn't pursue this further, the final wolf mask does have some textural similarity. — Though I didn’t pursue this further, the final wolf mask does have some textural similarity.

The surface treatment is borrowed from various Russian folk patterns.

I was considering a variety of materials to make the masks, including fabric. — Fabric was one material I considered using for the mask.

In an early iteration, all the masks were face masks.

Researching the various animals in the story came next. Through our meetings, we had decided to go with masks. I tried to find a design concept that would serve the multiple needs of this particular production: a fantastical quality, a handmade look, and an ease of movement were among these needs. As I was working in India, I would make sketches and email them back to the production team so that all of our designs could work well together. Nothing was feeling like it hit the mark, so I tried to think of other ways to solve the problem. Finally, drawing on my recent experiences making a peacock mask for Maya, I proposed using a kind of helmet mask for the show. This option promised an interesting transformation onstage and seemed exciting to build.

The actor sees through a stylized opening in the mask.

Preparing for rehearsal

Typically, I prefer to provide the finished mask at first rehearsal. I feel this way because it allows the actors (who may have no experience performing with masks) to get used to the different performance style they will need to employ. With this show, we knew we wanted to have a little more flexibility and room for discovery. So with the design we thought we wanted in mind, I generated some rehearsal masks to give the actors a sense of what it would mean to perform in the masks.

Hawk's rehearsal piece gave us both a way to test the scale of the mask. — Hawk’s rehearsal piece gave us both a way to test the scale of the mask.

I made these cartooned masks from cardboard and bike tire. — I made these cartooned masks from cardboard and bike tire…

... and a simple head ring. — … and a simple head ring.

With the information from the rehearsal room, I was soon ready to sculpt. The discoveries did not really end there, which is really the fun of the whole thing!

Weighing options on the sculpture of the wolf. — Weighing options on the sculpture of the Wolf.

I used different colors of paper mache to help the actors see the image of the character before it was painted—but we liked the handmade quality so much we kept it! — I used different colors of paper maché to help the actors see the image of the character before it was painted—but we liked the handmade quality so much we kept it!

For the wolf, I used a more varied color palette and texture. — For the Wolf, I used a more varied color palette and texture.

Rehearsing with the real masks provided lots of information about lighting, movement, and comfort. This is a lot of foam, which I later disguised with black broadcloth.

The Final Masks

The actors brought the masks to life beautifully! (Shadows still appear in the play, even though they are not the primary element. Knowing the process, it’s interesting to me to see how all of the different artistic impulses eventually found their place in the show.) Here are a few shots from the performance.