The National Makeup Design Awards

The Alcone Company Makeup Design Award 

Introduction and Purpose

The purpose of the Alcone Company Makeup-Design Award is to provide student makeup designers with feedback from professionals working in the field, to give outstanding student designers national recognition, and to provide the opportunity for student designers to exhibit their work at the Kennedy Center.

The Alcone Makeup Design Award is National-eligible, meaning the participants may be selected to advance to the National KCACTF Festival in April.

Who Is Eligible

Students who have designed makeup for a KCACTF associate or participating entry are eligible for the Alcone Makeup Award. Schools should include names and emails of student designers on the Production Entry Form submitted to KCACTF when entering a production as an associate or participating entry.

Only bona fide students are eligible for this award. A bona fide student is: a) an undergraduate student who is registered for a minimum of six semester hours or nine quarter hours at the time of production; b) a graduate student who is enrolled for three semester or four quarter hours at the time of production; c) a continuing part-time student who is enrolled in a regular degree program at the time of production.

Nomination Process

A respondent (or respondents) will be assigned to view a production once a school has registered it as an associate or participating entry. After viewing the production, the KCACTF respondent will inform the production's director and the regional chair of any student makeup design nominees from the production they have viewed. After such nomination, the regional design & technology chair will invite the student designer to the regional festival.

Student designers of Participating Production entries may be nominated to attend the regional festival as regional Barbizon nominees regardless of whether the production itself is selected for the regional festival.

The Regional Festival

This information is specific to Region III.

Nominees will be asked to prepare a display showing their design at the Regional Festival. Alcone nominees should include the following:

• At least one representative production photograph, in color, labeled as to scene/locale; it should illustrate the entire setting and its relationship to the stage and theatre space.
• Visual materials which serve to show research, preliminary sketches, photographic images, and any other sources of inspiration that demonstrate the designer's process and evolution.
• A one-paragraph statement of the design approach to the production; visually separate from other materials. 
• At least one representative rendering (or makeup worksheet) for each character, delineating colors for each area: base, cheeks, eye shadow, lips, hair.
• Visual materials that explain techniques used.
• Color photographs of the executed makeup; these should include at least one headshot and one full-body shot to show coordination between the costume and makeup. 
• Any visual materials (such as swatches) that show costume colors and textures.

For an explanation of how to mount and present these materials, please visit Region III Exhibit Format page >>

The designer is responsible for developing a suitable method of shipping display materials to and from the regional festival. It is strongly recommended that students bring their materials in person to the design exposition space at the specifically scheduled time for installation of all exposition materials (see top of page). Those who cannot bring materials in person may send materials to the festival host. The designer is responsible for providing the appropriate mailing and insurance charges.

At the Regional Festival, guest designers will respond to the work of all regional Alcone Makeup nominees in a session open to the public. Designs will be appraised on the basis of quality, effectiveness, originality, and rendering techniques.  One regional Alcone Makeup finalist will be selected. The selection of national Barbizon finalists shall be made by the guest design respondents; the selection process may include other guest respondents as determined by the regional design & technology chair.

The National Festival

KCACTF will provide national Alcone finalists with travel, shared hotel accommodations and per diem for the period of the KCACTF national festival in Washington DC (normally Tuesday through Saturday). Regional Finalists will be asked to display their designs at the Festival. A national winner will be selected from the Regional Alcone finalists by the designated design respondent/s during the national festival.  

Attendance at the national festival is not mandatory; however, the National Alcone Company Makeup Design Award is determined by a student's work and participation in workshops and master classes while at the national festival.

If regional Alcone finalists are not able to attend the National Festival, they may send their design. Finalists are responsible for shipping their design to and from the national festival, including providing the appropriate mailing and insurance charges.

Faculty mentors are not able to observe workshops or master classes held during the national festival week.

Regional Alcone finalists are welcome to bring their portfolio to the national festival at the Kennedy Center. National design respondents may be available, time permitting, to examine portfolios.