Fan Event Weekend

July 9 – 11, 2004

~Recap by nicholsevansfan…

Part 1: Friday

I arrived in the afternoon and greeted/hugged fellow TCT members and honorary TCT members at the hotel. Soon, we all had to get ready, as it was lunch time and we had to be at Love Letters not long after that. As I was getting ready, I thought it would be good to check with the theatre for Mary Beth’s play to see if by chance she was appearing that night. Andrea made the call, and SHE WAS appearing! Welllllll, that news spread quick, LOL, and we made sure to make reservations.

We headed to the Laurelgrove theater in the TCT “bus”.

After lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, it was time for the play, Love Letters–about a man and woman who grow up together…communicating throughout their lives, most often in letters. The Trees took up lots of the seats in that theatre 🙂

Stephen and Lisa were both really good in it! I have seen the play a few times, so I could almost recite at least half the play, LOL. But it gets to me every time. I am a sucker for a great love story 🙂

After the play, Stephen and Lisa came out to talk to everyone, as well as their daughter, Dylan. What a beautiful family 🙂

Stephen of course looked great in a black meshy/translucent type top and a tweed jacket…and best of all, his bright smile 🙂

Stephen got a kick out of hearing that Marcia, a TCT member from Australia, was in the mall in Sydney (with about 8,000 other fans) when he visited there. We complimented him on his hair, LOL, and he teased/laughed about it. Stephen and Lisa posed separately and together for lots of pictures…very sweet and generous with their time, with everyone. My only regret there is that I didn’t greet Lisa. I meant to but I kept looking at the time to make sure we were on the road in time for the next play 🙁 Lisa really was very good in the play, and I meant to tell her.

Andrea drove us around all day. She was an awesome chauffeur and I don’t know what we would have done to make it to both plays without her as our “bus” driver 🙂

We did hit traffic on the way to Mary Beth’s play, but it loosened up (shockingly, for LA on a Friday) and we made it an hour early. Just as we were driving in we saw Mary Beth walking into the theater. Once we got out of our cars, we walked in to a dark, but unlocked lobby.

Across the courtyard, some of the Trees noticed Mary Beth peeking through a window. Five minutes later, Mary Beth came into the lobby and greeted us. She wondered if we needed anything, and then said she recognized me, so she figured we were fans 🙂

Mary Beth had little or no make up on, and looked just beautiful in a light aqua mesh type shirt and a red skirt. She talked to us for a while about her kids, how tall they have grown. Mary Beth said she just came back, not long ago, from two weeks in New York. She was supposed to go earlier, but her daughter graduated 8th grade, and then Hunt Block went on vacation for a week…so because of that, they had to pack a month’s worth of material into two weeks. She shot 17 or 19 shows.

Mary Beth said she had a lot of heavy dramatic scenes and came back exhausted and drained…looking puffy eyed. She seems to have liked the material. I told her I loved her part on the show, she said she loves working there, too.

She thought it was so awesome how so many fans were in town from all over the world…asked us a little about Love Letters and Stephen, and made some sweet comments about him. She was so down to earth and sweet. She didn’t have to come out to talk then, but she did, and made sure to let us know she would also be out at intermission to talk to us.

Since I had seen the play before, I noticed that her part of the play (the first act) was changed around a little…some kisses added and some lines added for variety. Once again, we Trees & Lakesiders took up a lot of seats!!

At intermission, Mary Beth posed for pictures with individual Trees and Lakesiders, signed autographs and talked to us some more. She was super sweet and gracious. She was asked if she saw Billy Warlock in the play, “The Normal Heart”, while she was in NY. Mary Beth had seen it in April and thought he was just so incredible in it. She was so proud of him, she sent him flowers and a note.

Some gals stayed for the second act, and the rest of us left after Mary Beth’s part. We headed back to the hotel, lounged outside for an hour or two, had some coffee, and chatted 🙂

**SO*** in one day–two plays, watching our two favorite actors act, and catching up with them afterwards, too—-plus great times with friends. How cool is that??? Doesn’t get much better 🙂 They were all (Lisa, Stephen, and Mary Beth) so gracious and warm and friendly. I am so happy it worked out that way, especially for all the Trees and Lakesiders who were here from across the globe 🙂

Part 2: Sunday

I. Questions and Answers:

We lined up to register for the event, hosted by Sherry and Sandra from StephenNichols.Net. I wandered off to browse at sale items after the doors opened for the event. There were great items, pictures and mouse pads, available for purchase. I bought a mousepad, and got back into line to register. Everyone received a very special goodie bag of items 🙂

It was immediately obvious how much hard work and dedication went into preparing everything. The room was very well organized, with seating arranged so that everyone had a good view of the little “staging” area in the front, where Stephen would be standing. Stephen was already there when I entered that part of the room. He looked great in a soft goldish-tan shirt, jeans and soft leather shoes that matched his shirt.

We Stephen and Mary Beth fans were excited to hear that they planned to perform Love Letters together sometime in the future.

The special guest at Stephen’s event was Tyler. He read the questions for Stephen.

Here are the Q&A’s I remember, in no particular order.

~Someone asked about Stefan and Alexis’ relationship and noticing “sexual undertones” (which personally I never saw; it was just affection????). They said that some viewers saw lingering kisses on the cheek. Stephen replied that he heard that a lot but thinks that people just read too much into things. He said it made Nancy kinda sick. Tyler remarked that people actually said he, Tyler as Nik, took long gazes into her chest area. People seem to see things that aren’t there.

~Someone asked what is the difference between TV and stage actors as costars. Tyler answered he thinks it depends on the actor, not their background. He has worked with some great actors who never acted on stage and some poor actors who had been onstage. Stephen said stage actors were usually on time more often.

~Tyler was asked what TV shows he would like to appear on. He thought most shows were no good. Stephen mentioned some cable shows like The Sopranos and Deadwood were pretty good—best shows on TV at least. Tyler was thinking network, not cable. Tyler’s answer was anything with beautiful women, but Las Vegas was out of the question, LOL.

~What actors would SN like to work with?

Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, Gene Hackman, and Marlon Brando would have been nice—He said Tyler reminds him of a young Brando.

~Who does Stephen keep in touch with from GH and who does he keep in touch with from Days?

He said Mary Beth and Mary Beth… LOL.

~What is Peter Reckell like?

Stephen said he is a positive guy, always growing, learning, reading. First thing he remembers learning about Peter when starting on the show…Stephen had wandered into his dressing room and Peter had an open journal out. Stephen didn’t read it, but remembers that Peter was always keeping a journal.

~What movies does he recommend?

At first he couldn’t think of one, then asked his mother in law (who was present with his father in law), and she reminded him Fahrenheit 9/11.

~What kinds of movies does he hope to make?

Visually beautiful, subtle and moving too.

~Has he been approached by any other soaps?

He smiled because he knows about the rumors people were referring to, but said that the last time he was approached was a year ago by Days, and we all know how that turned out.

~Stephen was asked to comment on Richard Biggs.

His comments/recollections were the same as what has already been in the magazines, but he also fondly recalled their last event together in Atlanta, where they did the Village people and YMCA.

~One fan commented about being impressed by the trial scenes. Stephen mentioned he knew from the start that they would be killing off Stefan. She said the performance blew her away and she showed it to non-soap fans who felt the same. Stephen thanked her and everyone applauded.

~Tyler praised his co-star, Katherine Wadkins who plays Mary, saying she’s a wonderful actress and always able to return anything he throws at her in a scene.

~Stephen said he wants to direct a film his wife Lisa wrote next, then he’s going to work on his other larger film.

~Carole said she heard that actors say they are “up” when they can’t remember their lines. Stephen and Tyler had never heard that, but had fun trying to figure out why. Stephen remembered the funniest time he saw someone mess up their line. It was Charlie Shaughnessy (ex-Shane, Days) messing up a line which he usually never did. Charlie got so frustrated, he had a moment where he was like “ssshhh-shhhh—-sshhhhh—shhhhh—-iiiiiiiiiiit!!!!” Stephen illustrated this to us with body language included, and almost strained his neck doing it, LOL…but had us all laughing hard.

II. Get The Dime

Due to technical difficulties, the room had to be split in two, with two viewings of Stephen’s movie, “Get The Dime”. He let everyone know it was not the complete version (music was still being added), and warned that it wouldn’t look as great or sound as great on the bad TV/VCR hookup we had in this room. After the first viewing, we had technical difficulties once again, and couldn’t seem to play the film for the second group. (The problem turned out to be as simple as an unplugged cable, LOL!!).

But finally we were able to see it and I was really SO impressed by it. You would never think that it was the work of a first time film director. It was so professionally made. I would honestly say that even if it wasn’t Stephen who made it. The emotions of the character were intensely felt. At the same time, I couldn’t help but be blown away by the aesthetic quality of the film, particularly in the way it was edited/montaged.

Because of time constraints due to the technical difficulties, we didn’t get a chance to discuss the film with Stephen after watching it, which was disappointing, but understandable.

III. Auction

I won/bid on the SOU wedding cover signed by Stephen and Mary Beth 🙂 Stephen made sure to mess up my last name on purpose, LOL (ah tradition! J. He told a story about a photo shoot for NBC for the wedding. They were at Lake Hollywood and Stephen and MBE had to be right on the edge of the Lake and too close actually. Stephen said he shook, trying to be sure to hold her still so they wouldn’t fall in. The photographer from that shoot is now Stephen’s neighbor down the block.

There were a pair of pants and vest he wore on GH…used in location scenes for Stefan and Laura. The pants were HUGE (and uhm…ugly, LOL) but Stephen told a funny story about a mouse that crawled up his pants while he was wearing them, and uh, crawled all over. (Someone in the audience behind me whispered… ‘Lucky mouse‘, LOL).

About the Stefan and Katherine on the chair photo where he is bare-chested, he said, “Look, you can see my boobie.” LOL.

He held up an ABC promotional picture of Stefan on a big chair. Stephen said it is Stefan on his throne looking constipated 🙂

Stephen laughed at his hair in a Patch picture. He said that was one heck of a mullet.

Sherry and Sandra made sure everyone won a door prize, and mine was Stephen themed playing cards (a picture of Stephen bare-chested and wearing leather pants graces the cover of each card).

IV: Autographs:

Someone in front of me had a Soap Opera Update cover from the Days era—the drawing of them on a Christmas issue, for him to sign. He said he had never seen that before. GASP!!

All the TCT members stood together and posed for a group photo without Stephen, but we waited together — last in line, to do individual pics with him.

Wilma gave him the “Tree Hugger” hat and shirt with an embroidered tree–on behalf of The Crystal Tree. Stephen had us all laughing hard, as he put it on and posed with the shirt and hat.

Stephen was just so candid and gracious, talking to us all like old pals. We had an awesome time 🙂

On top of it all, I had tons of fun with fellow friends from Lakeside and TCT. I miss them all already.

Gallery: Click on the picture to view a larger version. Click on the picture again to close the large view screen.