On Friday, the long line in the main hallway of the Festival area was for Lara Parker, who sold photos and books (one also on audio). Across from her was the PomPress table where KLS, as friendly as ever to fans, eventually appeared. The registration table in the next room actually had no line when I arrived, though that wasn't the case when it first opened a few hours earlier. Yet another room to the right of the registration area was for MPI (who had a limited number of the Bloopers & Treasures DVDs, plus DS clocks, tote bags, shirts, pens, boxer shorts, etc.). The tables opposite MPI had several photos for sale, also Marcy Robin selling ShadowGram and Kathy Resch with her various books, and behind the latter stood the Barnabas portrait.
Behind the registration area was the entrance to the Ballroom. I didn't attend any events in the ballroom Friday evening, sorry!, but I'm guessing that ProfStokes will be able to talk about them in her much-anticipated writeup.
On Saturday, also in the main hallway were Big Finish Productions with their first 2 audio CDs, author RJ Jamison selling her Grayson Hall biography, Betsy Durkin, who had photos and her book, tables with memorabilia, and the Central Florida Fan Club's table. Jay Nass was selling his photos in an adjoining hallway. In the next room, to the left of the registration area, Chris Pennock was selling comics, Jerry Lacy's table offered photos, and Marie Wallace, Diana Millay and Donna McKechnie were selling and signing their books. The longest lines were for Lara Parker and KLS, though several of the actors were immediately accessible.
I thought the Vicki painting would bring in more than $700 at auction. One of our Forum cousins, btw, bought the first foundation brick from Spratt House, and paid much less for it than the one that sold the following day.
In the ballroom on Saturday afternoon, the three handsome representatives from Big Finish Productions took the stage to speak about DS Reborn and play a trailer that gives me goose bumps every time I hear it. During the Q&A, they explained that CD sales will dictate whether the series will continue.
David Selby read a funny and touching passage from his book "A Better Place," but first he spoke about losing his father a week before, who used to ask him, "Don't you think you should come home?" His father had a difficult time after his wife passed away, and every day since David left home, he would ask that same question, and, "Is it safe out there?" He called his father after 9/11; he didn't understand what had happened, but he never stopped asking him, "Don't you think you should come home?" It was a lovely tribute, but I honestly don't know how he held it together so well as he spoke about his loss.
Donna McKechnie was introduced and we were treated to video of her dancing on Hullaballoo and her singing "Do I Hear a Waltz?," then Grayson's voiceover for #933--lovers Quentin and Amanda wish to be together in the land of the living, but they may not touch, though the tape was stopped, leaving us with a cliffhanger. She then spoke about her career and how, she said, "life happened"-- with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis came the news that she would never walk again. At the time, she was thinking of herself and how she longed to return to the stage. When she finally gained the courage to talk about her condition, it was via a NY Times article. Though nervous that the stigma may have ended her career ("It's all perception"), it felt important to her to get the story out. But she did not anticipate that she'd receive hundreds of letters as a result. She then discussed her doctor, who provided her with a food list for his prescribed cleansing diet. Getting the word out about RA has become her mission. She explained that her character was killed off, not at Dan Curtis' whim, but because she had to go into rehearsals for "Company."
She was appearing in "Promises, Promises" and had just been dumped by Ken Howard, an Adonis whom she was in love with, when she auditioned for the part of Amanda Harris. With her heart broken, she went to her appointment with Curtis. The hairpieces she wore on the show weighed 25 pounds (or maybe it was 20, which is what's in the book, she said) and were attached with long hairpins. When she told people about her final DS scene, no one believed her until eventually she met someone who was on the set and told her, "I remember how they left you." We then saw Amanda's final scene amid a cascade of peat moss and Styrofoam rocks, some the size of boulders. In the rehearsal, btw, she said she was given a plastic bag to protect her face, but was surprised that the final take done in costume and wig consisted of a stagehand dumping 10 times more peat moss than before, and with nothing to protect her face. During the Q&A, she spoke of working on Hullaballoo with the Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon and the Animals, (she was an animal head on a plaque on the wall, but her head unintentionally bounced with the music), Chubby Checker, and Freddie and the Dreamers. About Michael Bennett, she said she met him as a young dancer on the show, and everyone knew he would do something big; every dancer followed him around. She announced two upcoming book signings, and when asked said she has developed a sensitivity to persons with disabilities. This has absolutely changed her life, she said. "To learn compassion was a difficult muscle for me."
(next: Cast Reunion)
