Masquerade Information

Hi all,

The preparations for this year's convention are well underway.  The Masquerade for 2012 will have a few small changes, so I'd like to get our performers some basic information ahead of time.

First, we are going to be expanding the Masquerade staff.  The program is developing and we want to have people on hand to facilitate the operations of the show, as well as help with it's material.  I will be introducing our new Masquerade staffers a bit later in the year.

In 2011, we had more acts than we actually had time for.  This craeted a bit of a scheduling dilemma with the following acts in the main ballroom.  Anthrocon does pride itself on trying to run as close to schedule as we can.  So to prevent this from happening in the future, we will be limiting the number of acts in the show.  Dress reheasals on Saturday morning wiill, as always, serve as an audition.  However, if there are an excess of acts, we will be limiting the performances to no more than 2 hours of performance.  The determination will be made by the Masquerade staff (which is being expanded this year).  There is not a way to give guidelines as to what would be cut and what would not, but some healthy advice for performers would be:

* make certain your audio tracks are clear and play well over the audio system.  If the track is difficult to hear in rehearsals, we would probably not allow the act 

* try to make certain that the act is clear and all actions are visible to the audience

* acts which do not register well with the Masquerade staff, or are felt to not have sufficient entertainment value, might not be allowed

* remember....universal humor or entertainment is always a good thing.  Acts which have obscure references may not make the cut.

The staff would always suggest that you discuss your act with someone not involved, or not necessarily a close friend.  You need honest and objective input.  If someone is too close to the subject matter, they may not be able to give you an unbiased opinion.  You are always free to ask questions of the Masquerade staff or seek guidance for developing an act.  I would encourage you to do so.  We want the overall performance, and your own act, to be the very best that they can be.

KP

Programming and Masquerade Director