Competition Staff & Rules
Staff:
- Historical Masquerade Director: Marty Gear*
- Master of Ceremonies: George Paczolt
- Presentation Judges: Allan Stevens, Ingrid Crepeau, Margaret “Peggy” Kennedy*, Victoria Ridenour, Janet Winter; Kathi S. Reynolds (Past Patterns Award)
Rules:
1: The Fantasy and Science-Fiction Masquerade will be judged on the Division System (see definitions elsewhere.) The Historic Masquerade will be open competition. The same costume may not be entered in both Masquerades, and the judging criteria will be different for the two competitions.
2: We will have reserved seating for the contestants within the hall used for the Masquerade, and will assemble contestants in the “green room” behind the stage and bring them on stage from there. Contestants will go off stage into the audience and back to their seating area or the photo area. We hope that in this way, waiting time can be kept to a minimum, and the maximum number of people will thus be able to see the costumes. We will also be video taping the Masquerade.
3: The Young Fans, as a group will appear first.
4: If necessary, the staff reserves the right to change the order of appearance of any contestant.
5: If you are a part of a group costume, only one member of the group should register for the entire group, and the group will be given a single entrant number. We will, however, require the names of all members of the group. Remember, a group costume will compete at the division level of the highest member and will be judged as a group. (A group costume in only as good as its worst costume.)
6: If you wish a special introduction, please have it typed, double spaced, and turn it in when you register. Alternatively, you may tape record your introduction on standard cassette tape, with standard biasing, and no Dolby please. It will also help if you can have it cued to the beginning of the tape. We will have facilities to play this back. Please turn it in at the time that you register. There will be no live microphones for the contestants’ use!
7: For safety sake, all weapons must be sheathed at the time that you exit the stage. Due to hotel fire regulations, no fire, open flame, flash paper/powder may be used. Electronic sealed flashes are permissible for use by the contestants.
8: Nudity. Since you asked, our general feeling is that if you are comfortable with your skin, so are we…with certain reservations:
A: No costume is no costume and won’t win any prizes unless you consider an obscene proposition a prize.
B: Our Judges are of both sexes, and are costumers themselves. They will be judging costumes not bodies.
C: There will be children present. (Also mundane members of the hotel staff.)
D: If you feel that nudity is essential to your costume, please limit it to the Masquerade, and keep it covered in the public areas of the hotel.
9: NO FLASH PICTURES WILL BE PERMITTED IN THE MASQUERADE COMPETITION! We will have a photo area set aside where you can take flash pictures to your heart’s content. Note to the contestants: You will make the photographers very happy if you arrive early and stay late enough for them to get pictures of you in your costume.
10: Each contestant may appear only once in each competition.
11: Please try to be on time for your call. If you have a good reason for wanting to go on early or late, please tell us when you register, and we will try to accommodate you. If you arrive after you have been called, you may not go on.
12: The backstage staff will have full authority to eliminate anyone from the competition on the basis of taste, danger to the audience or other contestants or for any other reason deemed sufficient. There will be no appeal.
13: We plan to award the prize certificates with the winners’ names lettered on them at the con. If you must leave before the certificates are ready, they will be mailed to you.
14: TIME LIMITS: Groups of from one (1) to four (4) contestants will be permitted maximum of one minute (60 seconds) on stage. Groups of five to eight will be permitted a maximum of two minutes. Groups of nine or more will be permitted three minutes maximum. No entry will be permitted more than three minutes for any reason. Short is better. Let your costume speak for itself.
15: Special Notes to Re-Creation and Historic Costumers: The Judges may not be familiar with your sources. A reproduction (xerox is good, color xerox is better) attached to your entry would be helpful, and will be returned to you. If you are doing clothing from an obscure culture or period, a line drawing or xerox of source material and any appropriate description would be helpful in making certain that you receive the recognition that your efforts deserve.
16: Contestants are asked to supply the judges vlth a typewritten description of any detailing which in hidden from the judges’ vlev (corsets, petticoats, crinolines, chastity belts, etc.). Descriptions should not exceed l00 words.
17: No costume may compete if it has won a prize at a Worldcon or at a major regional convention. Similarly, rented and/or purchased costumes made by professional theatrical makers are not eligible for competition. Ineligible costumes of the above type may be shown “not in competition”.
18: No Peanut Butter, No Jelly! In other words, if you mess the stage, you clean it up…if you mess someone else’s costume they’ll clean up on you!
FINALLY
The stage set up the entire con, and will be available anytime that the room is not in use for programming, the masquerades, or the Fashion Show. You are more than welcome to practice and/or tape marks on the stage. A description of the stage and its dimensions may be found elsewhere in this PR.
(Stage Groundplan Image)
All four sections of the Terrace Ballroom will be used for the Masquerades and the Future Fashion Show. Terrace D will be the “Green-Room”, while the stage will be permanently set-up in Terrace C during the con. The Stage is two (2) feet high, 12 feet deep and 16 feet wide. There will be a 6 foot by 16 foot runway from the center of the stage into the audience.
Entrance to the stage will be from the Green-Room onto a 6’x8′ stage level platform hidden behind curtains stage right. We would prefer that you exit off the runway. There will be three steps up to the stage level and these steps will be a full 8′ wide. The runway steps are 6′ wide. In case that we have another “cast of thousands” there will be a set of 8′ wide steps off stage left.
Entrance doors into the Green-Room and the Auditorium are 6′ wide and 6’8″ high. The ceiling is 11’10” above the floor, or 9’10” above the stage. Please plan your costumes accordingly. Entrance from the Green-Room to the stage level platform will be 8′ wide and clear to the ceiling. The stage left opening to the Green-Room will be 4′ wide and clear to the ceiling and will also be curtained from view of the audience. The M.C. will be off stage, so the entire stage will be clear for you to ‘do your thing.”
We expect to have two spotlights as well as some additional stage lighting,and ve will be able to turn off the house lights. The back wall of the stage is a “hotel neutral pinky-beige” vinyl fabric. The Terrace Ballroom is approximately 44′ wide and it will be approximately 60′ from the back of the stage to the last row of seats in the audience. Both Masquerades and the Fashion show will be video taped and orders for edited tapes will be taken at the con.
F&SF & Historical Masquerades Division System (From PR2)
Note: The Division System was referred to in PR 1 on the pages that talked about the F&SF and Historical Masquerades. We inadvertently forgot to say what the Division System was. So, here it is.
Both the F&SF and Historical Masquerades will be run according to the “Division System” with some modifications. Contestants will be registered in Divsions which are defined as follows:
Young Fan – Any contestant under 13 years of age by the time of the convention. NOTE: Separate prizes will be given for costumes made by the contestant (or his/her contemporaries) and for costumes made by adults. All young fans must compete in the Young Fan Division unless they are part of a group containing adults.
Novice – An individual who has never won a major award in competition (other than as a Young Fan) at any Worldcon, Costume Con or at a Regional convention with 30 or more costume entries (Major Award is defined as “Best —-,” “Most —-,” “Judges Choice”, “First Place —-,” or “Second Place —-.”)
Journeyman – One who had won less than three major awards at previous Masquerades, and does not qualify as a Young Fan, Novice, Craftsman, Master or Re-Creation as defined herein.
Craftsman – An individual who has won three or more major awards above the Novice level at previous Costume Cons or Regional cons with 30 or more costume entries, or who has won a major prize at a Worldcon.
Master – An individual who has won Master status at the Worldcon level. Master is a division reserved for Worldcon winners, and only if two or more Worldcon Masters are entered in either Masquerade will a Master Division be used. NOTE: In the Historic Masquerade, anyone who derives any or all of their income from the making of historic clothing/costumes and/or the drafting of patterns for historically accurate garments will be entered in the Master Division.
Re-Creation – A costume copied directly or with minor modifications from a live action or animated motion picture or television production, a stage presentation, or a comic book or strip. — in short, from anything in which more than one view of the particular costume is shown. NOTE: If the dominant theme or a major portion or prop is Re-Creation, the costume or group must enter in the Re-Creation Division.
NOTES:
A Novice may compete in the Journeyman or Craftsman Division at his/her option; a Journeyman may compete in the Craftsman Division at his/her option. A Craftsman must compete as a Craftsman. A Master must compete in the Master Division if other Masters are entered; otherwise, he or she must compete in the Craftsman Division. Any of the above may compete in the Re-Creation Division.
There will be no Young Fan or Re-Creations in the Historic Masquerade.
A Master in the Historic Masquerade is not necessarily a Master in the F&SF Masquerade, and vice versa.
Accuracy and attention to detail are the prime requisites in the Historic Masquerade and for this reason contestants will be requested to meet with the judges backstage one hour prior to the Historic Masquerade so that the judges may examine the costumes in detail and ask questions. It is strongly recommended that contestants in the Historic Masquerade bring source materials with them if they have any doubt as to the Judges’ familiarity with their particular style and/or period of costume.
The Division qualifications for Costume Con are not identical to those used for Worldcons.
Within the Divisions, the judges will be free to award as many or as few prizes as they wish.
AWARDS
Everyone likes to be rewarded for their efforts, and as has been the policy of previous Costume Cons, the convention will be awarding certificates for the various awards in both the Science-Fiction/Fantasy, and the Historic Masquerades. Additionally, a drawing will be held from then names of all those whose designs appear in the Future Fashion Folio, and the winner will receive a convention membership and two free room nights at the hotel during the convention. In addition to these awards provided by the con, we have obtained some “Corporate Sponsors” who will also be making their own awards:
Sandra Ross Altam of Past Patterns will be awarding a custom made Victorian corset valued at $ 98- as a prize in the Historic Masquerade.
Faces Unlimited and (Mehron) Make-ups will be awarding a $ l00-theatrical make-up kit for the best use of (Three Dimensional Make-up) in the Science-Fiction/Fantasy Masquerade. (Make-up done by the Faces Unlimited Staff and/or purchased appliances are _not_ eligible for this award.)
Janet Wilson and Revlon will be presenting $ 100- cosmetic collections for (“Best Use of Make-up in Overall Costume Presentation”, and the Revlon judge will be looking for “make-up that conveys the character, enhances the design, and helps the total presentation — not just an unusual makeup technique or two”) in each of the Masquerades and the Fashion Show.
Simplicity Pattern Co. Inc. will be awarding $ 1,000 in prizes for the best use of a Simplicity Pattern or a portion of a Simplicity Pattern in a costume as follows: A $ 200 prize will be presented in each of the masquerades and the Fashion Show. An additional $ 400 prize will be offered in open competition. In order to eligible for one of the Simplicity prizes, the costumer must make a costume using a Simplicity Pattern or a portion of a Simplicity Pattern and must display the costume along with the pattern envelope or a xerox of the envelope to Mr. Sidney Tepper, Director of Design for Simplicity, who will be the Judge for this competition. The costume must be make up and worn in order to be eligible. Mr. Tepper will also be directing a workshop on adapting commercial patterns to your specific body measurements.
