By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Deborah Bell.
A United States Institute for Theatre Technology grant will cover expenses for a UNCG theatre professor as she travels to Africa this summer to interview mask makers.
Deborah Bell, a costume design professor working on a book about mask making, found out she had won the $7,150 grant April 1 during USITT’s annual conference in Louisville, Ky. The grant is one of two awarded by USITT this year.
During the conference, Bell also accepted the Herbert D. Greggs writing award for her article “The Mask Maker’s Magic.” Bell’s article appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of the organization’s quarterly journal, “Theatre Design & Technology.”
Bell will fly to Africa in late July – her first trip there – to interview mask makers in Malawi and Nigeria. While there, she will observe a Nigerian masquerade celebrating the river goddess Oshun and fertility.
“You can’t comprehensively write a book on mask makers without representing those in Africa,” she said. “After all, African masks have influenced many 20th century artists, starting with Picasso.”
Bell began working on her book four years ago after she attended an international mask making conference – the first of its kind – at the University of Iowa. The conference drew people from all over the world and represented “a crystallization of mask work,” she said. She soon realized that while many books on masks had been published, no one had really probed the creative process and the challenges mask makers confront.
Bell began writing a series of articles on mask makers in hopes of attracting a book publisher. To date she has published five articles and has interviewed mask makers in such diverse locations as New York, Sweden and Brazil. After the Africa trip she hopes to conduct similar interviews in China and India.
Mask makers, like other artists, approach their art in unique ways, Bell said. Although the internet has given them greater access to each other’s work, she quickly points out that seeing photos of masks – or even videos of mask performances – can never convey the effect of a live performance.
“They’re not totally familiar with other artists’ work unless they see the mask in performance,” Bell said, describing the ideal mask performance as an “intimate medium” for an audience of 50 to 100 people. “Smaller audiences can more readily appreciate the relatively small scale of masks found in most performances.”
Bell has designed costumes for Triad Stage, Seaside Music Theatre, Western Stage, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, TheatreFest, Idaho Repertory Theatre and Teatro Ambiente’s “Opera!,” which toured the southeast United States and Northern Italy. She has taught for 26 years at UNCG, where she has designed more than 100 operas, ballets, musicals and dramas.
USITT, based in Syracuse, NY, includes more than 3,600 members in the U.S., Canada and 40 other countries. The organization promotes lifelong learning and creative development for its members by supporting individual projects and by offering professional workshops and symposia. USITT awards grants in amounts up to $10,000.
The Greggs Award recognizes innovative, in-depth writing for “Theatre Design & Technology.” The award includes a $1,000 stipend.
