Karen Dawson

Karen Dawson is a make-up designer who joined the CATS team in 1989 for the UK tour, where she was asked to create a stylised look for the production. Her designs have since been used for London and subsequent productions.

In 2020, she designed face masks for the Korean production to allow the cast to stroll through the audience while following the South Korean COVID-19 safety measures.

Karen designed the cats make-up on the faces of the actors, because after all the make-up will end up on the face - a 3D image. Once the make-up has been designed photographs of the front and the two sides of the face are then taken. The charts give detailed instructions for colors and shading. Each actor is given a make-up chart, a photograph of how they should look and a bag of the correct cosmetics.

Karen Dawson - Professional Resumé

Productions involved
UK Tour 1 - 1989-1990 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

London - 1989-2002 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Zürich - 1991-1993 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

UK Tour 2 - 1993-1995 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Euro Tour - 1994-1996 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Antwerp - 1996 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Film version - 1997 - Make-Up Designer

Copenhagen - 2002 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Berlin - 2002-2004 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

UK Tour 3 - 2003-2009 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Düsseldorf - 2004-2005 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Moscow - 2005-2006 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

German Tour - 2005-2006 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Dutch Tour - 2006-2007 - Make-Up Developer

Paris - 2015-2016 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Blackpool/London - 2015-2016 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

UK Tour 5/International Tour - 2016-2020 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Asia Tour - 2017-2018 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Vienna - 2019-2021 - Make-Up Developer/Supervisor

Korea Tour - 2020-2021 - Mouth-Nose-Mask Designer

Productions using her designs
German Tent Tour - 2010-2013 (supervised by Maria Cave)

UK Tour 4 - 2013-2014 (supervised by Maria Cave)

London - 2014-2015 (supervised by Maria Cave)

Broadway - 2016-2017 - Make-Up Contributor

US Tour 6 - 2019-2020 - Make-Up Contributor

Korea Tour - 2020-2021

Early Designs
Early "Cats" designs from Zurich, 1991. The production used the UK-style costumes but was otherwise based on the Vienna production. The makeup here works with Munkustrap and Alonzo both including browns in their costume design, unlike the monochrome look that has become normal.