happySunday afternoon of Loncon 3 had an amazing hole open up in my schedule after the conclusion of WSFS Business (Business Meeting, Worldcon Chairs, MPC Meeting) that coincided with the performance of Girl Genius Radio Theatre in the "Second Stage" (a large theatre-style stage area, smaller than the main auditorium, but still big). The previous day, Phil had told me when I asked that I could turn up, and when I did so, he assigned me the title-character role in Deathwish DuPree and the The Return of Deathwish DuPree.
DuPree, the brother of the character in the canonical series, was to be portrayed as an Errol Flynn-style swashbuckling pirate. I attempted to buckle my swashes, but also to do things like drop out of the character's accent into what appeared to be asides in the script. (Phil later said that was good.) The audience seemed to laugh when I did so, as well, so I think it must have worked.
I had a fabulous time, and was utterly delighted to be able to have this much fun after the amount of work I'd done the previous three days of the convention. I'm so grateful to Phil and Kaja for letting me come be silly on stage with them again like this.
I didn't get any pictures of us on stage, but I did take some other photos earlier in the afternoon.
Here's the Fan Village around whitch much of which Loncon 3 revolved on Sunday afternoon during a somewhat slack time. The fan tables and Real Ale pub were here, along with sundry things like ConOps and small performance/reading spaces. At night, the pavilions hosted parties. The place was very busy most of the time, but never to my feeling ever got so over-crowded as a stuffed room party often feels. And thanks to the open layout, you could often find someone for which you were looking even though there might well be on the order of a thousand people milling about.
Here's an interesting group of costumes attracting a crowd on the main concourse, anchored at left by Tiki Dalek.
And here are some more. Loncon wasn't as packed with costumed folks as some conventions are, but there were people providing color. Including me: I was in my "Colonel Chinstrap" costume, but with the Aussie hat instead of the impossible-to-fit-in-my-luggage pith helmet. It was how I was dressed for my Girl Genius Radio Theatre performance.
Soon enough fun and games were over. I'd had a late lunch and then an early dinner, both at the Indian restaurant on the main concourse. I coordinated plans with Cheryl Morgan for our Hugo Award coverage later that day and returned to the hotel for a short rest before things got busy again. But I had a bounce in my step from having been able to actually enjoy myself for a while rather than concentrate only on official business.
