Oh, to be a pageant director! The glamour! The perks! The big, fat business accounts! Ummm…NOT!
While a single pageant contestant must focus solely on herself; a pageant director has to think about every single detail: the contestants, the judges, the hotel bill, the awards, the sound, the lights, the cash awards, the hotel bill, the venue, the scripts…Did I mention the hotel bill? With that said, here are few points that we, as directors, want you to be aware of:
Other Responsibilities
Unless we direct “big money, sponsor driven” pageants like Miss USA or Miss America, most of us have day jobs. That means we either do our pageant work around 5 am before we go to our “bill-paying” jobs, or we slog through pageant mailings, orders, and emails with the hooting owls in the wee hours of the night.
By day, I teach elementary school. By night (and most weekends), I’m a state director for the Miss New Jersey American Coed Pageant.
Director Backgrounds
Directors have a ton of experience in many facets of pageantry. Almost all of us started out as contestants and have experienced small (or large) success in competing. There’s a saying that “Old queens never die, they just become staff!” Once we age out, we usually move on to coaching, emceeing, choreography, producing, and/or judging. The next organic step is directing. How could we not? It becomes encoded in our DNA.
How We Feel About You
If you do a pageant solely for the crown, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. You probably need to sit back and reevaluate why you chose to be on stage in the first place. Pageants are about personal growth, not the competition. It may sound cliché, but we truly wish that we could have EVERY girl win the pageant. But, if we did that we’d probably go bankrupt. (For further clarification, re-read the first bullet.)
What We Do
As directors, we work extremely hard to produce a fun and fair pageant. Remember that pageants are like any other sport. You win some, you lose some! And when you do lose a pageant (because by universal law you will lose a few to win big in the end), maintain your dignity. Don’t bad mouth the director, judges, or pageant itself. Social media does not serve as the couch in a therapy session!
Of course you wanted to win. We wanted you to win, too….and every other girl on that stage. But if that happened, we’d probably go broke and have to sell our souls to the devil (See bullet #1… again). I digress. The bottom line is this: Lose with grace. Win with pride.
You never know when you will see that director or judge again. Perhaps at the next pageant? And trust me, the last thing you want is to run into someone who saw you being a sore loser at the last pageant.
To wrap it up, just know that most pageant directors have the BEST intentions in mind. For us, the biggest payoff is when we see you up on that stage shining and w-o-r-k-i-n-g it!
Disclaimer: The points listed in this article are not 100% my own. They are a collection of thoughts and messages that pageant directors have shared with me (in confidence) as we continue to steer our way through this fun and crazy world of pageantry.
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