Hi everyone! I can't think of a more great way to kick off "my soap opera events adventure" than meeting Megan Ward (Kate Howard - "General Hospital") in NYC! Folks, let me tell you, she is totally different from Kate Howard. Even her voice tone is different! Kate Howard is so serious all the time and snobby, but Megan is fun and a great person to talk with, and I am glad I had this opportunity. It was so worth me going out in the snow (well there wasn't a lot of snow)! My friend was supposed to go with me, but he got sick the night before and texted me saying he wouldn't be able to make it because he had a fever, so I went solo.
I gotta tell you, one of the great things about the snow was that there wasn't anyone in the subway. I kid you not! There wasn't even an attendant. I was there by myself waiting for the train until two people showed up....LOL! This one is for the books, at least for me, I have never EVER been in a subway where there was hardly anyone around. It was great (if this was at night, though, I would have been a little scared)! Also, the train ride to get downtown wasn't that long either.
I was wondering if I was able to see the place when I got off the train. I knew it was going to be on my left side, so I stayed on the left side of the street. After walking a few minutes, I noticed a small gathering of people. A-ha! I found the place. I got there around 10:00 and even though everyone was told to line up after 10:30, there was, as I mentioned, already a small gathering. I wanted to get there early only because I never been to this place before. Of course, more people showed up later after me. A good thing I got there early....LOL!
Unlike Debby's events, there were no tables at this event. We were all seated in rows on a first come, first served basis (no assigned seats). I secured my place in the third row center so I could have a good view of Megan (and to be able to take decent pics). There were, actually, a few chairs empty next to me and in front of me so I was able to get some shots in. Also, we all got free raffle tickets as well.
The Q&A lasted about an hour and 45 minutes - the longest Q&A I have ever been to. The ones I have gone to usually lasted about an hour. Anyway, there were questions about Kate and Sonny. Just about everyone in the room were SKATE fans and no one liked Carly, Claudia, or Olivia. In fact, one asked what was the purpose of Olivia and when is she leaving? Megan didn't even know the answer as to what the purpose of Olivia being in Port Charles is except for one answer - DANTE....LOL! Another person said that Kate was prettier than Claudia....LOL! Someone asked if Sonny and Kate were ever going to get back together and Megan basically said not anytime soon. Someone else asked her about her remodeling and she went to explain about how the wrong tiles were sent to her bathroom, so they had to take everything out and now have to redo the whole thing (ouch). There was another question about how she likes working with Maurice Bernard and she said that she doesn't get many scenes with him as she used to. A question was asked about what the difference between doing Daytime TV and doing movies and she said that when you're doing movies, you have only one story to memorize as opposed to Daytime where you would have about five or six.
And you want to talk about Kate Howard/Megan Ward fans? I saw at least three people with the "Kate Howard" haircut and there were a section of people who said they do not watch if Megan's not on. Now that's dedication (although a bit crazy - not to watch if a certain character is not on, but that's just my opinion. How will you know if the character returns onscreen if you don't watch?).
The person running this event, Kristi (who is very nice by the way), decided to try to stump Megan with some questions about Port Charles. I can't remember all of the questions that she was reading from, but some included "What was the address of Port Charles?" to "What was the name of Connie's bakery in Bensenhurst?" to "What was the name of the painting Sonny gave to Kate?" (in which Megan responded - "ugly"....LOL!) to "What was going to be the original name of Crimson?" I think there were about ten questions and she only got one or two right....LOL! The Crimson one, for example, she got right and said it was going to be called Scarlet.
Then it was time for the raffle. The things that were being given away was a signed scripted called "The Wedding", a couple of hospital bands that Kate wore, which Megan signed, two photos of her and Maurice Bernard (in which she said, "it will be half signed. Anyone who wins these, we will get your name and address, and have Maurice sign it to you" [that was nice]), and a dress that Kate and Carly both wore to some gathering (I can't remember what scene it was now....LOL!). Someone asked what size the dress was and she was told it was a size two, and then the person joked about loosing weight and everyone laughed (and no, I did not win anything....LMAO!).
When it was time for the autographs, Kristi had everyone go up one row at a time starting with the back row first. Each one of us got a free 8X10 signed pic in addition to whatever we brought for Megan to sign. When it came for my turn to talk with her, she was like "hi, how are you?" and I was like, "I'm fine, how are you?" I had my "General Hospital" book which I put down on the table so Kristi could take our picture, and Megan was like "oh you have something there"....LOL! (I guess some people didn't have anything? LOL!) She asked me if I was from the East Coast; and I said, "yes, I'm from Jersey". She asked me how long it took me to get here and I told her that it took me about an hour, and she was like "oh that's not bad", but then I went to say that it took about another half hour on the subway....LOL! She was like "why not stick around and enjoy the nightlife as well?" I was like "Yeah, why not?" LOL! She was very impressed with the GH book, though, she was like "wow, I see so many people walking around with this book! Did you just get this?" I told her, "I've had this for awhile, but you're the first to sign it"....LOL! She asked me where she should sign since, as she said, "I'm not in the book"....LOL! I told her she could sign on the very first page. I didn't really care....hee hee!
She went to sign a picture of herself and she asked me my name. When I told her, she gave me this "you've got to be kidding me" look and I started laughing. Megan asked me "how do you spell that?" and Kristi was like "I can spell it for you", so she went to do so (actually we both did) and Megan goes to Kristi, "how do you know?". It was so funny. I also asked Megan if she had been acting long. She said that she had been acting ever since she was a little girl, so I asked her "so you always wanted to do this then?" and she was like "yes" and then went on to say how much she really loves it and that she had never done Daytime before GH, so it was something new and something different, and she loves it. I told her that she was doing a great job and she was like "thank you, tell them to give Kate more airtime" and I said that I would ("them" meaning TPTB). She said, "it was nice meeting you" and I said, "nice meeting you too". :)
Ahhh, and as I left and went outside. It was still cold, but it looked like it never even snowed. All of the snow had magically melted somehow - not that I was complaining....LOL!
So once again another lovely and wonderful experience! And this is just the beginning! I can't wait until the next event! Thank you Kristi for bringing Megan to the East Coast and thank you Megan for doing an awesome job on GH!
