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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Jo played the lead character "Zach" in this action/adventure tv pilot.
No Bounds Productions had their first promotional stand at the Annual Xena Convention in Burbank, California. With No Bounds now in postproduction, the stand gave people the opportunity to sample what's to come! With a trailer especially produced for the weekend, and promotional postcards to hand out, the interest was encouraging. With Jo (Zach) and Beth (Gillian) in attendance over the weekend, this gave attendee's of the Xena convention a chance to find out more about the production. The official website will be updated with the latest news and up and coming events.
Photo kindly supplied by Aleida Santiago
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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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Mini Report
With the amazing success of the first Lord of the Rings film, Big Pig Productions were commissioned by a TV company to produce 3 documentaries on the Tolkein trilogy. The Two Towers, with it's December 2002 release, is the first of the documentaries to be made to coincide with this.
The director of these new documentaries decided to use some of the members of the White Boar Fight Crew, of whom JO is a member. He had worked with the crew before on past projects with Cromwell Productions. JO was asked to portray the character of Arwen, but for the first days filming, Arwen was not required. Instead, for the second documentary JO ended up portraying a Ringwraith! Completely dressed head to toe in black robes. Thankfully the end credits will let you know it's her under all those robes!
The documentary goes under the title of Secrets of Middle-Earth: Inside Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'
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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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