Nanites: Fans of Nana

In 1993, ENVY, the first fan-club dedicated to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actress Nana Visitor, was organized - Blanche has been there from the beginning; I (Bob) joined in 1995 with encouragement from Blanche, Mike Topf, Maureen McGowan and a few other club-members I was able to contact online through one of CompuServe's Star Trek forums.   To place a further time-perspective on this, the terrorist-bombing in Oklahoma City had occurred by the time I received my first issue of the club's newsletter Invidius - the outcry expressed by the membership in that issue sold me then & there that this was not your ordinary bunch of so-called "Trekkies"...   ENVYers cared deeply about the world around them, were quite vocal in their opinions and I knew that this was a club that I really would enjoy to be a member of.   A certain "attraction", if you will, to Ms. Visitor (Through The Looking Glass first aired around that time, also) certainly didn't hurt, either... *g*

In 1996 ENVY, with the support of the actress, was reorganized & renamed Nanites (this website, and Nana's official website NanaVision came online that year). Since then, we've always considered ourselves Nanites, and while the Trek connection is obvious, our group was (and still is) particularly appreciative of Nana's work both in and outside of DS9, including her other TV and theatrical work, and we have been grateful to have enjoyed that connection (so to speak) with the actress. Nanites also included a lot of fans with strong varied interests in the arts - theatre, dance, music, illustrative arts, photography & the like - in my personal estimation, probably more so than most Trek fan-clubs.

In September of 1999, Nanites merged with the fan club of Nana's then-husband and DS9 co-star Alexander Siddig. The newly unified fan-club was re-christened Far Beyond The Stars (FBTS). The club also honored fellow DS9 alumni René Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Andrew Robinson, Max Grodenchik, Chase Masterson & a few others.

Recent (and Not-So-Recent) Nanite Activities

There were these fan-gatherings called Visitations where Nanites got together, traded videos, swapped stories, just flat-out had a great time!   Long-time Nanites Mirrani and Donna hosted these Visitations. More info can be found at their web site - the way Mirrani tells it, the first Visitation occurred somewhat on a lark: Marcus, a Nanite from Germany, was planning a holiday in the US and wanted to meet fellow Nanites, so Mirrani arranged a gathering at her house in Chapel Hill, NC in September of 1999 (that would also include Donna and two additional Nanites club-members).

Around that time, it was announced that Nana (fresh off her 7-year stint on DS9) was returning to "the boards" in the national tour of the hit Broadway musical CHICAGO as Roxie Hart (costarring Vicki Lewis and Robert Urich). She would join the "Roxie" tour-cast in Detroit, Washington DC and Las Vegas, from November 1999 through January 2000. Without a doubt, Nanites were planning trips to see Nana in her first musical stage-performances since 42nd Street in L.A. (1984). I attended one of these performances w/Mirrani & two of her friends - December 28, 1999 at Washington DC's National Theatre.

• Bob's Review of Nana in CHICAGO, Washington DC (as published in FBTS's newsletter, January 2000).
• Advertisement of Nana and Vicki Lewis in CHICAGO, Washington DC (courtesy Washington Post).
• Bob's Photo Gallery of Washington DC (from his VigFoto site).

• Visitation 2000 in Chapel Hill, NC.
• Visitation 2001 in New York, NY - when Nana starred on Broadway in CHICAGO!

  Also read Visitation 2001 - A New York Odyssey.

• Nana in Fort Lauderdale - Vulkon convention, January 2002.
• Nana in New York - Creation convention, March 2002.

  Also read News Flash: Nanites Return to New York!

• Visitation 2002 - Nana at the Slanted Fedora convention in Durham, NC, October 2002.
• Nanites in Albuquerque, NM - March 2006. Visitation 2006??