Christina and John O'Halloran receive the 2023 ICG Lifetime Achievement Award
Kevin Roche
"The history of Costume-Con and the International Costumers’ Guild are inextricably linked; the ICG came into existence because of people who met each other at and/or worked on the first three Costume-Cons (Thank you, Karen Schnaubelt!).
It is because of that close relationship that we hold our Annual Meeting at Costume-Con, and announce our major awards to the public this weekend. Tonight it is my privilege to present the ICG Lifetime Achievement Award. This Award recognizes a body of achievement in the costuming art and service to the costuming community. Candidates for the award:..
... We love those moments of awe and wonder – both large and small – as a splendid costume appears on the stage, makes a grand entrance, or swans gracefully through a crowd, but just as important to our art is all the work going on behind the scenes making the magic possible, wrangling contestants and judges, or recording our ephemeral craft for posterity. Tonight’s award goes to two people who not only love to play in costume, but for many years have been the friendly faces backstage or behind the lens making sure the rest of us get to shine.
It is my great privilege and honor to announce that the recipients of the 2023 International Costumers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award are
John O’Halloran and Christina O’Halloran"
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Christina and John are best known for their work behind the scenes, helping masquerades at all levels run smoothly and efficiently, and keeping costumers calm and encouraged. They have served as stage directors for multiple international masquerades including Costume-Con and Worldcon.
John is a well-known West Coast masquerade photographer and was the official photographer at Worldcon 74. He is also noted for running the Fan Photo Area at various conventions. Christina frequently helps to staff exhibits, information desks, or the Green Room when she is not backstage.
They sometimes also appear on stage, including at Worldcon 61 in the best-in show entry, “Trumps of Amber,” as well as at other Worldcons and Costume-Cons. Christina occasionally costumes shows for her local community theater, and is a hall costumer, re-creating such characters as “Dolores Umbridge” from the Harry Potter series.
Christina and John are probably most familiar to Con-goers as the duo in tie-dye/aloha shirts, which pretty much qualifies these days as “historical” costuming.
Congratulations Christina and John!