Stars on Ice-Canada

After going to the Olympics back in February, I found a new love of ice skating. I always watched figure skating when I was younger and was always fascinated by it, but somewhere along the way, I lost interest and stopped watching. The 2010 Olympics is what jump started my love of it again. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the compulsory dance portion of the ice dancing competition and my friend and I had a blast!

When I found out that the Sears Stars on Ice show was going to be coming to Vancouver, and it had Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (gold medalists in ice dancing) and Joannie Rochette (bronze medal in figure skating), along with a handful of other really talented skaters, including Kurt Browning (who I remember watching when I was in elementary school!), I had to get tickets :-). Mr. V wasn't lucky enough to go to the Olympics with me. He had to work that day so he had passed his ticket along to a friend of mine. I had hoped that he would be able to come to the Stars on Ice show with me, but of course the Navy had other plans. He's in San Diego for an exercise right now, so his ticket again got passed along to my friend. I was a little disappointed that he couldn't go, but to be honest, I really don't think that he cared so it ended up working out perfectly. My friend who came to the Olympics also came with me to Stars on Ice, but she almost didn't. She was supposed to be gone over the weekend too, but her plans changed, so we got wrapped up in Olympics excitement again and headed off to Vancouver!

The day before the show, I found out that the skaters would be at the Sears in Vancouver signing autographs. I had nothing to do that day, so another friend of mine (Mrs. M) and I headed off to Vancouver for Day 1 of ice skating fun.

My mom used to take me to autograph signings when I was younger, and she's the one who always waited outside of Broadway theatre stage doors with me. Plus, working in my high school's television production program gave me the opportunity to meet and work with some pretty famous people - actors and athletes. So based on those past experiences, I can say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the way these skaters acted.

I have honestly never seen people who seemed so genuinely happy to meet and talk with their fans. Obviously, I didn't expect them to be mean, especially at a planned autograph signing. But I truly got the impression that they enjoyed being there, that they wanted to be there and that they actually appreciated their fans. I went there expecting nothing more than an autograph and hopefully a picture, so when it was obvious that they were really there to have fun with their fans it made the whole thing so much nicer. I feel like that kind of appreciation is really rare in most cases, especially by athletes who can be successful without even having any fans. I mean you may not be famous if no one comes to see your movies, but you can still win a gold medal even if the world hates you, you know?

I'm glad that I went to the autograph signing because I already really liked most of these people (I have to be honest and admit that I didn't know who they all were at first), but I like them even more and have so much more respect for them, now that I've had the chance to meet them and see how they interact with the people who support them. To me, it made the show the next night even better. I guess I'm just a person who has more respect for people who actually respect others and appreciate their fans.

So the autograph signing was great, and the show the next night was fantastic. I like watching competition skating, but the show was interesting because it wasn't a competition, and it definitely seemed more like entertainment rather than work. It was definitely full of energy and we definitely left the show full of energy. I'm already looking forward to going to the show again next year! (plus the American Stars on Ice is coming to Seattle in 2 weeks, so I'm hoping I can convince Mr. V to go with me to that show. A handful of the American medal winners will be in that show.)

Here are some pictures from the autograph signing. My friend has a great camera, so she has some amazing pictures from the show itself that I don't have at the moment to post here. So for now here are the autograph signing pictures, and when I get copies of the other pictures from my friend I'll post those too.

(with Cynthia Phaneuf and Kurt Browning)

(Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon)

(Shawn Sawyer and Jeffrey Buttle)

(Scott Moir - I love this picture)

(with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - gold medalists in ice dancing)

(with Joannie Rochette - bronze medalist in figure skating, and Adam Rippon)

(another one with Kurt Browning - he hung around for a while after the others left)

Catawba on Broadway

Shortly after learning that I would be moving to Washington, I got a message from an old college classmate of mine. It turns out that she lives in Anacortes, which is just north of where I live in Oak Harbor. In fact, its so close that Navy people stationed here live in both towns. I was quite excited about this information because 1. It was totally random - a girl from Virginia who went to college in North Carolina, somehow ended up in the random town of Anacortes, Washington with no connection to the Navy. 2. I didn't know a single person up here and I was not happy about moving here so knowing that an old college friend was here made me feel a little better about the move. After arriving here I saw her within the first 2 weeks that I was here. We went to dinner at a great restaurant in Anacortes (I would post the name but I can't remember it offhand) and then watched Michael Phelps take another gold medal in the Olympics. We've kept in touch but both of our schedules have been busy so we hadn't seen each other again until last night.

To make things even more random, we found out that another college friend of ours was performing in the Broadway touring production of Hairspray , which was going to be coming to Vancouver, British Columbia. Catawba may have been a small college, but we had an amazing, large, successful Theatre program which has sent several graduates onto Broadway, TV and movies over the years. Anthony Johnson, a 2005 Catawba graduate was playing the role of IQ in Hairspray. My friend in Anacortes asked me to go see the show with her, so last night we were on the road to Vancouver, British Columbia to support and cheer for a fellow alumni :-).

I am someone who has been a huge Broadway fan for many, many years. I grew up very close to New York City and my mom has taken me to see over 25 shows over the years. I was always a person you could find standing outside of the stage door, collecting autographs and pictures of the cast. I always read the cast bios inside of the Playbill because I like to see where everyone has come from and how they ended up on Broadway in the first place. Imagine our excitment when my friend and I read Anthony's biography and saw that he wrote that he was a graduate of Catawba College. The school is so small, so I imagine that anyone reading that will either glance over it without a second thought, or they will wonder "where in the world is Catawba College?" However, for my friend and I, it was exciting to both of us to see our alma mater mentioned in a Broadway playbill.

Its hard to describe the excitement of seeing someone that I actually know, performing on a stage that to me always seemed so intangible. Granted, the stage was in Vancouver, not New York City, but a Broadway touring cast is still Broadway, even if its been taken out of NYC. My friend and I were both so excited and proud of Anthony. All night she kept saying "I am sooo proud of him" with a huge smile on her face. I shared that excitement with her. When the show was over, we went to the stage door to say "hi" to Anthony. It was the first time that I ever stood at that door, knowing that I was friends with the person who was about to walk out the door. While we waited for him to come out, we watched a crowd of people gathering autographs and it made my friend and I both giddy and excited that we weren't just fans. We were actually friends. It was an odd feeling to be somewhat starstruck with a person that we knew, but we were. When he came out, we were greeted with huge hugs and a kiss on the cheek and a grateful "thank you so much for coming!" He told us that it was exciting to be on the stage knowing that friends of his were out in the audience watching him. He also told us that we were his first friends to see him in this particular production. Between our excitement, giddyness, and being stupidly starstruck, we were equally happy to know that we were the first to see him in this role, and that he seemed genuinely happy to see us there.

Unfortunately, we didn't get much time with him, since we had to get back on the road to Washington, and he had to head off with the rest of the cast. The show is moving onto several other places in Canada, and many cities across the United States. I strongly urge anyone who has even a slight interest in musical theatre to go out and support Anthony, and say hi to him at the end of the show at the stage door. His role in the show may be small, but he is a talented, down to earth young man who I truly believe will go far in his acting career. When he's big and famous one day, I will be able to say "I went to college with him. I knew him back then."

So to close, I just wanted to say to Anthony, "Congratulations! You were amazing!" once again. I'm sad to say that today is the last day of the show in Vancouver, because I would have loved to have seen it again. Meanwhile, please check out the tour website and Anthony's YouTube page and please show your support and encouragement to this talented person!
Anthony Johnson - You Tube
Hairspray on Tour