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XENA Burbank Convention 2004
What you missed...

2nd February 2004


This weekend saw Creation's Annual XENA convention in Burbank, California. A Xenaville reporter was on the spot of course!! (Thanks for the information Chris!)
A much smaller affair than in previous years, the event featured Renee O'Connor onstage, with a surprise appearance from Lucy Lawless. Also appearing were a host of other actors such as Hudson Leick, Tim Omundsen, Vicky Pratt, Allison Bruce and writers like Katherine Fugate.

The best news for us fans was probably from When Fates Collide writer, Fugate, who said that the 6 month period during which Universal could have renewed it's option on the rights to Xena had expired, and that Rob Tapert had lawyers working on obtaining the rights. Once the rights are acquired, a movie project could start to move forward. Lucy and Renee have committed to do the movie and Fugate will be the screenwriter! Wow, hope yet! Of course there's a long way to go before the project actually gets off the ground, but it sounds promising.

For many, Renee O'Connor's play performance was a real highlight.

"Renee had been rehearsing this play that is a series of monologues each a different character. However, the first monologue was Renee as a great-grandmother wearing her Gabrielle green BGSB costume and carrying a GabStaff. The costume was layered over a couple of other changes of clothing. as she performed the monologues, she removed layers of clothing and added other pieces.

The character monologues were really about loss: one was a Texan cowgirl who railed against the commericialization of rodeo, an actress given a 15 minute warning for the start of her play who wanted to connect with theatre audiences, a fundamentalist Christian snake-handler who no longer believed in God, a young woman who's mother died of cancer, and a divorcee (dumped) who is slashed on her face in a sex encounter going way-wrong, who later tattoos herself with rememberances of people who 'marked' her life.

Renee's performance was remarkable, especially since she'd only been preparing for 3 weeks prior. She really put herself out there in the performance and you could see that she was emotionally vulnerable during it -- and when she thanked her acting coach at the end, she broke down. It was poignant and very touching. She made a large portion of the audience teary with her."

After Renee's performance, Sharon Delaney from Creation led a Q&A, which included a strangely dressed woman who asked Renee what it was like to kiss Lucy Lawless! This was Lucy in disguise, and she joined Renee onstage for 5 minutes or so. By all reports, the more emotionally charged atmosphere created by Renee's perfomance was pretty much changed by this!

Check out Missy Good's site for photos of Lucy's new "look" and Renee onstage here and here.

Loads of fabulous photos from the convention at Steve Sears website - take a look

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