Rain pours down on the stage as the actors punch and kick one another until they are bloody in a climactic, edge-of-your-seat scene in The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation of the same name. Nominated for 12 Tony Awards and winner of “Best Musical,” the Broadway show transports you back to 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma through its folk-rock score that tells the story of a rivalry between blue-collar teenagers and their preppy adversaries.
But it’s not just the incredibly detailed choreography or the catchy songs that recreate the story onstage—it’s also the makeup. Tishonna “Tish” Ferguson, The Outsiders Makeup Designer, created all of the looks courtesy of their collaboration with Pat McGrath Labs, a brand she’s stocked in her kit for years. “As a makeup designer in theater, you have the opportunity—and I believe the responsibility—to grab ahold of brands that are not normally seen in the theater space,” Ferguson says. “When I get a script and talk to my director about what it is that they want to see onstage and I do all of my research, it seems so fitting for those young ladies to have products that tell the story of the 1960s the way we're able to design that makeup for them. I also wanted to have a Black female-owned brand as a partner; that was really big for me.”
To create period accurate makeup, Ferguson reviewed Seventeen magazines from the 1960s. “What were these teenagers looking at?” Ferguson muses. “What would they have as far as their makeup is concerned? If they saw a magazine article, how would they have mimicked that?” Ferguson used Pat McGrath Labs...READ MORE