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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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 )TOMB RAIDER 2 - “THE CRADLE OF LIFE” W B CINEMA VILLAGE, STAR CITY, BIRMINGHAM. 22nd, 23rd & 25th August. 2003
To mark the opening weekend of the new Tomb Raider movie, Warner Cinema decided to hold a promotional event.Jo and a couple of friends were approached to make an appearance as Lara Croft and mercenary soldiers. Instead of just standing around the foyer by the promotional stand, they came up with some scenarios to make the evening’s event more interesting.
During the course of the weekend Lara was evading the mercenaries who were hunting her down throughout the cinema. Members of the public were questioned to the whereabouts of Lara by the mercenaries to help them catch her, but thankfully they helped Lara by sending them the wrong way!Just before the showing of each performance in the screen, the mercenaries confronted Lara; this led to a running gun battle to the surprise and delight of the audience. With guns blazing Lara managed to escape and fight another day!
In between performances Lara (Jo) and the mercenary soldiers (Tony & Duncan), chatted with the crowds in the cinema foyer at the promotional stand. The costumes and blank firing weapons certainly raised much interest with the public and they commented how much they enjoyed the whole event.
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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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