I had a wonderful time at the Festival, but I have to admit that I felt a bit underwhelmed. The event seemed too low-key for the 45th Anniversary. For one thing, there was a smaller turn-out of actors relative to past Festivals. For another, the panels (at least for the first day and a half) did not include Q&As. Instead, the actors watched a series of clips from DS and then commented on them or spoke generally about their time on the show. I thought that was strange. Personally, I missed the fan interaction and thought the panels were duller for the lack of questions. Even though most people ask the same things year after year, you never know what will come up. A couple of times, Jim Pierson (with Richard Halpern and Jeff Thompson both out this year, there was no proper emcee for the Festival) would ask the actors questions to draw them out. During Lara Parker and Jerry Lacy's time onstage, he asked if Lacy did anything to prepare for his role as Trask. Lacy's response was hilarious: "Oh, I took a couple of girls out to the woods." The audience laughed and Pierson looked uncomfortable. "Well, what else was I supposed to do?" Lacy asked innocently.
When David Selby took the stage Saturday afternoon, he did take questions from the audience, but for some reason, nobody was using the microphone in the center aisle. Instead, people shouted their questions from wherever they sat. I couldn't understand what was being asked from where I sat toward the back of the ballroom and I don't know how Selby was able to decipher the questions. Somebody must have asked if he ever gets recognized in his daily life because he told us how a traffic officer stopped him from crossing a street by calling, "Hold on, Quentin!" He also related something that had occurred earlier in the week when his son-in-law and grandson were flying home from a trip. Selby's grandson sat in the middle of the row with his father on one side and a stranger with a laptop on the other. At one point, the little boy started calling out, "Pappy! Pappy!" "My son-in-law tried to quiet him down," Selby explained, "then he looked over and saw that the other guy was watching The Social Network." Selby also praised Abraham Lincoln and spoke fondly of shooting a guest spot on "Mad Men.
The cast reunion (sans Frid) came next, and Roger Davis immediately began to hog the show. After the other actors had provided a quick recap of their recent news, Davis launched into a lenghty ramble about the housing market and all of the money he's made and lost on his building ventures. This went on for many minutes when suddenly, his spiel was interrupted by a loud pop! "Did someone cut my mike?" Roger squawked. "We'll save the real estate seminar for next year," Pierson replied drily. Davis's co-stars were also weary of his talk. "I feel much more cheerful now after listening to that," Kathryn remarked in a rare show of sarcasm. "Don't you, Lara?" "Oh, yes," Parker agreed. "Don't you feel entertained by that, Marie?" At this point, Roger seemed to realize that he had spoken out of turn and apologized, but instead of giving up the mike to someone else, he inexplicably launched into a monologue from Treasure Island, speaking in an Irish accent. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen him do (and that's saying quite a bit). The audience was clearly confused and disquieted, and as Davis went on and on, KLS got up from her seat in the middle of the stage (Davis was seated at the far right) and began tugging at the cord of his microphone as if to pull it out of his hands! Finally, Davis gave up and the panel was allowed to progress.
The actors were asked about doing voice work for Night of DS and Jim acknowledged that the restored film will be released next year; at this point, they need to find an impersonator to record Grayson Hall's lines. "What? You mean there are people who imitate dead actors' voices?" Jerry joked. Chris Pennock talked about his soap opera work after DS and how panicked he became when he learned, after landing a role on "Guiding Light," that the show did not use teleprompters. Someone asked the actors who had appeared in the 1795 story line after playing present-day characters if the roles from the past had been written specifically for them. Kathryn acknowledged that she had been assigned to play Josette because of her prior work as Josette's ghost but Lacy claimed it was just by chance that he was given the Trask character to play. "That was the part they needed to fill when I returned to the show. I could just as easily have ended up as Angelique." Lara mentioned that she and Kathryn are very good friends and sometimes even finish each other's sentences. Sharon Smyth was asked to sing "London Bridge" (she said possibly the next day) and Jerry Lacy was asked to do a Bogart impersonation ("Of all the gin joints in all the world, you people had to walk into mine.")
A fan asked about the new movie. KLS mentioned how she, Selby, Parker, and Frid had flown to London to film a cameo. "Do you remember a children's book called Where's Waldo??" Selby asked. "That's what our cameo is going to be like." Lara chimed in, "I know people will tell me, 'I watched that movie 75 times and I didn't see you at all.'" Hearing that was disappointing. I had thought that the actors' cameos would at least be speaking roles. It sounds as if they're going to be part of a group scene as just faces in a crowd. What a waste! Why would Burton & Co. bring them all the way to London just to make them part of the scenery
I missed most of this year's screening of "The Crucible," though I have seen it before (more than once) at the Museum of Television and Radio. The DS actors all appear in the first act of the teleplay, but by the time I reached the ballroom, Elizabeth Proctor was begging John to go to town and expose Abigail. The performance was compelling and I didn't want to leave to line up for the costume gala. I hope this program is shown again at future Fests. It really is well-made, and the set pieces and videotaped look combine to give one the sense of watching a DS episode. I was surprised to read the reports here about all the people walking out on Kathy Cody's introduction, although I witnessed something similar happen on Friday night when Lara Parker and Jerry Lacy's ceded the stage to Marie Wallace and Chris Pennock. So many people streamed out of the ballroom that at first I thought the room was being cleared for some reason.
I missed most of Sunday's events, with the exception of the panel between Sharon Smyth and Kathy Cody. Smyth explained that she has not been to a Festival for many years because the NY event always falls during her son's birthday. "I thought it was important that I be there for his birthday, so we didn't have to hire a therapist. But today he turned 18, and he told me, 'Bye, Mom'." Cody missed conventions because she was either caring for her elderly mother or sick herself. "I kept meaning to attend a Festival and last year I finally did. I felt so loved and so appreciated. I had a blast, and now I'm going to be back every year." Both Sharon and Kathy had a similar career background, having worked in modeling ("You wear heavy coats in summer and freeze your little tushy off in a swimsuit for winter," Kathy recalled) and commercials prior to acting in DS. Also, each had to overcome their regional accents. One fan asked Sharon why she sometimes attempted an English accent. "I don't think I was trying to speak with an English accent; I was just trying not to talk with a Philly accent," laughed Sharon. "How about a New Yawk accent?" Kathy joined in. "When I went to Hollywood, the director would have to stop tape and say, 'No, Kathy, it's not an Ah-range, it's an Oh-range.'" Both had positive things to say about David Henessy. ("He was very generous. Did you see how he was helping me with my lines?" Sharon recalled, referring to a clip of David and Sarah that had just played). When asked whether either had brought home any props or costumes from their time on the show, Sharon revealed that she had picked up the remnants of Barnabas's old man face and saved them until they disintegrated years later. (Wouldn't that have been a cool prop to acution?) "I still have my letter from Dan Curtis saying my services are no longer needed. Maybe I'll bring that next year and auction it off."
I had been looking forward to hearing Lara Parker's preview of her new novel, which is supposed to involve a romance between werewolf Quentin and flapper Elizabeth in the Roaring 20s. Even though the timing does not align with canon, I'm fascinated by the '20s and was curious to hear more about the book. However, when I found out that it will be a continuation of The Salem Branch, with the Quentin/Liz story interwoven with the Barnabas/Antoinette romance, I lost interest and didn't stay for the reading. I wandered off and by the time I came back to the ballroom, it was nearing the end of the dramatic reading between Lara Parker and Jerry Lacy. Originally, this was supposed to be a performance between Lacy and Nancy Barrett. I don't know what the original play was to be, but this reading sounded like a retread of "Vengeance at Collinwood" from 2005 with Lacy in a dual role as Tony Peterson possessed by his distant ancestor, Reverend Trask. Trask is determined to kill the witch, Angelique, but Tony resists his urgings. Can anyone else fill in more details of this play?
The banquet was very well attended, with dual lines wrapping around the hotel lobby. The "awards ceremony" involved a series of trumped-up prizes, mainly his and hers titles (e.g. "Favorite Non-human Male and Female" for Chris Pennock and Donna Wandrey; Favorite Reincarnated Female and Male for Marie Wallace and Roger Davis) to ensure that every actor was acknowledged. Lara Parker was the Favorite Female Villain and Jerry Lacy was the Favorite Male Villain. I believe KLS won Favorite Female Lead. Barbara Woronko won a DS Hall of Fame award. Nancy Barrett was awarded Favorite Character Actress in absentia and Jonathan Frid's nephew Don accepted his award for Favorite Vampire. The actors accepted their awards with tongue-in-cheek grace and the banquet wrapped up with a slideshow of the deceased actors and personnel and selected highlights from the show. It was all over much too soon.
Nothing has been officially announced about the next Fest, but KLS and Marcy Robin repeatedly made references to "next year in Burbank" so one can hope.
ProfStokes
