Guest List: Renee O'Conner Hudson Leick Danielle Cormack Victoria Pratt Gina Torres Tim Omundson Adrienne Wilkinson Alison Bruce Charles Mesure Bobby Hosea Charles Keating Murray Keane Alison Wall Katharine Fugate (Surprise guest appearance Lucy Lawless)Being the annual Xena convention, there was no shortage of guests in the line up. With Renee headlining the event with a new performance, this sort of cushioned the loss of original line up guests Ted Raimi and Tony Todd.
During the course of the convention the usual photo sessions, autographs, auctions and music videos took place in between the guest talks. Hudson kicked things off on Friday being the first guest appearance. Wearing a beautiful 2-piece outfit, Hudson as usual pulled in the crowds. The rest of the day's appearances included Alison Bruce, Danielle Cormack and Adrienne Wilkinson.
With the early evening "Villainous Happy Hour" attended by Hudson and Charles Keating, this gave fans who paid the extra fee a chance to mingle with the actors.
"Merry Muses of Melodia" show was the evening event. Hosted by Hudson in a very short Chinese dress and black wig, she delighted fans with her typical off the wall, improv style. Adrienne, Danielle and Tim entertained the audience but it had a somewhat thrown together feel. Adrienne and Danielle sung 3 songs each, Adrienne being a last minute edition to the convention line up, managed to get through her songs with the aid of the words on a piece of paper. The fans acknowledged this with a warm reception after each song. Danielle sang "Tainted Love" followed by a soft ballad and finished off with "I will Survive", jumping around the stage like Tigger! Tim rounded the evening off with the usual Frank Sinatra style numbers, drinking JD and smoking a cigarette. Even though the actors performed well due to the circumstances, one can't help but feel a bit more variety was needed. The mixture of dance, comedy performances and singing like last years evening cabaret gave the audience a well thought out and all round evening of entertainment. This years just felt it was put together at the last moment.
Saturday's events started slightly different than usual with a writer's workshop with Steven Sears and Katharine Fugate. This was a limited intensive workshop for fans of the writings and fan fiction of the show.
First guest appearances of the day were Victoria Pratt shortly followed by Gina Torres. With Katharine Fugate guest talk fuelling the rumours of a Xena movie due to the fact she had been approached to write a story for it, fans were excited and eager for Renee's appearance.
Renee's "One Woman Theatrical Performance" opened with her walking on stage as an "old" Renee in Gabrielle costume donning a wig and glasses hobbling on stage like an old lady. She took a seat and reminisced about her time on set like a grandma talking to her grandchildren. One touching story was about a green stone that was given to her in a wooden box as a leaving present when the show finally finished. It was a piece of a larger stone that was broken down into smaller pieces and given to every member of the cast and crew. The rock symbolised the show and the pieces, the people who were a part of it .
Renee then proceeded to remove the Gabrielle costume to reveal another costume, but also put on a dressing gown and became an actress backstage applying her make up before a performance talking about old times and her experiences. She then changed into several other characters, changing items of clothing for each one, a rodeo rider, a religious snake handler, a woman caring for her mother and a woman who was abused by her boyfriend and scared from a knife attack. Renee used red lipstick to draw on her face to symbolise the disfigurement. She was also covered in tattoos, each one acting as a reminder of people who left their imprint on her life in some way.
Renee then stayed on stage for a Q and A session, which the fans were eager to participate. This session ended abruptly due to a certain fan in the audience turned out to be none other than Lucy Lawless in disguise. Renee was totally taken by surprise as it was kept from her that Lucy had managed to briefly attend the convention. Lucy still in character asked Renee what was it like to kiss Lucy Lawless, to which Renee promptly replied, "Come up here and I'll show you!" As you can imagine this went down well with the audience, and the fans were rewarded with Lucy's appearance after many rumours of her appearing were running wild around the convention all weekend.
It was left to Bobby Hosea and Charles Mesure to follow Lucy and Renee. They went on stage together and entertained the audience, which was warmly received. They ended the daytime events for Saturday.
Early evening saw another Happy Hour session, this one having an Amazon theme with Danielle, Alison Bruce and Victoria in attendance. For those with Gold tickets they also had the opportunity to attend the Dionysian Dessert Dance with guest drop ins, this wrapped up the Saturday events.
Sunday started as usual with the Charity Breakfast supported by Charles Keating, Murray Keane, Alison Wall, Alison Bruce and Hudson Leick sporting a pink suit.
Charles Keating was the first guest appearance of the day followed by the ever popular costume contest. This years was fairly well supported with a good selection of characters ranging from a well turned out Olivia to the Collector form the Xena episode of the Simpsons. Jo went dressed as Xena from the episode "When Fates Collide" and Carly went as Gabrielle from the episode "Who's Gurkan?". Jo took the honours, taking first place with the Collector being the runner up.
Murray Keane and Alison Wall took the stage together for their guest talk and chatted about their character relationship in the series. Their guest talk being the last event of the day wrapped things up and the convention came to its end. It's a shame there is no big event or party to finish the convention off on a high, it always feels it just fizzles out and everyone just drifts off. Maybe next years 10th Anniversary Convention will pull out all the stops! Let's hope so.
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( 3 / 235 )
On the weekend of 29th-31st August 2003, Creation held their first UK Xena Convention at the Hilton Metropole in London. This also introduced Renee O'Connor to her first UK Xena appearance. Oddly named "Strong Women of Sci-Fi", the convention also saw the appearance of Danielle Cormack, Paris Jefferson, Tim Omundson and several male Star Wars guests.
On Friday, Danielle Cormack gave an interesting, and amusing talk. Recounting her 'somewhat hazy' memories of herself and Kevin Smith getting drunk and swapping clothes in a bar, had the audience in tears of laughter. The fans warmly received her enthusiasm and bubbly personality. That evening, she took to the stage in a one-woman performance of "The Vagina Monologues". Danielle really embraces the characters in this moving, amusing and liberating show. Her energy, life and encompassing performance had the audience in fits of laughter, and tears of sadness. Her appearance was electrifying, as well as inspiring and thought provoking. A truly magnificent performance.
Saturday, firstly, saw Tim Omundson. He explained his 'new look' moustache, and entertained the audience with his usual comfortable style. With his "Matthew Perry" look, he chatted about his new series "Dead Wood" (reason for moustache), a western style drama.
A guest panel of 8 Star Wars actors then followed Tim; they recalled their experiences on the set of the Star Wars movies and also discussed about their current projects. Guests included the likes of Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Warwick Davis (Wicket, Jawa) and Mike Carter (Bib Fortuna).
As an extra, special surprise, Renee O'Connor was given a half-hour Q&A session. As soon as she got on the stage, she jumped down to meet her fans. This was a great opportunity for the UK fans to get to ask their questions, and get a personal reply.It was unfortunate that Renee did not hold a separate autograph session- as much of the Q&A was taken up with this. However, she answered all questions with style, and grace. She appeared to genuinely enjoy the session. Unsurprisingly, the session over-ran, but left the fans wanting more. After a brief interlude, Renee and Tim then entered the stage to give a performance of "Love Letters". Although it was not their best performance it remained moving, and was warmly received.
Saturday evening also saw the Cocktail Party- given as an extra for the patrons of the Gold Seating tickets. Danielle Cormack and Tim Omundson, who mingled with each table, also attended this. Although it was a nice gesture, it did lack the informal, festive atmosphere of the Starfury Conventions. Both actors left early, but the party continued for a few hours afterwards. Sunday saw the appearance of Paris Jefferson. Charming, and elegant, she entertained the audience. She even asked them her own questions towards the end of her talk! She certainly has relaxed into appearing at conventions since her first ever appearance at the Starfury Xena convention a few years ago.
The costume contest followed, but was unfortunately very disappointingly attended. Jo and Carly were awarded joint-first place. Jo wore the Xena costume from "Friend in Need" and Carly wore Callisto's costume from the "Bitter Suite" with the runners up dressed as a TV film Crew.
Overall, the convention experienced a low attendance rate, probably due to the number of guests, and the high-ticket prices. Thankfully it didn’t detracted from the energy of the actors and the support of the fans.
Picture by CorXena
Everyone who did attend had a great time, and experienced a unique event.
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( 2.9 / 203 )
On Saturday 31st May the Southern Californian Firefighters Burn Relay took place in aid of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation. The event consisted of a large parade of fire engines and vehicles starting from Santa Monica going down to Long Beach and back up to Monterey Park to the LAFDHQ. In support of this worthy cause, Renee O'Conner travelled the whole journey helping to raise money and collecting cheques from each fire station on the designated journey.I decided to travel down to the last but one station on the route, 'City of Monterey Park Station' on West Newmark Avenue. As soon as I pulled up outside the station I was confronted by 2 fantastically presented fire engines, highly waxed and polished and looking like they had never been used! They looked fantastic.
From arriving at the station I was made very welcome with a warm reception from the fire crew in duty whilst we waited for the cavalcade to arrive.
A wailing of many sirens marked the arrival of the parade with a trail of fire engines and support vehicles as far as the eye could see. As soon as the front tender pulled up outside the station Renee appeared looking radiant and seemed to be really enjoying the experience. I walked over to her to introduce myself and to say hello, she greeted me with a warm smile and commented how much I looked like Xena!! After a brief chat she graciously posed with me for a couple of photos and then she had a group shot with the fire crew with a cheque for monies raised for the charity. After making a donation to the charity I was waving them off, it seemed as soon as they had arrived they were jumping back on the fire engines and off to the final stop a couple of miles away. I'm sure they must have been glad to get to the final station as they had been going non stop since 6.30am!The day didn't end there for me as the fire crew then offered a full tour of the station which was really interesting and fun. To top it all as I was about to leave I was offered the opportunity to ride in one of the fire engines. Well who would turn down such an offer! They drove it around the block and even turned the sirens on, needless to say I had a grin from ear to ear whilst this was happening!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fire Captain Rick Burroughs and all the crew on duty that day for taking time out to make me feel really welcome and to make the day really special. Meeting Renee O'Conner was a memorable experience but it was made even better when I picked the best fire station in LA to see her at! City of Monterey Park fire station rocks!
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Hudson Leick, Tim Omundson, Melinda Clarke, Paris Jefferson, Claire Stansfield, Danielle Cormack, Meighan Desmond, Darien Takle, Victoria Pratt, Adrienne Wilkinson, Musetta Vander, Jay Laga'aia and David Franklin. Special one night appearance Renee O'Conner and Lucy Lawless. First impressions of the convention made it evident that this convention was supported by a greater number of the fans, than the previous year. However, the number of dealer tables and selection of merchandise had been greatly reduced, which was disappointing.
Friday started the proceedings with the usual variety of talks. Each of the actors scheduled took their place on stage to entertain the audience. One of the most eagerly awaited events of the weekend, took place that evening.A number of the actors were performing a cabaret, which certainly lived up to it's expectations. The first performance was from Claire Stansfield and Danielle Cormack. "Behind the Chakram" was a witty collection of imaginary sordid tales and histories of the actors from the show.
Armed with only a projector, and various slides doctored to suit the tale, the pair managed to reduce the audience to tears of laughter! The following two acts were of a musical variety. Darien Takle performed renditions of various Edith Piaf numbers, culminating in a song of her own which is from her new album. Tim Omundson wooed the audience with his smooth image and Sinatra numbers. It was evident that he enjoyed performing in style. The final performance saw Hudson Leick taking to the stage, scantily clad for her tribute to the film, "Chicago". Starting with a long monologue as the character Roxie, she quickened the pace into a Roxie number and finally the "Cell Block Tango".She amazed the audience with her dance partner Forrest Walsh with a breath taking display of precision moves and dexterity.Saturday morning started early for some, as Hudson held one of her increasingly popular Yoga classes. This was well attended by both regular students and new ones, and was an informative, enriching class.The day was shaped by the actors talks, autograph sessions and the new but pricey photo sessions..
The evening performance was highly anticipated. "Two Women: One Night, a Theatrical Celebration", kept the audience wondering what to expect from Lucy and Renee. They walked on stage to rapturous applause and cheers, quickly followed by Rob Tapert. He quipped that Jennifer Aniston was to play Xena in the new movie, which was met by boo's and jeers! Lucy and Renee settled down to view old clips from the show, and remises on the good times they had during the filming.
Although we enjoy seeing the duo together on stage. The evening was disappointing. It was billed as a "once in a lifetime event" but we received an improvised review of past episodes with little audience interaction,
As this was the fist time we had seen Lucy on stage, we had high expectations of her "performance". Their Previous appearances have wowed the audience with their radiance, however, this year was more conservative and left us wanting something more than "Coffee Talk". The stage design left them seated throughout, in front of a video monitor; the audience yearned to be brought into the performance a little more
Sunday started as always with the Charity Breakfast, which had sold out. This was well supported by the actors who took turns in greeting each table. Fans were treated to another day of talks. One of the highlights was Jay, who was making his first convention appearance, entertaining the audience with his guitar playing and singing skills. During the convention, Creation ran a competition for the fans to submit their own Xena Music Videos, in order to win a $100 gift certificates. The winning entries were shown over the weekend.
The Costume contest rounded off the weekend's festivities costumes ranged through various seasons from the show. Carly, dressed as Callisto, shot with arrows from "Maternal Instincts" came joint second with Deb Abbott dressed as "Anthrax" Xena. Jo was awarded first place with the "Friend in Need" costume, Their efforts were rewarded with a selection of old merchandise which did not reflect the time, effort and money that people had spent in making their costumes.
For us, the highlights of the convention were, Friday Nights Cabaret, the Costume Contest. The Yoga Class, seeing familiar faces and the actors that we know. We really appreciated all the support given to us, by both our good friends as well as new ones. We hope that the fans continue their support for the show and the Convention continues to future events.
Top Photo's kindly supplied by Angela Pavlica
The Carly Arrows Photo was supplied by Steven Sears
The bottom three Photos supplied by Niva Zadik
Our warmest thanks to all of you
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As Starfury, Chariots of War Part 4, was the final convention dedicated to Xena, the fans were treated to an all-star line up. This consisted of Hudson Leick; Claire Stansfield, Adrienne Wilkinson, Tim Ormundson, Melinda Clarke and surprise guest Paris Jefferson.
The Friday night cocktail party was the first opportunity to chat with the guests. Old friends and new joined together to start the festivities.
As with past conventions, Saturday began with the photo shoot. A favourite with the fans, this was an opportunity for attendees to get their photographs with any, or all of the actors.
The actor's talks held many entertaining moments for the fans. Some of his year's highlights included; Tim and Claire's rendition of "Anarchy in the UK". They entered the stage dressed as punks, and proceeded to trash the stage to the music of the Sex Pistols. Tim sported "Eli is a fag" and "Sex, drugs and Xena" on each arm, not forgetting thick black eyeliner and spiked hair!
From the ever-popular clothes swapping sessions of last year, the fans persuaded Tim and Claire to do the same. They commenced this with a strip tease behind the large video screen, revealing their naked silhouettes!
Tim emerged wearing Claire's PVC mini-skirt, revealing his boxer shorts underneath! Claire realised that she got the better deal!
As this was Melinda's first convention, she was teamed up with Hudson. Melinda commented that she was a "convention virgin", to which Claire later retorted that she must be a "convention whore"!
Hudson lived up to her outragous reputation, which Melinda almost exceeded! Their double-act included pulling volunteers from the audience to act as human chairs, screaming sessions, and wearing two of the previous night's fancy dress costumes.
Hudson, as usual, dressed to impress, with two amazing outfits. Melinda said that Hudson looked so stunning, that she was being converted to lesbianism!
The girls continued the madness by fighting over a Valesca action-figure, and re-enacting a scene between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny!!
Adrienne and Paris were as sweet as usual together on stage. They both auctioned off their own cast and crew jackets and T-shirt's for Kevin Smith's family. Later, Adrienne also auctioned an extremely rare picture she had been given by the shows producers. This was a picture of Lucy and Renee (as Xena and Gabrielle) made up from extremely small pictures of all the Xena cast and crew.
The fancy dress competition was even more popular than usual, with over thirty entrants. As ever, the actors pulled out all the stops, to make it as zany and highly entertaining as ever.
As a tribute to Kevin Smith, the actors awarded the first prize to the Ares entrant. Due to Jo and Carly being unable to enter he competition officially, the actors created two special awards in recognition for their amazing costumes.
Hudson, Melinda, Claire and Tim all stood up to present the award, which ended up with Tim and Melinda playing Frisbee with the "prizes"!
Before the closing ceremony, the Zeena Fight Crew treated the fans to a new Xena show. This years show saw Xena up against an array of characters, including Callisto. The show consisted of fast-paced, high action fun, to which Xena eventually triumphed.
With a mixture of sword fighting and martial arts, the show had a little of everything. With the reaction from both the fans and the actors at the performance, the show was a huge success.
At the closing ceremony the actors bid the fans a fond and tearful farewell. The convention ended with the fans dancing away, until the early hours of the morning.
Jo & Carly's View
Seeing as this was the last Starfury Xena convention, we wanted to make sure we had a blast.
We thoroughly enjoy seeing familiar faces, and making new friends. We were also particularly looking forward to the fancy dress, where the actor's participation always makes it enjoyable and original.
For Jo, interacting with Claire, re-enacting Alti's death scene was one of the best moments.
With Claire taking on the role of Alti, using her guttural voice she sidled up to Jo's Xena, before they "flew" around the arena. This resulted in Xena impaling Alti on an imaginary tree branch.For Carly it was when she entered the stage as Callisto shot full of arrows,( ) before doing the "scream" to the audience . Hudson then requested that the scream should be performed several times until the arrows popped out! She then wanted to see a re-enactment of Callisto and Valesca's scene on the bridge. Melinda stood in front of Carly stating, "I'm scared of you Hudson", before they ran at each other screaming, almost resulting in Melinda being impaled on one of he arrows!
We found it very flattering that he actors made awards for us. We really appreciated the compliments that were payed to us, especially from Claire and Hudson.
Even though our Xena show was hard work, it was made worthwhile by the reaction from the fans. We really appreciate the support from everyone, and we hope it continues into the future.
People to thank:
Sean Harry, Ted Raimi, Hudson Leick, Adrienne Wilkinson, Claire Stansfield, Melinda Clarke, Tim Ormundson, Paris Jefferson.
Michael O'Shea, Toni, Angela Pavlica, Leigh & Mary, Jo Raworth, Dave Sumner and the Tech crew.
Also a special thank you to Jo Raworth for supplying the Fancy Dress Photos and Angela Pavlica for the Zeena Fight Crew Montage.
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