Students learn how to recreate the grotesque in Linda Pisano’s Theater 357 class.

Pisano, assistant professor of music, teaches a stage makeup course in which students use a variety of materials to create illusions such as wounds, lacerations and scars.

One student, Anita Van Lo, freshman in pre-business, found a forensics photo of a person’s brain oozing out of the skull and decided to recreate the image on herself for her stage makeup class.

“She made it look like her brains were coming out,” Pisano said. “The real photo was pretty gross.”

Van Lo re-created this effect in the lab using a mixture of latex and other materials. The brain took about two lab days for Van Lo to complete, Pisano said.

“Tuesday she created the scar, and she let it dry,” she said. “Then Thursday, she painted it and applied it to herself.”

Students mainly use materials that they blend into latex and then bond with adhesives to create their illusions for the stage.

The class is a hands-on laboratory that surveys the basic techniques and applications of stage makeup.

“It’s the technique that they want to learn. The wounds are just a fun way of learning the technique,” Pisano said.

Students create a scar with latex and other materials which they will then adhere to themselves.

“One of my performing-arts major students has given herself black and blue eyes and gone to class,” Pisano said.

She said although the class deals with the theater and stage, it’s not just for majors. Of the 22 students in the class, only four are in performing arts.

“ISU Theatre is not just for theater majors, and students need to know that,” she said.

In addition to teaching the stage makeup class, Pisano is involved in several other aspects of the performing-arts department.

“Thursdays are pretty interesting,” she said. A typical Thursday for Pisano begins with research or painting in the morning before teaching her theatrical design course, which deals with scenic design and model building. Students in the class must build a quarter-inch scale model of a stage.

Pisano is also the resident costume designer for ISU Theatre.

“Often, I’ll meet with Doris Nash, who is the costume shop supervisor, to go over the designs and see if she has any questions,” she said. “I paint all of the costumes, so I draw lots and lots of people.”

Pisano said for the upcoming Stars Over Veishea musical, “Into the Woods,” she has 30 costumes to design.

“I have a lot of 10-inch figures of all the characters,” she said.

Pisano said she has had some help with “Into the Woods” from her assistant student designer. Aimee Viall, graduate student in textiles and clothing, will help in the costume-designing process.

“I’m assisting her in Stars Over Veishea. I am designing a couple of costumes, and I am pulling from what we already have in storage,” Viall said. “We may do some shopping and fitting for the show also.”

Viall said Pisano has been open to her ideas and willing to work with her.

Apart from ISU Theatre, Pisano balances work with home. She lives in Ames with her husband, Paul, her 6-month-old son Massimo, and her two dogs, Henry and Eddie.

“I try to make it home by 6 [p.m.] or so to see Massimo because he goes to bed at 8 [p.m.] However, when it’s production week, I can be here until midnight,” she said.

Pisano said she was grateful for her flexible position at Iowa State because, if needed, she can bring Massimo to the theater with her.

“There are always plenty of students who are willing to hold him. He has lots of friends,” she said.

She said her job allows her to arrange time to be with her son, and he already has a love of the arts.

“Also, the older he gets, the more he’ll be able to come in with me,” she said. “He already loves music. He has sat through live performances already, so that’s kind of neat.”