How DS Fests effect your DS viewing -

[retzev]

(credit: Connie)

How has attending DS Festivals influenced your experience when watching DS, positively or negatively?

[Raineypark]

Very little, if at all, actually.

I've only been to one Fest, at Tarrytown, last year.  But I don't think it would be any different if I'd been to dozens.  The simple fact is that the CHARACTERS are more real and more interesting than the performers are.  I don't know much at all about the personal lives of the actors, and, frankly, don't care.

But the characters are another thing.  I know a great deal about them and their lives.  They're SO much more interesting than a bunch of actors!

[BuzzH]

(credit: Connie)

How has attending DS Festivals influenced your experience when watching DS, positively or negatively?

Neither apply to me.  When watching the show I know it's make believe, and when at the fests and seeing the stars, I know that's real. Whether or not I like or dislike a star has no bearing on whether or not I like a character.  Case in point, I think Marie Wallace is THE nicest of all the stars, but I still hate Eve!  LOL!    Similarly, not too fond of Frid, but love Barnabas and adore Bramwell.

[Connie]

The simple fact is that the CHARACTERS are more real and more interesting than the performers are.

Definitely!  But let's face it, it's pretty much that way in general - with ANY show or movie.  The characters are larger than life.

Similarly, not too fond of Frid, but love Barnabas and adore Bramwell.

  I'm the opposite!  Don't like Bramwell at all - think he's a jerk.  And Barnabas can get on my nerves a LOT, but I love Jonathan Frid and enjoy watching him!

Yeah.  The more I think about it, I DO have character/actor seepage problems.
Like in the case of Quentin.  I love ALL the Quentins - even the less popular 1970 PT Quentin.  The multi-dimensional aspects that Selby brings to them - a special vulnerability, good and evil co-existing in the character's heart, etc., makes me love the characters and be more sympathetic towards them.

 
                           Umm......THIS thing -------->>    is driving me up the wall!  LOL

[Gothick]

Connie dear, I find ALL the Holiday smilies simply hellish!  The can-can line you mention reminds me of those things in Yellow Submarine that stunned people by dropping apples on top of them.  I repeat:  Are there no workhouses??

I haven't noticed any inpact between my rather spotty Festival attendance and my viewing of the series.  At the Festivals, I tend to be more focused on my friends than on the actors, with a few rare exceptions such as John Karlen and David Selby, with whom I've had actual conversations.  I remember being thrilled talking to Diana Millay at an event about ten years ago.  Chatting with Nancy Barrett after one of her off-site cabaret performances was fun.

I like Jonathan Frid just fine as a person, and I still love watching him on Dark Shadows.  His non-verbal moments, in particular, can often induce a state of near trance!

This one makes me tired just looking at it:

 

Probably because I'm baggy-eyed after a busy evening last night of wrapping presents and occasionally watching snippets of the new Once upon a mattress (pure velveeta, but great songs, costumes, and the compulsively watchable Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman).

G.

[retzev]

I've reserved a room for '06, and I'm really looking forward to attending my first Fest, but I haven't seen the entire run of the show (I'm on ep#761) and I'm afraid I'm gonna hear some spoilers - 

[stefan]

Similarly, not too fond of Frid, but love Barnabas and adore Bramwell.

I've never been to a Fest and never intend to go. But, I did see a taped version of one. Seemed interesting and I would have loved to been involved in the questions and answers part. But, I don't want to get too close to these people as my enjoyment of DS means more to me than meeting those folks. Frid's website is funny in a high-brow college professor type way but sometimes he can get snippy so I'd just assume stay away from it. I concur that I love his acting on DS but not finding Frid too fascinating. Some comments attributed to him were calling (I'm assuming) KLS and Nancy Barrett "silly heroines". I found this comment a bit narrow-minded so ... I just won't go there. My admiration for his Barnabas is too high.

[Nancy]

(credit: Connie)

How has attending DS Festivals influenced your experience when watching DS, positively or negatively?

Most of the actors that I've ever met and gotten to know, usually in a business/professional setting were never on DS but even so, I could like the actor and not like their work or a character they played.  I could like the character and not care for the performer. There is one really popular Broadway actress whose work I can't bear to look at but she is a lovely person. The times I had to deal with her on behalf of a producer always made me feel guilty that I responded that way to looking at her sing/dance/act when she was/is so damn nice and considerate of everyone around her.

As for the DS actors I've met and those I've gotten to know, they are all far more interesting than their famous TV characters and that's saying a lot considering how interesting some of the DS characters were/are.

Nancy

[Nancy]

At the Festivals, I tend to be more focused on my friends than on the actors,

That's the only reason I attend festivals.  I rarely ever go to the programmed events.  Just about everyone I know from the festivals attend each year to meet up with their friends at the discounted hotel in a rather interesting city.  They take it from there.  It's a chance to catch up wtih some interesting friends.

Nancy

[michael c]

when i attended my first fest i was speechless when i first saw our actors.

but after having met and spoken to them several times i have a more easygoing attitude towards them.
but they really haven't affected my viewing one way or the other.i can seperate the actor from the character.

sadly several of the actors whom i'd have really liked to meet are no longer with us and a few more never attend the fest.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

For me, watching DS and attending a Fest are two completely different universes. One doesn't really have an effect on the other - and like others have stated, I have no trouble separating the two. There are DS actors who are the sweetest people in real life and whose every character I love. There are actors who are the sweetest people in real life but whose character(s) I can't stand. There are actors who can be less than pleasant in real life but whose character(s) I still love in spite of that. And there are actors who can be less than pleasant in real life and I continue to dislike their character(s). It runs the full gamut.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Umm......THIS thing -------->>  (Rockettes Smilieys)  is driving me up the wall!  LOL

Then you know what that means, don't you? If not, you soon will... 

[retzev]

Umm......THIS thing -------->>  (Rockettes Smilieys)  is driving me up the wall!  LOL

Then you know what that means, don't you? If not, you soon will...  (santa_evil)

Make it stop! LOL!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Make it stop! LOL!

Oh, it will - eventually. 

[Gothick]

MB, dearest darling, the Spanish Inquisition missed out on a MARVELOUS resource in the fact that you were born several centuries too late to help out at the elbow of Cardinal Fang and the Comfy Chair...

*mopping brow*

Gothique