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Fedora: Mini DC Convention
June 13, 2004
By Gianna
The con opened at 9 AM. Having purchased a VIP ticket to the cancelled
2003 DC Con, I paid nothing now, but picked up my admissions badge,
an autograph ticket for all 13 actors, and a card allowing me to
choose photos of each actor.
Learned that Dave and Jackie Scott will run shuttle service tomorrow
between the hotel to DC, $25 round trip. A good deal - I signed
up for it. I saw Loretta - who also had other friends at the con
- then entered the ballroom, found a seat in the third row, left
side, and settled in.
Most actors spoke for half an hour. The DS9 panel was an hour.
Vaughn Armstrong. Has played the most aliens (breaking Marc Alaimo’s
record) of any actor on the Star Trek series. A bit of a hoodlum
in his younger days. A high-school teacher saw something in him
that other teachers did not and pointed him towards an acting career.
Is a Vietnam vet. On Enterprise, because he plays a human admiral
and this past season the Enterprise was out of touch with Starfleet,
Vaughn had no appearances. He said aliens by far outnumber humans
on ST, and most aliens have large foreheads. So Vaughn sang a song
of his own composition, the refrain of which is “Give me
a forehead, and put me back on tv!”
Robin Curtis. Is pretty much out of the business now. Lives in upstate
New York. She said she is so un-Vulcan-like - not logical and very
emotional. Has a wonderful laugh.
DS9 Panel - Casey, Mary Kay Adams, Max Grodénchik, Aron Eisenberg,
J. G. Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly - Casey was the “host”.
Never having scenes with each other, Casey said he had no idea of
what Bob O’Reilly looked like until they began doing cons.
Max said that once a scene called for him to crawl into a Jeffries
tube head-first, so the director (pardon the language; this is what
the director said) called for “an ass double”…then,
when Max said he didn’t need a double, the director asked
for a wide-angle lens!
Because the quality of the writing was so high, the actors were
not allowed to ad-lib.
During a few episodes, Casey was doing a play at Lincoln Center.
He thought this might mean Damar’s untimely demise, but DS9
flew him back to L.A. each Monday to do his lines.
The session closed with Bob & J.G. doing - if you can imagine
this - Klingon hip-hop!
Max Grodénchik sang some of his parodies including Max is
Back in Town (Mack the Knife) and Ferengi in Low Places (Garth Brooks’
“Friends in Low Places”). Since Rom wound up as Grand
Nagus, the final refrain of the latter song was “You’ve
Got Ferengi in High Places”.
Elizabeth Dennehy. She called the ST techno-babble “brain-breaking
dialogue”. Daughter of Brian Dennehy. She came to the con
with her mother, husband, and two children. Her husband is actor
James Lancaster. In “Titanic”, he played the priest
who prayed while the ship went down.
Penney Johnson-Jerald. She was “born an actor”; it
was “something inside her soul”. Teaches theatre at
the Performing Arts High School in L.A. Penny introduced her husband,
who is also her manager - handsome man. When she was up for the
role of Kasady Yates, she didn’t want to do Star Trek. However,
her husband is a Trekkie so he said, “You are going on the
interview”. Good thing she did! As for Sherri Palmer, her
“24” character, Penny said, “That’s
not Sherri Palmer. That’s Lady MacBeth!”
Autographs & Conversations. Dean Haglund and Garrett Wang were
next. Since I hoped for a chance to chat with Casey especially,
I skipped these talks. Got autographs from Max, Robin, Mary Kay,
Elizabeth, Dean (he had finished his talk by the time I reached
that table), Vaughn, and Casey. For most of the actors, I simply
could not think of what to say to them - I get tongue-tied like
that. Very frustrating!
When I reached Vaughn, I did manage to remember that he is the originator
of the Enterprise Blues Band, so I mentioned that to him - he had
also talked about this during his onstage session in the morning.
Loretta happened to be “right next door” talking with
Casey, and she took a photo of Vaughn and me, then of Casey and
me. Thank you, Loretta.
We were unable to see Casey after Much Ado about Nothing, so we
both took this occasion to tell him how much we enjoyed the play
and his acting. Last week Loretta had retrieved 7 playbills and
I, a mere 3. Casey was kind enough to sign them all. He mentioned
Stand-Up Shakespeare in NYC starting September 13 (although it’s
not yet on The Acting Company’s website), and a musical CD
that is finished but at that time was not yet available for distribution.
Next item on my to-buy list: A CD player.
Dwight Schultz. He, like Penny, is from Baltimore. After the con,
he was going to visit his parents, and said they would eat crab
for three days. I later told this to a Baltimore friend of mine,
and she said “Sensible man!” Dwight was a huge fan
of TOS in the ‘60s, so was quite thrilled to be on TNG.
“Bleacher Bums”. Dave Scott said, “If you don’t
laugh, the play’s 110 minutes. If you laugh, it’s
120 minutes”. It was at least 120 minutes.
Cast:
Casey - "Deck" Decker.
Vaughn - Marvin, the “villain”.
J. G. - Herb “Zig” Zakoswki.
Garrett - Greg(?)- the blind man.
Aron - the kid.
Mary Kay - Rose Zakowski.
Robin - Melodie King.
Max - Rick.
Bob - the announcer.
This is one funny play - co-written by Joe Mantegna who plays the
father in Joan of Arcadia. It’s about a group of Chicago
Cubs fans - or fanatics! The next day I heard from Aron and Bob
that they had had no rehearsal. They were all so good that no-rehearsal
hardly seems possible. Aron, as a fan who would do anything to help
the Cubs win a game, was outstanding.
The play finished around 8 PM, and I returned to my room but was
too wound up to get more than four hours’ sleep.
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