WEEKEND IN SHERWOOD V CON REPORT
by Rache
As anyone who was there will tell you, Weekend in Sherwood V was a
blast. We had old hands and new faces. We had Robbie Bulloch performing at
the filk session, Mark Ryan conducting his Greenwood Tarot workshop,
Michael Praed beating all comers at the pool table and Jeremy Bulloch reviving
his portrayal of Boba Fett behind a cardboard standee of the character at the
charity auction. We had the wildest bar stories, the latest nights and the best
time ever.
Although Weekend in Sherwood V, sponsored as always by Spirit of
Sherwood, did not change venues, it was held for the first time at the Novi
Doubletree in Novi, Michigan, after taking place four times previously at the
Novi Sheraton Oaks. Simply put, this is because the hotel changed management
between Weekends 4 and 5. At least it still has a tree in the name, so as Much
would say, "That's all right, then."
Although the con doesn't officially start until Friday morning, for con
staff, things really get underway on Thursday. This is the time when various
department heads frantically run around the shopping malls in the vicinity of the
hotel, glomming onto items that either wouldn't fit in the suitcase and/or were
forgotten in the general rush of packing. Con staffer Chuck Sloane made the
first (and second, and third) of many runs to the airport in his truck to pick up
attendees who needed transportation. This is also the time when con
chairperson/Spirit of Sherwood topper Christine Haire usually picks up our
guests. This year we had more guests than ever before: Mark Nasir Ryan,
returning for his fourth year, Jeremy Edward of Wickham Bulloch, returning
for his second time (but his first full weekend - due to a previous commitment,
he had to leave Weekend 4 halfway through), Robbie Matthew of Wickham
Bulloch, attending his first con as an adult and his first American con ever and
first-time Weekend guest Michael Robin of Loxley Praed. Father-and-son duo
Jeremy and Robbie arrived early Thursday afternoon from London without a
hitch. Mark and Michael, traveling together from Los Angeles, California
(where both are currently living with their respective families at present) were
supposed to arrive at 7:30 PM on Northwest Airlines. This is when the first of
several pianos fell out of the sky onto our collective heads.
In Los Angeles, the plane Michael and Mark were supposed to board
developed electrical problems. This necessitated a change of aircraft.
Unfortunately, the new plane not only had a stopover in Minneapolis, it lingered
there for hours, which meant the two gentlemen didn't arrive at Detroit Airport
until 1:30 AM. Atsuko O'gawa, an attendee and brilliant artist who came all the
way from Japan(!), got in at 11 and waited with Christine, Kate Raymond and
Morn Geiger (Kate & Morn run Michael's fan club, MPNN) for the guests to
arrive.
Weekend in Sherwood V officially got underway bright and early at 9
AM Friday morning. Gofer chieftain Helen Avry and her associate Lila Bess
opened con registration so that attendees could pick up their badges and
schedules and with Joan Ludlow made sure there were enough munchies in the
hospitality suite to satisfy any and all hungry outlaws who might stroll in.
Photos - donated this year by Donnalyn and Lorraine Mumaw - from past
conventions are also set out in the hospitality suite. During the course of the
weekend, attendees are encouraged to write down suggested captions for the
photos - the caption that gets the most applause during closing ceremonies wins,
and its author gets to keep the photo in question.
Weekend V's scheduled events also began at 9 with a fan panel. For
the uninitiated, fan panels are moderated discussion groups. The first fan panel
was "Roleplaying 101: If You Were a Character in RoS, Who Would You Want
to Be, and Who Would You Most Likely Be?", presided over by fan panel chair
Laura Blunk, Helen Avry & Karen Campbell. This was followed at 10 AM by
another fan panel entitled, "What, Me Obsessed?! Seeing RoS in Everything,"
with panelists Laura, Helen and myself, in which the topic was how we relate
other TV shows, movies and even real-life events to elements of RoS. A third
panel on "Costuming for Beginners," headed up by Kitty Gamarra and Julianne
Toomey, came next, discussing various techniques of making and presenting
costumes. All scheduled convention panels, both fan and guest - along with a
variety of other activities - were preserved for posterity by our videotaping team
of Lorraine and Donnalyn.
At noon, it was time for the opening of the dealers room, presided over
by Jim Keith. This is full of goodies like RoS zines, jewelry, artwork, books,
music, costumes, RoS photos sold by Spirit of Sherwood (yes, you can buy
photos outside the con - see On Target address), Michael Praed photos sold by
MPNN (you can also buy these outside the con). This year, MPNN had for sale
- available for the first time anywhere - a tape of 10 songs performed and
composed by Michael Praed (these are still for sale through MPNN). Spirit was
supposed to have copies of Greenwood Tarot to sell but - one of those inevitable
glitches - the tarot decks did not arrive at the hotel until a week after the con.
The Tarot decks are, however, available at your local book store; if they don't
have it in stock, they can order it for you. New zines for sale included: "Albion
11," a RoS anthology zine available from Laura Blunk, 1128 Pennfield Road,
Cleveland Heights, OH 44121, "Kaleidoscope," an all-Michael Praed fanfic
anthology available from Kate Raymond, MPNN, P.O. Box 516, Midlothian, IL
60445 - "Saxon Chronicles," a RoS anthology available from Georgia Fleming,
c/o Fleming Multimedia, 220 S. Main St., Enterprise AL 36330, email and
"Wildwood," a RoS anthology available from Rache (me), 1245 N. Kings Rd.
#7, West Hollywood, CA 90069. If you're interested in any of the above, send a
SASE to the appropriate party for price information.
Noon was also opening time for art show run by Barb Johnson and
Nancy Miller, featuring some gorgeous RoS portraits and other artwork by fans.
Also on display in the art show were the items donated for the charity auction.
These included a life-sized cardboard standee of Boba Fett (Jeremy's "Star
Wars" character), a poster from the 1991 Dublin production of "Carousel"
starring Michael Praed, caps and sweatshirts from "Hercules" and "Xena,"
autographed photos of various actors not in attendance at the con and all sorts of
other goodies.
At 1 PM, it was time for opening ceremonies, which featured a
question-and-answer session with our con guests. Among the topics covered:
Jeremy's first experiences with archery on "Dr. Who," where he managed to
alienate the resident archery supervisor by hitting a bull's-eye on his first try; the
circumstances surrounding Michael's departure from "Robin of Sherwood" in
order to take the lead on Broadway in what turned out to be a very short run of
the "Three Musketeers" musical; Robbie's explanation of his relaxed attitude
toward acting, which he always enjoyed because he knew he was not going to
be relying on it as a career; Mark discussing the Greenwood Tarot deck, which
he co-created with Chesca Potter. Mark also gave a dramatic recounting of the
Holiday Inn story. Jeremy and Michael appeared shocked - shocked! - to find
themselves associating with a man who had been involved in such a notorious
incident, and both swear they had nothing to do with it. If haven't heard the tale
live yet, you are encouraged to ask Mark about it, but here's the very short
version:
One night while the RoS production company was out on location,
Mark, Ray, and a few other cast and crew members decided it would be fun to
strip Terry Walsh's hotel room down to the floorboards. They hid various
pieces of furniture in different parts of the hotel, but had to dump the bed out the
window. It landed in the parking lot. Deciding that a bed in a parking lot might
be somewhat conspicuous, the merry band then tried to hide the thing under a
tree. It wound up falling into a nearby stream. The hotel was rather unhappy
about all this, to put it mildly. Michael and Mark also took turns relating their
adventures in the Northwest lounge at the airport while waiting for their flight.
Michael's description of Mark passed out on the hospitality suite table and being
given a wide berth by his fellow passengers was particularly vivid.
Other stories told at the guest panels: Robbie related how his birthday
was made truly merry on the RoS set by having Clive Mantle - in full Little
John costume - stop a scene to produce a birthday cake. Mark talked about
playing a callous husband in the new Marcella Detroit music video. He also
shared his adventures accompanying his wife Robin Curtis (Saavik in the films
"Star Trek III & IV") on a week-long "Star Trek" cruise, complete with line-
dancing Klingons. One especially memorable moment came when the ship had
to swerve to avoid hitting a fleet of small fishing craft and consequently tilted,
causing everything on board to go flying. Michael discussed what he feels is one
of his proudest professional achievements: memorizing his entire leading role in
the stage play "Design for Living" in three days when he was asked to step into
the part on very short notice. Jeremy recalled being knocked into the Wickham
cabbage patch when Gisburne's horse head-butted him. Michael also talked
about what happened early on in RoS, when he accidentally hit a stunt man too
hard and injured the man. A few weeks later, a scene of Robin, Much et al
escaping from Nottingham Castle (note: for some reason, this scene is not in the
Showtime or U.S. pro tape versions of "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer"; it is in
some PBS versions and the U.K. PAL version) called for the stunt man to hit
Michael. The stunt man - a boxing champion - gave Michael a punch so hard
that at the time he thought a rib had snapped; the intent was to drive home a
point about not throwing careless blows on camera. Michael and Mark jointly
talked about Michael's very last night on RoS, when Michael, sharing lodgings
with Mark and Clive, asked his two housemates to bring him back some supper.
This resulted in food poisoning and Michael got deathly ill. Mark treated us all
to his impression of the noise Michael made at the time.
After a brief break, the guests did autograph and photograph sessions.
Then it was time to get ready for the Friday night banquet. At 5 PM, Julianne
Toomey held a rehearsal for the pavane, a recreation of the dance at the banquet
in "Herne's Son." It has been a WiS tradition from the beginning to perform the
pavane at the convention banquet. Con attendees are encouraged to dress in
medieval garb; most did. Participation in the pavane is open to anyone who
would like to perform and is willing to show up for rehearsal. This year, about a
dozen dancers took part. The pavane traditionally ends in a brief skit. This year,
it featured Owen of Clun (Rolf Granlund) demanding that Marion (Kitty) dance
again, leaving Robert of Huntingdon (Eric Bayrd) dejected - until Lord Owen
offers to dance with him.
Immediately before the banquet, a raffle (also a WiS tradition) was held
to determine which attendees get to sit at the high table with the guests. After
the meal is completed, the guests come down from the high table podium and
table-hop, so that everybody gets a chance to talk with everybody else. This
also gives the costume contest participants time to change out of their banquet
wear and into their formal costume entries. Garbed as Marion from the pavane
in "Herne's Son," costume contest m.c. Kitty introduced the participants, all of
whom made their own very impressive outfits. All four guests served as judges
for the competition. Lisa Gay took a second place award for her costume as
Marion from "The King's Fool"; Annette Vogel won third place for her costume
as Isadora of Caerleon; Linda Furey got the Best Presentation Award for her
"Marion, Warrior Princess" (think our Marion with a "Xena" attitude); Janet
Van Meter was awarded First Place for her "Robin of Foxley" wear (modeled on
the Walt Disney cartoon RH) and Robin Jones took Best Workmanship for her
costume as Queen Elizabeth the First. All entrants received a silver arrow
charm from Kitty and a kiss from presenter Michael Praed.
Following the costume contest, some folks went to bed and some went
into the filking session in the con suite - filking is singing songs about a story
(in this case, mainly RoS), either to original music or new words set to the music
from another song. Amy Hull, bless her, has compiled two fairly thick
songbooks of the better-known RoS and RoS-related filks, and distributed these
to all who attended the session so that everyone could sing along with the words.
A lot of con attendees headed into the bar to play pool and party with the guests.
Saturday morning came unspeakably early for all but the in-bed-at-a-
sensible-hour contingent. At 9 AM, Laura was accompanied by a member of
the living dead - well, okay, me - to do a panel on "What's New In Sherwood."
For any important details of this, see the "A Little Bird Told Me" column in this
issue of On Target. At 10 AM, Laura and Julianne held a panel discussing
"Everyday Life in the Middle Ages." At 11 AM, it was time for another lively
guest panel. After this, Julianne led a workshop in "Medieval Dance 101."
The art and charity auction was next, with our guests serving as
auctioneers. When it came time to auction off the life-sized standee of Boba
Fett, Jeremy stood behind it and issued dire Fett-like threats of disintegration if
the bids did not increase. The proceeds from the charity auction go to the
Sherwood Forest Trust, an organization dedicated to restoring the real Sherwood
Forest to some of its bygone tree-filled splendor.
After a breather for all concerned, Eileen Scidmore presented her RoS
puppet show, with hand puppets of Robin, Robert, Marion, Nasir, Will, Herne,
the Sheriff, Gisburne and Edward of Wickham all speculating on what parts they
could play in the new "Star Wars" films. She also composed a fairly
unforgettable filk to the tune of Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song," which
made rhyming mention of Jeremy's commercial for the Swedish post office,
which he told us about at Weekend IV. It was then time for another autograph
session.
The always entertaining Costume Turnaround panel, entitled "What a
Bunch of Characters," features costumed con attendees answering - and asking
- questions in character as figures from RoS. This year, the panelists were Will
Scarlet's late wife Elena (Julianne Toomey), first/second season Marion (Kitty
Gamarra), third season Marion (Janet Van Meter), Nasir (Linda Furey), Robert
of Huntingdon (Eric Bayrd) and Robin of Loxley (Rolf Granlund).
In the evening, Mark Ryan held a workshop on his Greenwood Tarot
deck, which was attended by about one-third of the congoers and lasted for four
hours. The Greenwood Tarot differs from other tarot decks in several respects.
Many of the symbols are reimagined and the cards have an order according to
the wheel of the year. Mark first held a slide show displaying the major arcana,
discussing the meaning of the characters and designs on each of the cards. After
a break, the participants then returned to the room and each picked a face-down
card from the major arcana. Mark then seated the participants in a circle in an
order based on where each of our cards belonged on the year wheel. He then
turned down the lights, instructed us to close our eyes and then gently narrated a
scenario of exploring the mystic wood, guiding us through the landscape
depicted in the deck and "introducing" us to its archetype, urging us to imagine
having our own interactions with them. At the conclusion of the guided
meditation, Mark brought the lights back up and asked each of us what we had
seen and felt during it. There is no one particular emotion or insight that an
individual is meant to have as a result of the meditation - Mark has said that the
deck and the meditation are both tools for exploring our individual
subconsciouses. Indeed, when we shared what we'd seen in our minds during
the meditation, the images and sensations were often strikingly different from
person to person.
Amy started up the filking session, with the assemblage going through
every last published verse of "Blessed Be" (Herne protect us!). When the
Greenwood Tarot session broke up, some of us headed into the filking session as
well, where we were joined by Robbie Bulloch. Robbie is part of a band back in
London, Five Dollar Shake, and played two of his songs for us on acoustic
guitar. He said this was the first time he'd played the compositions "unplugged"
- they both sounded absolutely great, sort of a combination of Duncan Sheik and
Gerry O'Beirne.
Many con attendees had assembled in the bar with Michael, Jeremy and
Robbie, with Mark joining the group after the tarot workshop. Something
happened that will surely live on in fannish lore. Your humble reporter was not
present for this and is relying on anecdotal reports, so if anyone who was
actually present can give a more accurate account, feel free to write into On
Target with it. This is, of course, the famous Karl incident. For those who
haven't heard this yet, here's what happened: Michael was at a table, holding
forth with a number of fans. Three more fans, all female and attractive, were
seated at another table nearby, chatting amongst themselves, when a strange
man emerged from the gloom of the bar and asked what they were talking about.
Sensing an attempted pickup in the offing, the women told the man they were
talking about movies. The man introduced himself as Karl and asked what
movies they were talking about. Hoping to discourage Karl, the one of the
women said, " `Swords of Wayland'!" She then pointed at Michael. "He's the
star."
"You're kidding!" Karl said. The women assured him they weren't.
"And you know this guy?"
"Yes," the women replied, which after two days at the con was
perfectly true.
"How well do you know him?" Karl persisted.
It would take the forbearance of a saint to pass up a leading line like
that. RoS fans are known for many fine qualities, but saintliness is not among
them. "Oh, intimately."
"What?" Karl was amazed. "All of you?"
The women assured him that all of them knew Michael very well
indeed. They then got every woman in the bar - even non-Weekend attendees -
to "admit" that, yes, they had all gotten a lot more than an autograph from the
"Robin of Sherwood" star. Robbie Bulloch and Chuck Sloane augmented the
illusion by claiming to be Michael's bodyguards (after the con, Chuck came up
with a name for the squad: Praed International Special Security Escort Division).
Karl, astounded that any man could get so lucky, finally asked Michael
himself if this was true. Michael, not one to make liars out of a room full of
admirers, said, "Oh, yes."
"But how do you get all of these women?" the flummoxed Karl
demanded. "Is it because you're a movie star?"
Who could pass up temptation like that? "Oh, no," Michael asserted
straight-faced, "it's because my d*** is huge!"
Somehow still undeterred, Karl then attempted once again to hit on the
fair maidens at the table. Lori Zander finally put him in his place, at least
temporarily. Karl surfaced again at breakfast - to introduce his wife and
daughter to Michael, et al. At least he provided much merriment to the con-
going merries.
Two genuine tragedies occurred, one just before and one during
Weekend. Long-time regular Weekend attendee Cath Austein's mother died
during the week, which meant, understandably, that Cath could not come. On
Friday, the first day of Weekend, Mark Ryan's mother-in-law also passed away.
The sympathies of all Weekend attendees are with both families. In Mark's
case, this meant - again, quite understandably - that he could not stay for the
whole con and had to leave early Sunday morning. Michael was accompanying
him back to Los Angeles, which meant that he also was leaving early. As a
consolation, at 2 AM Saturday night when the hotel bar closed, Mark and
Michael, along with Jeremy Bulloch, led everyone who was still awake - about
half the con - into the con suite for an impromptu question and answer session.
Jeremy livened up the already wild proceedings by producing a super-soaker
water pistol, getting himself and his fellow guests thoroughly drenched. Mark
suggested that all three tell their favorite theatrical disaster stories. Jeremy
talked about being in a production of "Conduct Unbecoming," a courtroom
drama in which, during a very serious questioning scene, someone unfortunately
broke wind just as they were supposed to answer. Jeremy and his fellow actors
broke unto giggles so uncontrollable that the play's management threatened to
bring them up on charges in front of Equity for disrupting the production.
Michael talked about being in a production of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo
Ui," in which he played one of several gangster's henchmen, whose role it was
to surrender their guns to other gangsters, who would then shoot them. In one
performance, a gun dropped to the stage during the hand-off and "fired" its
blank. Michael thought that it would be a good idea to fall down as if he'd been
shot. This might have worked if his three fellow henchmen had not had exactly
the same idea. When all four of them realized they'd been felled by the same
shot, all of them got up again. This made the actor playing the other gangster
quite cross, so he snatched up the gun and shot all of them again. This brought
on an attack of contagious laughter amongst the corpses (funnily enough, the
theatrical term for cracking up while on stage is "corpsing"), so the armed
gangster walked back and forth, shooting each of the dead men again every time
one broke up - which did nothing to stop the fit of mirth. Finally, Mark
described a production he'd seen of "Peter Pan" in which the flying mechanism
went berserk, dragging the actors playing Wendy, Michael and John across the
stage and repeatedly slamming them into the walls of the set. This was made at
once funnier and more awful by the game performance of Jane Carr as Wendy,
who kept saying, "Yes, Peter, I believe!" as she whammed into the side of the
set yet again. Hearing the stage technicians cursing frantically as they tried to
rectify the situation added greatly to the effect. They did finally get the flying
mechanism under control, only to have the pirates' island catch fire later in the
performance.
Mark and Michael's early departure meant a few last-minute changes in
the con schedule. The final fan workshop, a storytelling circle headed by Laura
and Julianne, was still held at 10 AM, but the Major Oak Awards were moved to
1:30 PM. This was rather nice for us involved in the Oakies, as it meant that we
could start dress rehearsal at the quasi-civilized hour of 9 AM (it would have
been totally civilized if some of us hadn't been up until 5 the night before)
instead of our usual start time of 7 AM. Chuck, good soul that he is, got up
early to set up the art flats that constitute our no-budget set. The Major Oak
Awards, first introduced at Son of Herne's Con in 1991 and a feature of every
Weekend in Sherwood, honor excellence in Robin of Sherwood zine
achievement. (A list of winners is printed elsewhere in the zine.) Yours truly
compiles the ballot during the year, seeking out as many RoS pieces as can be
found. I then write the script and direct the presentation, with rehearsals
squeezed in between the cast's other con activities (since almost everyone
involved in the Oakies is in charge of a different con function, this may give you
an idea of how hard the performers work at Weekend). For those of you who've
never seen the Oakies, the presenters are a variety of RoS characters who stop
squabbling with each other just long enough to present awards for writing,
artwork and poetry. This year, our cast consisted of (in order of appearance)
Rolf Granlund as Robin of Loxley, Eric Bayrd as Robert of Huntingdon, Linda
Furey as Marion, Karen Campbell as Guy of Gisburne, Helen Avry as Herne the
Hunter and Kitty Gamarra as that manly man, Lord Owen of Clun. Our guest
presenters were Jeremy Bulloch and Robbie Bulloch, who both got into the
spirit of things by briefly channeling Edward and Matthew of Wickham,
respectively.
After the Oakies, it was time for closing ceremonies. This included the
traditional voting on the photo caption contest, with Jeremy and Robbie reading
off the captions. Kitty Gamarra presented awards for Best Hall Costume - that
is, best costume worn at the con that is not officially entered in the Friday night
contest - and each staff member thanked all those who had helped their
particular department. We all owe a huge debt of thanks to Christine, without
whom there would be no con, period. Everyone had had such a good time this
year that it was no surprise when she announced that there will be a Weekend in
Sherwood VI, to be held July 24-26, 1998 at the same location.
Some attendees had to leave. The rest of us took a meal break, then
reassembled in the dealer's room where the rescheduled Herne Jr. Archery
Tournament, coordinated by Eric and Linda, had been set up. Despite noble
efforts by our guests Robbie and Jeremy, the ultimate victor was Annette Vogel.
It was then time for the remaining con guests, staff and volunteers to cram into
the con suite for the end-of-con gofer party. Many people reconvened in the bar
yet again, while about 12 con attendees crammed into the room Amy and I
shared for a final filking session that lasted until the wee hours.
And thus, with singing and drinking and hugs and laughter, another
wonderful Weekend in Sherwood came to an end. Jeremy has described
Weekend as being like a family reunion. If you were there, you know what he
means. If you haven't been to a Weekend yet, come next time and Merry Meet
your RoS-loving kin!