Masquerade

Heather Monson is the Masquerade Director and Keri Doering is the Assistant Masquerade Director. John Hertz is in charge of hall costumes (as the late Marjii Ellers put it, “everyday wear for alternate worlds”). Questions? Please email masquerade@westercon67.org or cosplay@westercon67.org.

About the Masquerade

The Masquerade is our great costume stage event. Once it was a dress-up party. By the 1960s, it had evolved to a combination of display and theater, with judges, awards, a stage, lights, and sound. Entries may be planned long in advance or put together on-site. They may be one person or many; entirely original, or careful reproductions; serious, funny, beautiful, strange.

To enter, you must be an Attending Member of Westercon 67 or our sister event Fantasycon, and you must register for the Masquerade. Please register in advance, if you can. You can download the Masquerade Registration Form in DOC or PDF format.

If your entry reproduces an existing image (movies, TV, comics, paintings, animation, etc.), it is a Re-Creation. When you register, identify what your entry is based on, with at least one picture of what you are re-creating.

Otherwise your entry is an Original — characters in a story who have not been shown in illustrations; a treatment different from what has been illustrated; mythology; your own imagination.

Three main classes of entry (Novice, Journeyman, Master) allow people to compete with others who have a similar amount of experience.

You can enter as a Novice until you have won an award in a Masquerade or cosplay contest. After that, you can enter as a Journeyman until you have won three awards. After that, you must enter as a Master. If you earn a substantial part of your living from making costumes, you must enter as a master.

If you are eligible to enter as a Novice or Journeyman you can still “challenge up” and enter any higher class if you wish.
Exhibition entries (entries that are not eligible for the competition, but people would like to show them off onstage) are welcome.

Young Fan entries go on first and are judged before the rest of the show goes on, so that very young costumers are not kept up too late. If any or all the entry was made by an adult, say so when registering. You must be age 12 or younger to enter as a Young Fan.

If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must register with you.

An entry need not be a skit. You may walk on, pose, turn, and walk off.

You may be more elaborate, within limits. No open flame, no microphones (you can record audio in advance or give the M.C. something to read aloud), no live animals, no mess left on stage or on other entries. No nudity, extreme language, or extreme gore. If you want more than one minute for a solo or two minutes for a group, or if you want to wield weapons or martial arts, you must get permission in advance from the Masquerade Director.

Technical and Other Details

Sound: you can submit CDs and MP3 files. Label what you submit. Neither you nor the tech crew want it played wrong.
Lighting: we cannot promise special colors or effects; no complete blackouts.

One person, one entry. If the maker and the wearer are different people, say so when registering. Bought or rented costumes are not eligible.

Workmanship judging is optional, for all or any part of your entry. Workmanship judging will be held in the green room before the competition, so if you want workmanship judging, please be sure to arrive in the green room well before the Masquerade starts.

You will have some time backstage before you go on. The Masquerade Director can usually provide emergency-repair materials (needle and thread, safety pins, duct tape, that sort of thing).

At least one representative of your entry must attend the Pre-Masquerade Meeting. This meeting has four important purposes:

1. to co-ordinate sound and lighting,
2. to brief the M.C.
3. to let the Masquerade Director know what to expect from you,
4. and to let you know what to expect from the Masquerade.

Hall Costumes

These are costumes people wear as they wander through the halls, enriching the texture of the convention. Hall and stage costumes are really two different media. Stage costumes are meant to be seen at a distance, and may not have to survive more than the minute you are on. Hall costumes are meant to be met and lived in.

There is no sharp boundary between interesting dress-up clothes and hall costumes. A hall costume may portray a particular character or persona and may even have a name, or it may not. Hall costuming is more informal than stage costuming. Anyone at the con might ask you to pause and allow a good look at your costume; that person might be a hall-costume judge and might award you a rosette.