These were taken Friday, October 23rd, 2009. And I have to explain a little about one of those photos down there. If you look at the photo captioned, “Cereal Stars,” you will see four distinguished gentlemen posing with…cereal boxes.

Derek Tague not only has an odd sense of humor but makes connections where most of us wouldn’t. As an auction object, he gathered together mini-boxes of cereal having a direct connection to some of our guests; Chuck McCann, who is the original “Cuckoo for CocoaPuffs,” Simon Jones, best-known as “Arthur Dent” but who also performed the cranky unfrosted side of a talking MiniWheat, Arthur Anderson, known by all as the original Lucky Charms Leprechaun, and Russell Horton, the Trix Rabbit. So these folks not only autographed their respective cereal boxes, they also lined up with their boxes for a photo-op. Seriously, you gotta love the indulgence of these stars.

Newcomers to the convention are always awed by the recreations; I should note I tend to use recreation and performance specifically, where some others use recreation for all of the shows. I think a “re-creation” is a show that specifically contains cast members of the original program, where a “performance” is a show performed by others. I know it’s splitting semantic hairs, but I find it a little uncomfortable referencing a performance by modern fans a recreation.

All that said, the performances are never perfect; it really isn’t an insult to honestly say some performances are better than others, or more even, or more interesting. Some of it comes to personal tastes, some to casting choices, and yes, some to the director’s skill and decisions. Those of us who have been around-the-block tend to have more critical opinions, where new folks are so amazed at simply seeing the performance they can’t notice what we oldsters notice as serious problems.

This is a long-winded way of explaining why, unless you catch me at the bar the evening after the shows chewing the fat with others who have been at many many conventions, you won’t hear me critiquing the performances. I want the new folks to be spellbound by the performances, without having some old guy grumbling about a less-than-perfect casting choice or less-than-stellar direction.

	The Life of Riley Rehearsal Gary Yoggy and Barbara Watkins rehearse the Dave Warren Players' performance of The Life of Riley.
	Jay Hickerson The hardest-working man at the convention, the guy who throws one helluva party, keeping everything on schedule during the evening festivities.
	Cereal Stars Chuck McCann (Cuckoo for CocoaPuffs), Simon Jones (cranky unfrosted side of MiniWheat), Arthur Anderson (Lucky Charms Leprechan) and Russell Horton (Trix Rabbit)
	The Fall of the House of Usher Performance The cast of the Escape episode, The Fall of the House of Usher.
	Dragnet Sketch Performance Chuck McCann, Larry Conroy, Michael C. Gwynne, and Richard Herd
	The Great Gildersleeve Performance Chuck McCann, Shirley Mitchell, and Corinne Orr at the microphones.