Maskerade!

by Jessica Yates

Pat was our compère for the second time, and as we learned, had also done the commentary for the North American Discworld Convention.

After a pep talk punctuated by quacking (a traditional heckle begun in 2008) the show began! To the music of Carl Orff’s O Fortuna the professional judging panel paraded: Terry! Brian! Jacqueline! Bernard!
Then came the maskeraders to strut their stuff. All were distinctive, covered a range of Discworld characters and were enthusiastically applauded. In my humble opinion Glenda Sugarbean advising on make-up for trolls delivered an excellent patter, and another lady presenting the Goddes of Lightning to the music of Night on a Bare mountain had a fabulous costume and speech. The “Going Mental” undercover assassins had a fine concept and so did the unseen university cheerleader.

Part-way through, the performance of “Death of Sheep” added baa-ing to the heckling, but Pat kept his cool! During the interval Pat interviewed the seven candidates for Low King – another unique piece of role-play.


The results:

Special award for Best Surprise: PoohCarrot – as Lu-Tze

Junior award: Bridget Hurtebise – as Concussia, goddess of not paying attention in P.E.

Rookie category award: “No you can’t” - Gill Bowler and Ann Thorold as priest and acolyte of Nuggan

Novice category award: “A girl in wolf’s clothing” – Liz McMichael

Journeyman category award: Brian Date – as Lord Vetinari

Master category award: Richard Artley – as Sir Joshua Lavish

Best in Show award went to Jan Uzzell who performed the Departure Aria “Questa Maladetta” from Maskerade, and Min Lacey as Welter Plinge who held up the captions “This damn door sticks” etc. Jan wore a gigantic looped skirt, sang beautifully and agreed to encore it after her award.

We must also thank Pam Hicks, Maskerade organiser.