July 22, 2010

Chicago, IL

Welcome back, pageant fans, to the North Shore Center for Performing Arts in Skokie, IL for our preliminary round of competitions for Miss Teen International 2010. As the audience files into the auditorium, excitement looms heavy in the air. People are growning anxious as the moment for the curtain to rise draws near.
The pageant world is all talking about the all female judging panel. All I can say is that they are the most beautiful panel I’ve ever seen and I think they couldn’t have a male judge for his fellow panel members may have proved too distracting for the poor guy. Having said that, I volunteer should anyone want to take me up on it.
Please.
Such sacrifice, am I right? Truly inspirational.
Enough said. Moving on.
Scott Seidl burst onto the stage and introduced everyone to the pageant. Everyone was instructed to turn off their cameras at that moment. Any photos you see during the pageant are not authorized. Please check out my friend Paula Preston’s website to find official, great photos: http://www.paulapreston.com/
The air conditioning was working at the very beginning of the show, but it didn’t matter since the stage was going to be blazing hot in any regard with the opening number. The young ladies caqme out in an animal print outfit that helped cue us a wild night was coming! Ryan Greenawalt belted out the opening anthem with his usual mix of raw power and enthusiasm.
The opening number was followed by contestant introductions. Our MC’s came out next: Kyle Gordon and Joanne Brown. They announced there were 37 teen contestants tonight…and each one is fully capable to perform the duties as the next Miss Teen International…but only one will be selected.
Miss Teen International 2009 Jessica Byington came out to speak about her travel to 20 different countries and her achievements with her platform. Joanne used the word AMAZING 3 times during the brief interview…expect an Amazing-A-Tron soon!
Judges were introduced next and I still was not allowed in the judging box. 4 were past Mrs. International pageant participants and 1 news reporter. Cecily Wilson, Bonnie Hubert, Donelle Rank, Deanna Linz and Brooke Good were the judges. And I know they wanted me to join them, but I had to relay you this news here on the website. Other introductions were made at this time.
Fun Fashion Wear was the first phase of competition. Bright pastels with beading dominated the competition throughout. Lots of sparkle bedazzled our enthusiastic audience of pageant fans and contestants. As per usual, the competition was presented with three groups of ladies going through the competition. Between groups there was host chatter, though I kind of wish they would show a cartoon or something on the jumbo-trons instead of the stories and jokes. I suggest the classic Bugs Bunny opus “The Barber of Seville.”
I digress. Again. Just saying.
Ryan Greenawalt belted out “I don’t wanna be” and we returned to competition. We had Fitness Wear when we returned. These young ladies are obviously quite active and did a great job bringing energy to the stage. I don’t recall a single one-piece fitness wear during the entire competition tonight.
An intermission followed and upon completion of the intermission, we moved directly, do not pass go and do not collect $200, into the evening gown competition. Oddly, very few white gowns (comparatively) with much more of the vibrant color choices we saw in the Fun Fashion competition. Still some good levels of sparkle involved…but nothing like we had seen in the Mrs. International competition last weekend.
As we’ve come to expect, the competition went quickly and professionally throughout. And not once were we all asked to scream out the name of the girl we are supporting as once. (That would be my #1 pageant pet peeve.) Not running on time would be another, but they did a good job tonight keeping the pageant moving along and on time.
I suspect they may have used the Stargate on stage to somehow expand time, but I have no proof.
We did have a near miss: Jurnee Carr from Tennessee almost took a tumble off the top step of the stage. Luckily, she simply landed with a hard clump of her shoes and made it through her pattern with no further incident.
I did notice, by the way, at least five contestants that looked at the judges throughout their pattern and didn’t once look at the audience. Poor form, ladies. I won’t give their names here, but they know who they are. I hope the judges noticed as well.
Upon conclusion of the Evening Gown competition, preliminaries of Teens also closed. Ryan Greenawalt took the stage and sung “Live like you’re dying” as a concluding number at almost exactly 2 hours into the pageant. Realizing we would get out on time once again, I actually did a little “Happy Dance” in my seat.
I got quite the look.
Just saying. Moving on.
Ryan reintroduced the contestants to the stage during his number. Everyone else now knew we were getting out on time and stood up in applause. (I kid.) The ladies all looked beautiful and so elegant on stage.
Jessica Byington returned to stage to present some special awards tonight.
The photogenic award was first to be revealed. The award went to Miss Teen Arkansas International, Mollie Parker.
Next, they presented the congeniality award (which as per tradition was elected by the contestants) to Megan Willey, Miss Teen North Carolina International.
They mentioned briefly to check out the Miss Teen International website to continue voting on the Online Voting award. Joanne and Kyle wished us all a good night and the contest (for tonight anyway) was over. We’ll have more tomorrow night when the Miss International contestants take the stage to compete in their preliminary competitions.
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