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Confessions of a Pageant Director: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

BY TAMI CHARLES (Source: The Pageant Planet)

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.

Ad designed for Genesis Codina Wins "Outstanding Ad" Award!

Great news are worth sharing: This message from one of our clients, Genesis Codina, who just competed at MISS TEENAGE CALIFORNIA, made our week: "I am very honored and happy to have received the 2014 MISS TEENAGE CALIFORNIA PAGEANT OUTSTANDING AD AWARD during competition. This award is granted to the contestant that submitted the best ad for publication in the pageant program book. I want to thank my designer, Esteban Medaglia of PAGEANT DESIGN for such beautiful ad..." THANK YOU, Genesis, it was our pleasure, and big congrats!

Beyoncé Takes Aim at Beauty Pageants in “Pretty Hurts” Video

It’s hard to imagine there are any Beyoncé fans left who haven’t seen all of her recent album’s high-concept videos many times. But those who didn’t shell out the money for the “eponymous avalanche of songs and videos” can now watch the video for her latest single “Pretty Hurts,” via Time, which songwriter Sia Furler recently revealed was actually meant for Katy Perry—but Perry missed Furler’s email.

In the video, Beyoncé dismantles the controversial world of beauty pageants through the eyes of a contestant labeled “Miss 3rd Ward.” Throughout the video, we see her tossed onto the pageant conveyor belt: poked and prodded for the sake of vanity, lines drawn on her face indicating plastic surgery, and, in the most provocative image, we see her exit a bathroom stall, hand over her mouth, suggesting a bulimic episode. It all comes to a head in the album’s most empowering line, Miss 3rd Ward’s answer to the host’s question, “What is your aspiration in life?” With conviction, she says, “To be happy.”

River Center getting million dollar makeover for Miss USA

By Cheryl Mercedes

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB)

In six weeks, Miss USA 2014 will be crowned in Baton Rouge. The city-parish council has approved one million dollars worth of improvements to the River Center. Managers said those funds will stretch far beyond the pageant stage. On June 8, some of the most beautiful women in the country will take center stage at the River Center arena. That puts the capital city under a bright national spotlight. It is exciting news, especially for General Manager Todd Mitchell.

"We were on a national stage during football season. But this is a national stage with a completely different audience and people all around the world will watch this event," Mitchell said. The 37-year-old facility has got to shine. That includes painting, polishing floors, making repairs, and bringing technology up to the speed of the 21st century, in just six short weeks. "You've got to get in. It's a challenge, let me tell you."

The biggest improvement will be to the arena's Wifi network. Mitchell said the upgrade will allow virtually every person who attends the pageant to connect to the outside world through their smart phones. "Our current network can handle about 500 people at the same time. We're going to be expanding that to be able to host 5,000 people." Mitchell said it was one of the requirements set by the Miss USA Pageant, but it is an upgrade that will benefit Baton Rouge in the long run. "It'll expand past this event and help us market other events we have not been able to bid on certain events because we just couldn't fulfill their network."
He said the possibilities are endless, once the star of the riverfront looks and feels like a million bucks.
Mitchell said, to date, there are only on thousand tickets remaining.

MISS UNIVERSE GABRIELA ISLER PRESENTS AT THE 25TH ANNUAL BILLBOARD LATIN MUSIC AWARDS

Miss Universe Gabriela Isler Presented at the 25th Annual Billboard Latin Music Awards this past Thursday, April 24th.