The Bristol Renaissance Faire is filled with the most creative costumers and actors. We were struck by the commitment and passion of every participant, both paid and unpaid. The faire hosts over 200,000 patrons, or visitors each season and upwards of 400 performers each day. We learned from our interviews that a majority of the performers volunteer their time each weekend that the Faire is open through the summer. 

I have had no experience with Renaissance faires outside of second hand impressions from friends who have been involved. Coming into the faire, one of my main questions regarded how Ren-faires are perceived from the outside and from the inside. Each of the people we interviewed brought up the issue of Ren-faires being considered low-brow. When asked about this impression, the universal feeling was that while their reputation may not be high-brow, this was from lack of understanding of the skill and creativity of the events themselves.

Adam, a director of a troupe of street performers and an actor himself told us that he feels that the skill required for their improvisation is unique. While there is some scripting, each actor has a character to develop, rules to follow, interaction with the audience and maintaining high level of energy at all times. For instance, the fantasticals are fairy creatures. Each one is not only in full costume but also spray painted make up. These actors are never allowed to be seen out of their character throughout the day and this includes not speaking. They must maintain a fairy-like otherworldliness. Because of this, they are not allowed to order food from the vendors, but instead have to find creative ways of being fed by various patrons.

Alyssa, who we interviewed extensively, recently took the position of costume director. She had to face the issue of having her peers consider her taking a  step down in her career path. The theatre has the highbrow reputation that the faire lacks in reputation. We asked Alyssa how she felt about this and her love of her job and appreciation for this venue of costuming is clear. She feels that the interaction of the actors with the costumes brings a deeper level of creativity. Each of the actors work on their own costume to give them levels of detail that no costume director would have time or money to accomplish. This includes hand-beading, millinery, hand embroidery and stitching. Not only this, but each costume is transformed by the actor themselves. They spend so much time in the costumes that they learn to give them a life of their own by how their wear it such as tucking up parts or swinging the fabric as they walk.  These elements all add up to creative a collection of costumes that Alyssa feels can surpass much of the costume work that she experiences on traditional theaters.

Our impression was astonishment at the beauty and detail of each costume. We had high expectations for what we would see but we were blown away! We had four hours to spend at the faire and we felt that we were only able to touch the surface. We could have spent a least another day in 1574! 

We look forward to interviewing people from theaters and costume design fields as well as theater goers to get their impressions of these events for a counter point or possibly even support of the faire style theater.

While Shelby and I originally expected to only spend one day for the filming of this episode we are both eager to return. We had a wonderful experience with Alyssa and Adam who were so hospitable and open to us. I should also mentioned that the filming would have been a disaster without our crew, Joe who helped with communications and gear management and David who operated the boom with incredible skill as our sound director. Look for their mini-documentary titled “Adventures in helping our wife and girlfriend film at the Ren–Faire.” Good to see them getting into the documentary spirit.

Reprinted with permission from Project Costume