I want a full report Beawild!!
It was a lovely evening. The Barnes & Noble that she appeared at is by Union Square in NYC. Union Square is a smallish park on 14th St - 17th St. in Manhattan. The weather was gorgeous and the area was teeming with people.
I bought the book and was sent to the top floor. I found a seat a bit behind the reserved seating. I think that maybe around 100 people were in attendance. I was seated next to an older woman who wanted her OITNB cook book signed, although anything other than Kate's book we were told that she wouldn't sign. I told the lady to ask her anyway and she did. Kate was gracious enough to sign it for her. To my left there was a young woman who was a stage manager by profession.
Kate appeared on time and there was a short talk about her book. The interviewer was the well known writer, Augusten Burroughs (Running with Scissors). Apparently they are friends. Kate read a few lines from her book and then sat to chat with Burroughs. He asked her about the process of writing and she said that she had loved it. Kate said that she had rented a house by the beach and worked every day on the book. She would start around 9 AM and finish at 5 PM. She did this for some weeks.
Kate basically talked about what has already been reported; about growing up in IA in a large Irish family, the daughter she put up for adoption and becoming an actress. It was sad to hear her tell that a few days after giving birth, she had to deliver a moving speech on Ryan's Hope while holding a doll (her real life pregnancy had been included in the soap). She swore love and protection to the fake baby, all along knowing that she couldn't do the same for her own child. She said that during the monologue she kept telling herself not to lose it and cry. It was the hardest scene she ever had to do in her acting career, it was too close to real life.
Overall, Kate was witty, articulate and funny.
That section of the night lasted about 20 minutes and then the floor was open to questions from the audience. Someone asked her about playing Captain Janeway and she said that it was the most memorable role of her life. She responded to another that she only had rejected twice an acting role and that it was because they had required nudity. Some of the questions were about acting (there were some students from Stella Adler, where Kate trained in her youth).
I had the last question of the night. Mine was about acting too. I told her that she had trained with Adler and I had trained around the corner at Lee Strasberg's and wanted to know if she was planning on holding an acting workshop to talk about the craft. She said that at the moment no.
Kate had mentioned at one point that she was afraid to read the reviews of the book. I prepared before I went and read many reviews. So I told her that she didn't have to worry about reading the reviews because they all had been very positive (which is true). At that point the audience clapped and cheered. Kate laughed and joked that she wanted to talk to me afterward.
We were guided up to the raised dais to get our photo taken and the book signed. She thanked me for my previous comment and I wished her luck in all future endeavors.
BTW, she's prettier in person than on TV. She looks a lot more petite than she does on OITNB. I think that the baggy clothes on the show make her look bigger. I mention it because I have read some comments in the past about her having gained weight. Yes, she's not as thin as she was on Voyager, but she was tiny then. To me, she looked to be at a healthy weight.
In the audience she had some of her friends, and of note, one of her sisters. Her sister is just as pretty and had long blonde hair. The actor that was in attendance and I recognized was Daniel Davis who played "Niles" on The Nanny. Some people went up to him and asked him for a photo.
I left after Kate signed my book. So I don't know how late she stayed. I enjoyed myself and wouldn't mind meeting her again. She's a cool woman.
