THE GATHERING OF THE FELLOWSHIP TORONTO, CANADA JULY 1-4, 2006



Guests at the convention were: Bruce Hopkins, Craig Parker, Giuseppe Festa and Lingalad, Thoth and Ted Nasmith among many Tolkien Scholars.


From Bruce:

Gidday and welcome.

Well, The Gathering in Toronto has come and gone and once again a LOTR fan convention was full of an eclectic mix of adventures, some wonderful and some slightly challenging.

Bottom line for me is that I love traveling. The major bonus on this gig was that I got to travel with my daughter Francesca, and for that I thank, Ed, Anthony and Jessica, who agreed to my daughter coming with me as part of our deal. I also have a huge thanks to go out to the wonderful Donna, who was pretty much Craig Parker and my hostess with the mostess, while we were holed up in the Sheraton. Donna is like Colonel Sanders and supplies the secret ingredients that spice up the meal. Chuck into the mix, Janet Sella (webmaster of this here site), Rebecca Kirkland, Kathy, Jules and assorted guests over the weekend, and a damn fine time was had.

As we made our way to Toronto, Francesca and I hove to (nautical term, meaning to park your boat!!! ... for those of you not familiar with watery terminology) in LA for 5 nights, which was a real blast. One of the little discoveries I made a couple of years back while staying with my mate Sala Baker, was a company called Studio Rentals. These folk essentially rent out trucks to the film industry. They also have a few cars available, and very kindly give me industry rates, which means when I am in LA I am mobile. If you have spent time in LA you know, there ain’t no joy being in that town without having a set of wheels to haul your arse (and the arses of any others you may be travelling with!) around on.

While in LAtown it was such a blast staying at the home of the wonderful Jim and Teresa Rygiel (they of LOTR Oscar fame, for SFX). It is yet another example of the spirit that pervaded the process of making LOTR, the fact that people like Jim and Teresa and their wonderful kids, offer their home for someone like me to lay my head while in town, years after the event.

Almost as soon as we parked the car at the Rygiel's, a totally unexpected catch up was had as we headed out for a BBQ with Randy Cook (another of the SFX geniuses) and his kiwi partner Domine Till. This was so cool, as I have had the pleasure of working with Domine since the beginnings of my acting career. We actually worked together with Lucy Lawless pre Xena days, on a comedy series called Funny Business. So when these kind of unexpected times together occur it is such a joy. Also at the BBQ was Tami Lane, another superbly talented make up artist and just damn fine human being. I had got to have a couple of great sessions with Tami during the making of LOTR, and so was totally thrilled for her when she won an oscar this year for her work on Lion Witch and The Wardrobe. So there ya go, a couple of hours into arriving in LA and Francesca and I get to hang with some of the finest talent in the business, about 7 oscars between them I think!!!

If asked about her highlights from our time in LA, I imagine Francesca would have a hard time choosing, but definitely near the top of her list would be getting a photo taken with Nicole Ritchie. I tell ya, hanging with Sala Baker is like having a “star” magnet around your neck. When I got to take my son Joe with me to LA he got his photo taken with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the beautiful actor who plays Meadow Soprano in the excellent Sopranos series. So this time, here I am with another of my children, same coffee shop, same Sala Baker and who should walk in but Lionel's baby, Nicole.

Check the photos here on the site.

Our last 2 nights in AngelCity, were spent at the home of Phillip Rosen and his wife Mikie, real cool folks who are regular visitors to the shores of New Zealand. We got to cruise along the wild side that is Venice, which is where Phillip a highly regarded film industry lawyer is based.

Bloody great people, bloody great time.

Then it was onto Toronto, lots of beaming friendly familiar faces and some truely wonderful new visages also. It was such a pleasure to get to meet up with a number of the other guests of the Gathering, Mike Drout, Mike Forster, Arden Smith, Amy Sturgis, Ted Nasmith, Kate Robinson, Marsha Tait and of course Guiseppe and his crew from the world conquering nation of footballers, Italy!!!

I have such respect for these folks. Their knowledge and passion for all things Tolkien, the writing the linguistics etc etc is boggling.

The Gathering offered one of the first opportunities I have had to be at a gig with just Craig Parker and myself. Often there are other performers and in particular Mark Ferguson, who with Craig create a huge amount of entertainment and madness. So I was actually a little nervous, as these guys set such a standard and I did not wish to let that standard drop. Working alongside Craig heightened the respect I have for him and his talent. The auction for the Kevin Smith Trust was genius!!! Craigs selfless sacrifice of his voice during the auction of items from the Xena series, to paint a verbal picture of the inside of a women's prison was in my humble opinion, genius. I doubt if anyone who was present will ever forget that display.

This is going on too long, suffice to say, thanks to all of you for a wonderful time. May there be many more to come. I will try to get as many photos as possible on the site, so check them out. Bloody well done to all of you who not only attended as attendees, but also then turned around and volunteered massive amounts of time and energy to make sure the event happened. I know that I could never take on something like what Anthony, Jessica and Ed launched themselves into, so I admire their efforts, but I also know they will forever be indebted to all of you who made this possible. Special mention must go to Daniel Gauthier, dude you were astounding, thankyou.
Photos by Jmsstyxnyes. Do not use on other web sites or message boards. Use the URL(http://bruce-hopkins.com/photos/gathering06.html) to link here to direct fans to the photos on this site.

Autograph session with Craig and Bruce:

CENTERPIECE PANEL
Photos by Jmsstyxnyes and Kat from the centerpiece panel featuring Craig, Bruce, Giuseppe Festa, Ted Nasmith, Michael Drout, Arden Smith and Colin Duriez.

BRUCE AND CRAIG PANEL
Photos from Jmsstyxnyes and Kat from the Bruce and Craig panel.

KEVIN SMITH TRUST FUND AUCTION
The auction raised around $1500 for the Fund that will benifit Kevin's children.
Craig and Bruce MC the aution for the Kevin Smith Trust Fund. Photo by Jmsstyxnyes. Craig and Bruce display two necklaces that were used for the TV show Xena. Donated by me, Jmsstyxnyes, the lot went for $179 Can. I bought these at the Turners Auction in New Zealand and a note to the buyer, these are authentically from the show, though unidentified. But it is such fun watching Xena to see if you can spot them. :) Photo courtesy of Heather. Another shot of Craig and Bruce modeling the necklaces. Photo courtesy of Heather. Craig and Bruce hold up the gaming figures they painted at the first Gathering. I'm not sure what these sold for, but I do have photos of these being painted at Bruce's Gathering '03 photo gallery.Photo courtesy of Heather.

COSTUME/MASQUERADE CONTEST AND BANQUET
Photos by Jmsstyxnyes.

Photos from Bruce Hopkins:
From Bruce:"Deputy Gregory James and Sheriff Hopkins catching up in LA." From Bruce:"Francesca buzzing at an LA icon, Johnny Rockets on Melrose." From Bruce:"My daughter and Lionel's daugther, hang out in LA!!!" Fran with Nicole Richie. From Bruce:"Sushi doesn't get any better!!! Japangos in Toronto and the chef's name is Bruce as well!!!"
From Bruce:"The wonderful Janet and the wonderful Francesca." From Bruce:"No not the chorus line from the LOTR musical, just some damn fine legs." From Bruce:"A police line up in Toronto!!!" (L-R, Fran, Kat, Becca, Donna, Craig, Jules, Janet, Marsha.) From Bruce:"3 amigos, and a shaker! (those bottles are purely set design, honest)"
From Bruce:"My kingdom for a costume (well my king's kingdom, I don't have one)." From Bruce:"Engrossed, it must be Craig up there!" From Bruce:"A suspicious soft focussed Gathering if ever I saw one." From Bruce:"Oi, whose taking photos here, you or me!!!"
From Bruce:"See, elves only look good from the front!!!" From Bruce:"A damn fine looking Aragorn and and Arwen." From Bruce:"Danial evicting the tenants." From Bruce:"Is it an audition??? Or is he singing for his supper. The wonderful Thoth enthralls.
From Bruce:"The amazing Thoth goes with the flow. A moment of improv at the bar." From Bruce:"Who said men could not multitask, he's writing and playing at the same time!!!" Claudio of Lingalad plays the dulicmer.

Photos of the Italian group Lingalad. Be sure to check out their website at http://www.lingalad.com. Photos by Kat.

Photos from fans:
Marsha of Pro Literacy.org and Bruce at the Pro Literacy table. Photo courtesy of Amberly Dicks. Jmsstyxnyes(Janet) with Bruce at the autograph table. Photo courtesy of Elda. Bruce holds up the Merry and Pippin action figures for a fan. Photo courtesy of Elda.
Craig and Bruce get ready to MC the VIP Eternal Light(?) Awards. Photo courtesy of Heather. Craig and Bruce with the host of Collectors Showdown with the winner of a contest. The show wouldn't let us liaisons go out with the boys, but it was fun watching them sneak up on the unsuspecting fan. Photo courtesy of Heather. Bruce with Penny Stewart during the autograph session. Photo courtesy of Penny Stewart.


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The sites listed below have some wonderful photos of Craig Parker and Bruce Hopkins from this convention.



If you have photos from the con and would like to share them here,You can e-mail me at:jmsstyxnyes@yahoo.com and I will provide proper credit and a link back to your site if have one.



The Gathering Guest's sites: