Another (Moulage) Gig in my Future

When I talk about "gigs", I'm not talking about music (I play Irish bodhran, but not well), comedy (my comedy career is restricted to teaching), or acting (my theatre career began and ended in high school). I'm talking about my other creative outlet, moulage.

Moulage is, as I may have said before, casualty simulation -- or as I like to say it, gorifying people. Injuries are rendered by a combination of theatre makeup materials, homemade makeup, props, fake glass, sticks and pipes for impalements, and lots of skill and imagination.

This is done for the benefit of training community emergency response team (CERT) members, first responders, nurses, and humanitarian aid workers. I also provide my skills to high school safety docudramas, active shooter training, and creating zombies (although I'm not nearly as good at the latter as is my friend Rod Zirkle.)

I am entirely self-taught. I was recruited for moulage crew as an assistant in Missouri Hope (one of the CHSE exercises below) in 2013. I dithered around a lot, and the next year I was recruited as the moulage coordinator for Missouri Hope. With absolutely no real training, I studied injury pictures and makeup and that DVD from Simulaids where they practice all the techniques on a straight-faced student.

This gig is a big one -- a major humanitarian service training program in Florida. You can learn a little about Atlantic Hope and the Consortium for Humanitarian Service and Education (CHSE) here.  I will spend three days sleeping on the floor, eating beans and rice and bad coffee, and modeling burns for free (but I love it!) I will be trying to report from the field Wednesday-Monday.

Here's an example of my work from last year's Atlantic Hope:

Building up a burn. 

Finished product. Beneath the skin, we're all pinkish. This is not meant to be a profound statement.

I'm a perfectionist. If I had to do this again, I would not put the black at the outside, because it doesn't look like soot, but third-degree burn (which it isn't if it's at the outer edge. I would slather it in thick gelatin around the edges and over the pink parts to give it a more three-dimensional look and maybe build up some blisters with gelatin. 

I'll be honest -- I think I keep getting gigs because nobody's found anyone else locally who claims to do moulage. I think I have about six gigs a year. Let's see: Missouri Hope, New York Hope, Atlantic Hope, CERT training in the spring, the prison simulation and night training for the Emergency and Disaster Management students, and the high school docudrama. I guess that's seven. I sometimes also do moulage for the Emergency Medical Responder testing, nurses' training, and the active shooter training on campus.

It's a lot of fun and I feel appreciated when I do this. I lead a crew of about 4-6 people (including my husband), I create better and better works through learning and studying moulage, and my time goes toward the greater good. It's a largely anonymous job -- you'll never see pictures of me in any of the CHSE promotionals, and I'm subsumed as a member of the "moulage crew". But when people compliment the moulage, I know that I've contributed my skills in moulage and teaching to the rest of the crew.