The Golden State Theatre in Monterey, CA is having a trilogy screening today, check out the details from their website: The complete epic trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson: The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers and the Oscar-winning The Return Of The King. A marathon of all three incredible movies as they were meant to be seen, back-to-back without interruption on the big screen! [More]
Category: Meet Ups
The Genre Traveler and Beyond Boundaries Travel Team Up for Special Weekend Package to See the Lord of the Rings Musical in Toronto
For Immediate Release: On Memorial Day Weekend, some fortunate Lord of the Rings fans not only will get to see the World Premiere musical in Toronto – already receiving rave reviews from theatre goers – but will also get the chance to meet the producer and cast in a private Q&A session.
This one-of-a-kind tour, offered only by Beyond Boundaries Travel in cooperation with The Genre Traveler, features three nights accommodations at the Delta Chelsea Hotel, a luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Toronto; a private Q&A session with producer Kevin Wallace and the cast, exclusively arranged for travelers on this tour; an intensive, behind-the-scenes workshop with actors and crew; a Gala Lord of the Rings Costume Party; and, of course, tickets to see the musical.
“We strive to make our tours as fun and interactive as possible,” says Jeannie Barresi, co-founder of Beyond Boundaries Travel. “That’s why we worked so hard to arrange the Q&A session with the producer and cast, as well as the intensive, hands-on workshop.”
“What’s so special about these kinds of tours,” says Carma Spence-Pothitt, editor of The Genre Traveler, “is the opportunity to meet interesting, intelligent people who share an interest with you, in this case, an appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic work.”
All this – 4 days and 3 nights, May 26-29, 2006 – is only $799 double occupancy. This price also includes three breakfast meals, all taxes, meal gratuities and baggage handling. A deposit of $250 is due upon reservation, with the balance due by March 28. Reservations need to be made by April 1 to ensure space.
Previews of Lord of the Rings, directed by Matthew Warchus, opened on February 4 at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto and will run until March 22. Fans who have seen the preview said it was worth the wait. One even said, “It was unlike reading or watching Middle Earth, it was like being there!” The official Gala opening is scheduled for March 23. Toronto will be the only place to see this production for at least nine months, when it is scheduled to open in London.
For more information about, or to make reservations for, this once-in-a-lifetime tour, contact Beyond Boundaries travel at (800) 487-1136 or (719) 471-0222, or visit lotrfantrips.com. Information can also be found at The Genre Traveler’s website, www.thegenretraveler.com, and blog, thegenretraveler.braveblog.com.
About The Genre Traveler:
The Genre Traveler, which debuted in October 2005, is a quarterly online travel magazine for science fiction, fantasy and horror enthusiasts. Topics covered include genre-themed attractions, events and vacation packages, as well as ideas for creating your own genre-themed getaways. Also included are websites, gadgets and other items that support genre-themed travel and seeing the world through genre-colored glasses.
About Beyond Boundaries Travel:
Beyond Boundaries Travel, established in 1991, designs themed tours for fans sharing common interests such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and others. Tour designers always include a good dose of historical and educational information, film locations and lots of fun. Beyond Boundaries’ Fan Trips have been featured in Frommer’s and Fodor’s, as well as several newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. A recent book about Harry Potter devoted more than 18 pages to Beyond Boundaries’ trips, which were described as the “tour of choice” for fans.
Isilnáriën writes: Tol Andúnë, the Hawaii Smial of the Tolkien Society, will be celebrating Tolkien’s birthday Monday January 3rd along with others around the world. Our group, many of whom will be in costume, will meet at TGI Fridays at the corner of Ward Ave. and S. King Street at 8 PM and proceed with feasting (but no smoking) and general merriment until 9 PM when we will stand to toast the Professor.
Jef writes: I’m starting a new smial in Atlanta. Affiliated with the British Tolkien Society, we’ll meet on a regular basis to discuss all things related to JRRT’s writings. Tentatively named “Andúnië” (the haven of the Faithful in Númenor), this one will (hopefully!) be oriented toward fellow artists and writers interested in the philosophy and especially the theology of Tolkien’s work. I’d like for us to meet monthly at a location to be determined.
Contact Jef for more information: [More]
Marysia writes: I just spent three days at the Fellowship Festival in Alexandra Palace.
The Fellowship Festival is the first UK based attempt to run a more typical genre convention rather than a marketplace event for Lord of the Rings movie fans. It will be followed by similar (though “unofficial”) events in Manchester in October (Master of the Rings – www.autographmania.co.uk) and Bristol in March 2005 (Return of the Convention – www.nadobra.com/conv) and possibly another Fellowship Festival next August. The question is, does it work?
The Fellowship Festival was both a success and a failure. Originally planned for a room that could hold up to 8000 it was scaled down before the event and even then didn’t come near to filling the capacity of the hall used, with a guestimate of 600-900 people there on it’s busiest day. This doesn’t mean they failed, it just means they over-estimated their audience… 700 people is still a lot of people for this kind of event. However there was a slight element of not having fully pulled away from the marketplace event mould with seperate (and very high) charging for autographs rather than inclusion within the ticket price, and the autograph sessions being run in the noisy dealers/exhibitors room.
But there was a lot they got right, bringing in the sort of elements that make conventions fun. Competitions, workshops etc. Some highlights would be…
The spoof radio play written by Mark Ferguson (Gil-Galad) and performed by him, Craig Parker (Haldir), Sarah McLeod (Rosie Cotton), Cameron Hodges (Farmer Maggot) and sound effects by Bruce Hopkins (Gamling). A followup to RotK where Frodo gets bored of the Grey Havens and comes back to Middle-Earth to get back together with Sam (amid much suggestive implications), Legolas (hilariously played by Craig) and others to defeat the evil resurrected Haldir.
A display recreating various fight scenes from the movies done by Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz/Witchking/Gothmog) and Jed Brophy (Snagu/Sharka/Ringwraith) with audience participation. Jed is a bundle of prat-falling energy and Lawrence has an easy drier humour, the end result was hilarious and included a recreation of the extended DVD version of the death of the Witch King with an 8 year old boy in Gimli costume and a girl dressed as Legolas assisting.
Sandro Kopp (Gildor) talked through a CD full of sketches he had done while on set, some of which can be seen on his website at www.sandrokopp.com. He is an accomplished artist exhibited worldwide and gave a nice view of what it was like to be in the background of the set. For instance 1/20th of the Army of the Dead are played by Sandro in a variety of different costumes.
The Tolkein Society provided a lot of extra content with hobbit dancing (assisted by Cameron Rhodes and Sarah McLeod) and talks on the languages of middle earth and costume making workshops.
Bruce Hopkins performed an impromptu scene from Macbeth under the direction of Cameron Rhodes with a lady from the audience rading for MacBeth and several other audience members playing trees.
John Noble (Denethor) did a particularly touching reading of the winning poetry entry at the closing ceremony.
The cast members present were mostly very relaxed and seemed to have a good time, even those that didn’t do so well on the autograph front. They were often seen looking around the exhibition area or sitting in the main hall watching other talks and from what I hear all had a very enjoyable time, especially in the evenings.
This kind of event can work and I think it’s a welcome break from cross genre marketplace events, but I hope future organisers look at this event and take note of where it did go wrong. Bigger isn’t always better and there are limits to the amount of money fans will pay out. Get the mix right and hopefully events like this will continue in the UK for many years to come.
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gilgalad70
I visited the Fellowship Festival late on Sunday afternoon, after completing my morning’s work and motoring like a fell beast on Pelennor Fields chased by the White One to London.
Once I found the Alexandra Palace, somewhere I’d heard of, and seen from the train, but not gone to by car before, it took a while to find the main entrance (there are two entrances, one to an Ice rink, the other to the Great Court, which led to where the Festival was. We had been greatly encouraged to pre-book our tickets, and were told the ONLY place to buy your tickets for autograph sessions was online. These autograph tickets entitled you to bask in 2 minutes of Star Power, and chat with The Star, and get up to 3 items of your own inscribed as well as ‘one of his/hers’. A maximum of 300 tickets per person per day was to be sold.
At the ‘Box Office’ they had no clue who was still signing, it was 4pm-ish, and nothing big was listed until the Festival Feast took place a mere 3 hours later. The signing stations in the room were deserted. Bruce Hopkins at one end of the line, and Craig Parker at the other were battling with no queues between them. In the centre of the room were a group of folks, some in full dress (Rosy Gamgee, and a few uber-fans) doing a dressed up form of country dancing to a worn out tape, a large block where you could play the LOTR-related EA Games if you so desired, and around the perimeter was a collection of various stalls that helped remind me of school jumble sales and Speech Days. Apart from John Howe and Alan Lee, signing for free, discounted copies of their assorted books (including advanced copies of Alan’s excellent revamped The Hobbit (I got 2), we had a pewter seller, a poster seller, a stall promoting New Zealand as a holiday destination, and a mini lecture theatre in the corner where lectures were being given on the intricacies of Elven weapon adornment.
In the middle of the room, next to the folk dancing, was Cards Inc, UK distributor of the Topps cards, and makers of their own lines of trading cards and memorabilia. Talking to some of the guys in the room, the show had so far been a bit of a disappointment. Stars had ‘disappeared’ when they were advertised to be still signing, and look bored when the flow quickly dried up. The Festival’s PR exclaimed the Biggest companies in the World would be fighting to display their latest wares. OK EA Games are quite big, but Sideshow were notable in their absence. Besides Topps, or New Line itself, is there a bigger LOTR related Big Company out there?
Across the hallway, I was able to catch the end of Karl Urban’s Q&A. He was able to disappoint many (cancelling his Collectormania appearance) and delight (suggesting his fave film was the Caine version of Get Carter , and dissing Stallone’s version (Ok so fish, barrel and shooting comes to mind but…)) someone pointed out it wasn’t him at the end of Two Towers riding beside Bernard Hill. Apparently he had to be away (attending his son’s birth) that day. He wasn’t happy about it. He felt that PJ should have digitally replaced his face on the face of the stand-in. Imagine that, digitally altering reality, in Lord of the Rings! This was followed by the School Nativity Play on Acid AKA Craig Parker and Ferguson’s ‘Radio Play’. For a family show, it was very much off limits. From what I saw and heard, it made Howard Stern look like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and the worst sketch on Whose Line is it Anyway, look like Frasier. I think one comment I heard was, Tolkien, and PJ if he was dead, would be rolling in their graves like spinning tops..
With all the ‘blowing our own trumpet’ you could read on the website and in the mags, what you got for your 20 GBP (or more if you upgraded) really was a waste of money. Ok nice big venue, thousands of seats in the auditorium, and only just 650 tickets sold ALL Sunday.. unless you were stupid enough to buy tickets just for the feast..
If anyone thought Collectormania was bad, they had to be at Alexandra Palace this weekend. I mean, they didn’t even have blokes selling ‘ltd. ed’ film cells!
Andrew sends along this announcement: New York University’s The Gallatin Film Series, The Tisch School of the Arts & Andrew Vannata present The Lord of the Rings:
FOTR: September 24, 2004 6:00 pm
TTT: October 1, 2004 6:00 pm
ROTK: October 8, 2004 6:00 pm
Cantor Film Center
36 East 8th Street
at University Place
Open to All
Free Admission
Seating First Come Basis