Weekend in Sherwood VIII
Robin of Sherwood 20th anniversary convention
4-6 July 2003 in Farmington Hills (Detroit), MI, USA
con report by Tirza van Rijn

After long deliberation, the die was finally cast three days before the con: my friend Roeland Tuk and I were going to the Weekend in Sherwood VIII RoS convention in the US, organised by the Spirit of Sherwood RoS fanclub. This meant the next day we had to arrange last minute flights (tickets and hotel room were long since taken care of), but fortunately there were still seats available at our preferred flights.

Weekend in Sherwood 2003 Schedule

Friday:
9:00-10:00 Registration Opens (Conference Room 1)
10:00 Art Show & Dealers Room setup begins (Bristol)
10:00-11:00 Fan Panel: "Costuming for Fun" with Kitty Gamarra, Janet VanMeter and Julianne Toomey-Kautz (Carlisle)
11:00-12:00 Fan Panel: "Sherwood in Middle Earth" by Dr. Laura Blunk (Carlisle)
12:00-1:00 Author Panel: Diane Carey will discuss Writing (Diane is a Star Trek Novelist and Historical Writer and has over 40 books published). (Carlisle)
12:00-7:00 Art Show (Bristol), Dealers Room (Bristol), Video Room (Norwich), Hospitality (Conference Room 1)
1:00-2:30 Opening Ceremonies (Carlisle)
3:00-4:00 Autograph Session (Conference Room 1)
4:00-5:00 Photograph Session (Conference Room 1)
5:00-6:00 Workshop: Chainmail Demonstration by Russ Herschler (Carlisle)
7:00-8:00 Herne Jr. Archery Tournament (Carlisle)
8:00--? Mixer (Conference Room 1/Holidome)
10:00 Filksinging (Somerset)

Saturday:
8:00-9:00 Morning Workout: "Sherwood Like To Be In Shape", led by Mary Bertke (Carlisle)
9:00-5:00 Dealers Room (Bristol), Art Show and Sale (Bristol), Hospitality (Conference Room 1), Video Room (Norwich)
9:00-10:00 Fan Panel: "Marion: Robin's Partner as Portrayed in the Various Versions of the Robin Hood Legend" with Rache and Laura Blunk (Carlisle)
10:00-11:00 Fan Panel: "Christianity and Paganism in RoS" with Rolf Granlund, Helen Avry, Julianne Toomey-Kautz and Diane Carey (Carlisle)
12:00-1:30 Guest Panel (Carlisle)
2:00-3:00 Fan Panel: "The Role of Archery in the Legend of Robin Hood" with Janet VanMeter (Carlisle)
3:00-4:00 Photograph Session (Conference Room 1)
4:00-4:30 Costume Contest Mandatory Meeting for participants (Carlisle)
5:00-6:00 Pavane Practice (Carlisle)
7:00-9:00 Banquet & Pavane Performance (Oxford)
9:00-10:00 Costume Contest (Oxford)
10:00-11:00 Circle (Somerset)
11:00--? Filksinging (Somerset)

Sunday:
10:00-11:00 Major Oaks Presentation (Carlisle)
11:00-1:30 Art and Charity Auctions (Carlisle)
1:30-3:30 Closing Ceremonies (Carlisle)
3:30 Art Show Pickup (Carlisle)
4:00 Gofer Party (Somerset)

Thursday, 3 July 2003

So, two days later Roeland and I were at Schiphol airport for our 14:25 flight to the US. The security people found it highly suspicious that we were leaving together but going home on different days (I was going back right after WiS on Sunday evening, while Roeland wanted to tour around a bit and was staying until the next Friday) and subjected us to interrogation separately. The nine-and-a-half hour flight was tedious, but the on-board food was OK. We arrived at Detroit Metropolitan airport at 17:05 local time (23:05 NL time). For me the security check went smoothly (I happened to meet a rare security officer who had both a sense of humour and a cultural education: he asked if I was related to the great Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn...), but while I was busying myself with obtaining a trolley and taking our luggage off the luggage belt, Roeland - who had gone to another security desk even before me - had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. I went round an round the luggage area in search of him, until a security officer took me to see a separated room where Roeland turned out to be waiting for special interrogation (to this day we don't still know why: was it because of our different homebound flights, because Roeland didn't resemble his passport photo anymore or for some other reason?). I had to wait outside and it took about an hour before Roeland finally came out. When the customs lady saw our first US destination, she immediately asked us if we were going to the RoS con because she had met another such passenger the day before! I called fellow con-goer Robin Dale, whom we were supposed to give a ride to the hotel, and we agreed to meet at the car rental office that was only a short ride with the free shuttle bus. In spite of the fact that we had a reservation it took a while before all formalities had been taken care of, but since all cars in our class (economy) and the next (compact) were all out of stock we could chose from the intermediate class cars so I selected a nice champagne-coloured Oldsmobile Alero (a brand you are unlikely to get a chance of driving in the Europe). At 8 o'clock we finally set off for the hotel. Fortunately we had Robin with us to help with the automatic gear (all the cars I had ever driven had gearshifts) and navigation. It was only about 25 miles / half an hour from the airport to the hotel and we managed to get there safely, although I was not at my best at 2 AM (NL time!) after a long flight, the gear was unfamiliar and it was very hot. At the Farmington Hills Holiday Inn hotel Christine Alexander was waiting for me; it was wonderful to meet her after a decade of email correspondence. Because we were hot and tired (btw, it was very hot inside the hotel too) we immediately went to check in and then to our room that turned out to be a looooong walk from reception & restaurant area where also most of the con rooms were. The room was nice (abeit hot) and while we were testing out the TV set, we fell into the beginning of Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones that kept us awake for two more hours (we had decided to defy jet lag by switching over to US schedule immediately). We then decided at half past ten to go into the bar (only because US bars are smoke-free, in Europe I'd never have done this) where we met with Robin, Jeanne Behnke and Cindy Hunt, Mick Spencer and several others. Everybody was enthusiastic to meet me at last and give me a warm welcome (I had a bit of an unfair advantage over the rest: while I had already seen pictures of the regular WiS goers from previous cons and therefore knew what they looked like, nobody knew what I looked like). It almost felt like I was one of the guests of honour. Roeland and I managed hold off sleep until half past twelve (6:30 AM NL time, I had been wake for over 24 hours by then) and then finally went to bed. On the way to our room we bumped into Rache, who was the last old friend we met that day.

Friday, 4 July 2003 (Independence Day)

The alarm clock woke us, almost immediately followed by my mobile phone ringing: it was my dad who want to know if we had got to the hotel safely. We went to get breakfast in the hotel restaurant: Roeland had an omelette and I had a basket of buns and against my normal habits even took a cup of coffee to keep me awake. (The hotel restaurant turned out to be good for little else: they were closed at lunchtime and the bar was either closing ridiculously early or closed all together.). We then had to go to registration, which was all the way at the other end of the hotel in the gopher room. Our welcome package included a badge, the con schedule, a convention book, a picture of Little John and a promo flyer for the old US Playhouse RoS videos, and for me also a mini version of the con poster. The programme started at 10 AM with a fan panel about "Costuming for Fun" by Kitty Gamarra, Janet Van Meter and Julianne Toomey-Kautz (wearing outfits that showed they are very good at making costumes). It was very interesting, although I doubt if Roeland and I will be doing much costume making anymore now that we finally have our costumes complete. The next fan panel, "Sherwood in Middle Earth" about the similarities between RoS and Lord of the Rings, by Laura Blunk was at 11 AM. If I remember correctly, it focussed on three points of agreement: friendship between the main characters, fighting for your ideals, and one that I have forgotten. Between the panels we paid a quick visit to the dealers' room / art show. I bought two RoS promo flyers, the RoS Games Book, a silver hair clip with a Celtic design and the RoS omnibus as a present for Roeland; Roeland himself bought a RoS t-shirt and a cloak pin. Chris gave me a beautiful silver arrow brooch as a present, which I have worn all throughout the rest of the con. Thus we missed the beginning of Diane Carey's author panel, which began at 12 and in which she told how she became a successful writer (basically, write the kind of books that are popular at the time and show that you can deliver on time). The con officially started with the opening ceremonies and first guest panel at 1 o'clock. Robert Addie and Jason Connery were officially introduced. Seeing them together, both dressed in shorts and t-shirts, with short hair and a little beard and moustache, they really looked like brothers. Robert told how he was nearly choked shooting at the mud fight in Alan a Dale because his knitted "chain mail" shrunk in the water, and Jason about how he had to redo the scene where he falls into the Caerleon castle moat in "The Inheritance" over and over again because the director (Ben Bolt) wanted to get back at him because Jason had smashed a cake into his face once. They had also both horror stories about the special effects guy, nicknamed Dr. Death, who nearly caused Robert to burn in the trough in "The King's Fool" and caused Jason to lose his facial hair and the front of his head hair shooting the scene at the pool at the end of "Cromm Cruac" when he screwed up with the oxygen and the gas. Jason also related that he had once been stopped by the police on his way to the set and the police, seeing all his costumes and equipment on the back seat of his car, had asked: "Whom do you think you are, Robin Hood?!" - to which Jason had no answer... This was Jason's fist con, but you would never have guessed if you saw him there behind the panel table. There was storm going on outside during the panel and the lights were flickering occasionally and we could hear thunderclaps every now and then, which added to the special atmosphere. There was a short quarter-of-an-hour break at 2 PM to get Michael Praed on the speaker phone, which Roeland and I used to see the art show. When Chris had finally managed to establish contact with Michael (she accidentally broke off the connection a couple of times), the guest panel continued until 3 o'clock with attendants, Robert and Jason asking Michael questions. After the panel I was introduced to Katie Flannery, whom I had missed completely at the Silver Arrow convention last May in Bristol, and I talked to Rina Florijn, another Dutch RoS fan. We went to our room to fetch something to eat (there were no lunch breaks scheduled) and I had to get my RoS omnibus for Jason's autograph (autograph session was at 3 PM, photograph session at 4 PM). After that we went to the video room to see Rache's Rumpelstiltskin Incident (interviews with "fairies" that live in our world with their wings hidden away in backpacks, Mark Ryan and Michael Praed are playing two of the fairies - VERY funny!) and the complete blooper reel including the Third Series bloopers which Roeland and I had never seen before. We were a bit late for the Chainmail Workshop, but Russ Herschler was just getting started anyway. Although I don't think I'll ever be making chainmail myself, the workshop was very interesting and it was great to see Russ at work. We had a chat with Russ afterwards, and therefore missed the practice and beginning of the Herne Jr Archery tournament including Jason's and Robert's attempts (Robert turned out to have been a school archery champion) and we also didn't get around to entering ourselves. The tournament involves knocking over pictures of the RoS baddies (Baron the Belleme, the Sheriff, Gisburne, Abbot Hugo, Gulnar, Lillith, etc.) & Kevin Costner's Robin Hood (which turned out to be everybody's favourite target) with $1 plastic toy bows and arrows, which meant great fun. The winning trick was not to aim (which the Canadians obviously hadn't learned yet)! Robert was (mocked) outraged when somebody knocked over Sir Guy of Gisburne's picture and threatened the participants who did just that, Jason helped collecting the fired arrows. Mary-Ann McKinnon finally won the contest. The mixer was moved to the Carlisle room and started at 8:30 PM. There were home-made cakes and cookies, pizza, chips, snacks, beverages and Todd Alexander's alcoholic mixes. It was nice chatting with the guests and the other WiS attendants. From the hotel parking place we even managed to catch a glimpse of some of the 4th of July fireworks far away in the distance. Filksinging (accompanied by Rache on the guitar) was at half past eleven and Roeland and I decided to join, even though neither of us can sing. Robert also came to join us. He wouldn't sing or play for us, but he was willing to recite a few songs for us which he did very impressively especially considering he had only glanced at the text once or not at all. Roeland and I called it a day at 2 o'clock.

Saturday, 5 July 2003

We got up at 7 AM and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, together with Pen Darim. A little late I went to Mary Bertke's "Sherwood likes to be in shape" morning workout session, which Roeland decided to skip. Today's first fan panel at 9 AM was "Marion: Robin's partner as portrayed in various versions of the Robin Hood legend", from Laura Blunk and Rache. General agreement was that "our" Judi Trott was the best Marion and the Marion in "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" the worst. The second fan panel at 10 AM, led by Rolf Granlund, Helen Avry, Julianne Toomey-Kautz and Diane Carey, was about "Christianity and Paganism in RoS"and led to very interesting discussions. There was an hour break after that, which Roeland and I used to sign up for a banquet table and pay an extensive visit to the dealers' room and art show. The dealers sold amongst others RoS photos, goodies, fanzines, etc., Celtic jewelry and t-shirts, pagan/new age books, CD's and supplies, herbs and soaps, and weaponry. The art show contained many beautiful RoS drawings and paintings. In the same room you could also bid on the items for the art and charity auction. From noon to about 2 o'clock was the second guest panel. Robert and Jason talked amongst others about their current projects (Robert has retired from acting and now only wants to do directing and producing, he is currently working on a film about a couple of women who really go on a spree during the weekend; Jason is asked to do more Smallville episodes and there will be doll made of his character). After the break from a quarter to one until a quarter past one, we got Mark Ryan joining us on the speaker phone who was working on a King Arthur movie in Ireland at that moment as a swordmaster and fight director, together with Ray Winstone and RoS horsemaster Steve Dent. Mark told very enthusiastically about this project which was going very well. After that was the "Role of archery in the legend of Robin Hood" fan panel, which I had agreed to do together with Janet Van Meter. She had given me her notes earlier that morning and together with what I already knew about the subject this had to do. The panel went well, mostly thanks to Janet who had brought her own longbows and arrows to demonstrate (I had left my own weaponry at home for fear of problems with the airport security), including a beautiful silver price arrow which she had won at a RoS con long ago. There was another autograph / photograph session at 3 PM, where I went to get Robert's and Jason's autograph for my convention book. Roeland dressed up for the costume contest rehearsal at 4 PM, I had decided not to compete because my dress was made by Roeland's mother not by myself (although I had made many of the accessories, including the shoes). However, it turned out that there were too few contestants and the rehearsal was called off. The pavane practice from five to six was on, though. Julianne Toomey-Kautz patiently taught us newbies the steps of the pavane from "Herne's Son" or at least the closest thing. It wasn't easy to get the knack of, but fortunately many of the participants were experienced pavane dancers, so we could copy the art from them. Once you get the hang of it, the pavane is a very nice dance. Nevertheless, another last-minute dress rehearsal was scheduled at 6:45. In the meantime I dressed up in costume as well (which also include a coupled of braid extensions). The banquet started at 7 AM with Diane Carey piping in the guests. Because the pavane dancers had to wait outside, we missed Robert's speech. We performed the pavane to the music from the "Herne's Son" banquet dance scene (using battery-powered torches instead of real ones for safety). Fortunately all went well. Afterwards Kitty Gamarra, Janet Van Meter and Charlie McKinnon did a little sketch as two Marions fighting for Owen of Clun. There was a raffle for seats at the high table with the guests (beautifully decorated with banners by Janet Van Meter, Kitty Gamarra, Barb Johnson and Diane Carey), and the lucky winners were Rina Florijn, Rolf Granlund, Marnie Caddle and Kitty Gamarra. Roeland and I were sitting at the Nasir table next to the high table, together with amongst others Lorella Frederick and Anthony Donajkovksi. Most people had dressed up in gorgeous costumes and many of the women had intricate braids done by Mary Bertke. Janet and David Van Meter (David was dressed in Scottish costume, as were Chris and Todd Alexander, which together with Diane and her bagpipes gave the evening an unintended Scottish touch) performed a Scottish dance to Diane's music. The buffet was very good and consisted of chicken teriyaki, london broil, mostacciolini with meat sauce, red skin parsley potatoes, buttered corn, assorted salads, rolls and butter, cheese and crackers, fresh assorted fruit, raw veggies with dip, assorted relishes and various drinks (coffee, tea, cola, water). After the buffet people, including the guests, started to move around, chat and take pictures. The huge RoS 20th anniversary cake, with the con poster on edible paper on top of it, was cut and everybody got a piece of it. Then they announced the results of the "secret" costume contest and to our big surprise Roeland and I were awarded second place together as most authentic couple (this was rather a recognition for Roeland's mother who had made my costume and helped Roeland making his) which earned me a kiss from Jason (actually two). Third place was for Mary Bertke and the winner was Rick Dennis for his beautiful Green Man costume. Special awards were for David Van Meter (best knees) and Diane Carey (best director). David Van Meter did another Scottish dance to Diane's piping, this time with Sherry Lee, Jason's girlfriend, who danced very well. The banquet finished at 22:30 and because we had stayed and talked afterwards, we were late for the circle and decided not to interrupt (the only part of the programme that we missed). Instead we went to our room to rest a bit. Filksinging begun at half past 12, but it was moved to Carlisle. We had more participants than yesterday and to our delight Robert, just returned from a visit to a bar in Detroit, appeared again to do a dramatic reading of a few songs once more. Meanwhile Annette Vogel was working on the Huntingdon vest for the Oakies ceremony tomorrow. We went on until 3 AM, sustained by Amy Hull's delicious banana breads, until the "Merry Meet", the good-bye song, was requested which meant the end of the session.

Sunday, 6 July 2003

The alarm clock went off at 8 o'clock, but we remained in bed for another half-hour. I packed my stuff and called my aunt in Paris to congratulate her with her 80th birthday. As usual we went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at nine, together with Annette Vogel and Mary Bertke, but due staff shortage it took them ages to serve the food and at 10 to 10 I had enough of waiting and went off to get something from my own food supply, because I definitely was not going to miss the Major Oak Awards ceremony which was to start at 10 AM. However, the Oakies turned out to be postponed until 11 o'clock, which gave me some more time in the dealers' room, where I purchase a couple of RoS magazine clippings from Derrick Dasenbrock (he later gave me a few more for free). Those who had patiently remained in the restaurant, including Roeland, finally got their orders and for free. Roeland brought me the leftovers from my order and Amy was distributing cakes from the hospitality room, so I was well fed after all. Todd Alexander had to go to the emergency room for an ear infection, fortunately it turned out not too bad. The Major Oak Awards ceremony did begin at 11 AM and was everything as funny and hilarious as I had been told. Laura Blunk as Herne, Kitty Gamarra as Marion, Charlie McKinnon as Huntingdon, Rolf Granlund as Loxley and Julianne Toomey-Kautz as Queen Isabella explained the various categories and Robert and Jason took turns at announcing the winners. Helen Avry and Laura Blunk won a gold award for best RoS zine; Laura also won gold awards for her novella, long story and poem/filk; Todd Parish won gold awards for his short story and vignette (twice!) and silver for his poem/filk; my fellow country women Floor Dankers and Rina Florijn both won silver for their short stories; Chris Alexander got gold for her cover artwork and Rache for her filk; Kitty Gamarra received a gold award for her short story and adapted filk and Gail Molnar won no less than 5 awards for filk, illustrations and cartoons (the full list of winners can be found on the Spirit of Sherwood website). Rick Dennis as the "faithful tree" collected the awards for the absent winners. To my utmost surprise I received an honorary Herne award for my work for the RoS mailing list and the Spirit of Sherwood website (and a kiss from Robert). I was very honoured. The art and charity auction started at a quarter to twelve. Robert was the auctioneer, as he had been at Silver Arrow, and Jason was runner showing the items around. Items included RoS art, dolls of the RoS merries (you should have seen Jason holding the Huntingdon doll and the Loxley doll!), a "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer" script, and various Robin Hood books (which Jason managed to promote substantially by flashing the pages for the bidders). The auction took an hour and raised over U$ 1,000 for the American Hospice Foundation. The closing ceremony was at 2 o'clock and gave us a last opportunity to ask Robert and Jason questions (if they had to be another character in RoS, Jason would have liked to be Gisburne and Robert the Sheriff). Both had enjoyed the con very much and Jason even asked Chris when she was going to do the next WiS: now she is committed to do yet another one...! The Hall Awards for costumes worn during the convention but not partaking in the costume contest went to Cindy Hunt for Friday, Jeanne Behnke for Saturday, and Annette Vogel for Sunday. At the final moment Robert did the photo caption contest: the caption which got the most applause won and the person who had come up with it got the photo (Robert won one himself). Right after this, at a quarter past 3, the gopher party started for which Roeland and I were also invited because of my promotional work to advertise WiS. There were pizzas, cakes and cookies, pizza, chips and other snacks and drinks. Gopher captain Helen Avry had little presents for all the gophers: we all got a plastic "Arfur the Rat" that could squeak and a sheriff's badge (Robert who had joined us got one too and was very happy with it: "At last!") and I got a recorder ("Thank you very Much") too. Jason joined us for a while too. We passed our conventions books around for signing. I had to leave at six to catch my plane. It took a while to say goodbye to all those wonderful friends I had met at WiS and we finally managed to get away half an hour later. Unfortunately Chris was just driving either Jason or Robert to the airport, so I didn't get a chance to bid her farewell. The automatic shift was uncooperative at the start and twice we went the wrong way, but nevertheless we arrived at the airport well in time at ten past seven. There I had to say goodbye to Roeland who was staying until next Friday. Check in and security check went smoothly. I bought and wrote postcards for my relatives. My 21:35 plane was only a little bit delayed because of the busy traffic due to bad weather. I even managed to catch some sleep during the flight (I had had 17 ½ hours of sleep in 4 days, is this a con record?). At 10:50 AM local time (4:50 US time) we landed safely at Schiphol airport and I was back home an hour and a half later.

Big kudo's to Chris and all the other gophers for making Weekend in Sherwood such a wonderful experience! I am very glad I decided to go.

P.S.: Weekend in Sherwood IX is scheduled for 2005. Watch the Spirit of Sherwood website (http://ce.et.tudelft.nl:~tirza/RoS/) for the latest info.