IMO, the programming on Saturday was nothing special. Essentially, it was only a half-day at Lyndhurst. Lyndhurst remained open to the public for guided tours until 2:00. From then until closing, the mansion was open to fans, who could walk freely through the rooms and take non-flash photographs. Vendors (primarily MPI) and autographing actors gathered inside the barn. The main activities took place inside a large tent.
Marcy Robin spoke for the first hour, answering fan questions and reciting the litany of the dead. Afterward, Marie Wallace and Jim Pierson performed a staged reading of a deleted scene from House of DS. She was to have played Nancy Hodiak, a customer of Jeff Clark's, who commissioned a portrait and was murdered by Barnabas while returning with it to her car. Although the performers struggled at times to decipher Dan Curtis's handwritten notes, Marie was very emotive and even screamed when Barnabas attacked her. She seemed to regret that the piece had not been filmed. "I could have been immortalized in a portrait," she lamented. "Maybe they could have even made two portraits--one for Barnabas to destroy and one that I could have kept." The scene also revealed that Maggie had given notice, unable to cope with David's pranks and Roger's vicious attitude.
According to the schedule, the next events were the charity auction to benefit Lyndhurst (the grand prize was a tour of the tower room with the actors; it went for $900) and an informational appearance by Big Finish about the audio dramas. I was not in the tent during this time and returned only during the last half of David Selby's musical poetry slam.
Accompanied by his wife, Chip, on piano and by Jim Storm on guitar, Selby performed/sang some of his poems to a countryesque beat. Some of the pieces related to DS. Others had political overtones. Selby performed this same show at the April luncheon in Coronado last year, so if you were there for Dr. Mabuse, you heard it.
Finally, the cast reunited to take questions from the audience and sign more autographs. Both films were supposed to be shown too, but I did not stay to see them. The last event I attended was back at the Double Tree Hotel in the gazebo outside the hotel. After hours (around 10:00 PM), Sharon Smyth-Lentz regaled a healthy crowd of fans with ghost stories (some that she had experienced first-hand, and others that had been related to her by others). She also invited audience members to share their own tales. Unfortunately, Ms. Smyth-Lentz was not provided with any lighting nor even a microphone during her talk. Although, I had been looking forward to this event, I ended up not staying long because it was too difficult to hear anything.
The luncheon on Sunday featured several delightful performances by the actors. Marie Wallace, Lara Parker, and KLS performed their own rendition of "Friendship" with DS-themed touches, prefaced by some mock backstage cattiness. The act got off to a slow start due to some technical difficulties with the music, but the ladies remained in good spirits and kept on with the show. Next, James Storm played some classic country songs and dedicated a performance of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" to Jonathan Frid. He recalled the last Festival where he has seen Frid (2010 in Burbank) and that, even though it had been the first time in 40 years that the two had been together, Frid still recognized him and vividly remembered details about Storm and his family. Finally, Chris Pennock gave a lively and funny reading of his 2002 semi-autobiographical comic, "Fear of Losing Dark Shadows." The luncheon closed with another charity auction and more opportunities for autographs.
There were no fan-centric activities (e,g, skits, trivia games, videos) this year, which saddens me because these activities have given me the greatest enjoyment at DS events through the years. I always loved to see the creativity of the other fans, to feel like I was part of a big inside joke, to share my own songs and skits, and to partake in our common culture, so to speak. Personally, I wish there was a larger participatory element at the Fests/conventions/DS Weekends. Here's hoping that 2016 will see a return to the traditional 3-day format with a variety of activities on schedule!
ProfStokes
