Backstage @ New Rep: Behind-the-Scenes Look at "The Lieutenant of Inishmore"

On the 22nd of September, I travelled to Boston for the first time in my life. I came to undertake the difficult task of lifecasting three actors, one after the other, and flying back to Pittsburgh in a single day.

Lifecasting is the process of taking an impression of a person’s flesh (face, hands, or some other body part) and creating a duplicate of them in a synthetic medium. I collected three lifecasts of the actors who play the members of the Splinter Group in New Rep’s production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore has many strenuous special effects demands, and one of the more time consuming ones is the lifecasts of these three heads. The lifecast starts by applying a rubber compound called alginate to the actor’s faces. The rubber is reinforced with a jacket of plaster bandages, which is applied on top of the alginate while it is still on the actor’s face. The aligante and plaster bandages are removed from the actor’s face and the result is a negative impression of the face.

The negative area is filled with several layers of plaster and allowed to cure. The cured plaster cast is removed from the alginate and the result is a positive impression of the actor’s face.

More steps occur before a finished head is produced; but this is all I needed to take back to Pittsburgh with me, and was all I could fit in my carry on luggage. The rest of the work will happen back at my shop. Finished heads of these actors (on a lifecast body) will appear in the show, which runs October 26 to November 16, 2008.

-Steven Tolin, September 25, 2008