Lakewood Lions Renaissance Faire

The weather was beautiful, the setting is lovely, the jousters (nonchoreographed) were good and the SCA supported in a HUGE way; all in all it was a good Faire.

Attendance was really good though, for some merchants, the purse strings were a little tighter than hoped for - but with the economy, especially locally, what it is that was to be expected.

All in all a good Faire and I highly recommend it.

Now I have a question. Since there are very few Renaissance Faires in the Philadelphia area (West Windsor Lions, Wheaton Village, Lakewood Lions and Wrightstown (PA), why do Lakewood and Wrightstwon have to fall on the same date? Lakewood is in its 17th year, Wrightstown in something like its 6th; both are SCA demos (and Lakewood was a Royal Progress). What does it take to get the one person behind the Wrightstown event to agree to drop his event back a week (or bring it forward a week)?

This is a great area, lots of people, usually good weather (barring a hurricane), lots of SCA and other potential supporter groups and still we have two events just a tiny bit over an hour apart.

It makes it hard on the SCA, on the merchants, and especially hard of the really enthusiastic Rennies who pretty much have to choose between these two events when, through cooperation, both of these Faires could draw more people through the gates, more merchants, more acts, more everything?

Bunni

Newbies in the World of Mud

Written by Isabelle

“Ahhhhhhhh!” We scampered for our lives, holding our skirts up and jumping over the benches as mud splattered everywhere. Just moments before I had leaned over and asked her why we were the only ones sitting in the first few rows. I now knew the reason.

     First timers at The Sterling Renaissance Festival, Lili, my best friend, and myself were completely unprepared for The Mud Beggars’ Show. We had arrived at the mud pit almost ten minutes before the show was supposed to start. The rickety wood plank stage was crude and mud encrusted, scraps of material and primitive yet versatile props hung on nails in the stockade-style fence that served as a backdrop to the stage. Directly in front of the little stage was a large pit filled with soup-like mud. Rows of wooden benches set in gravel on a very gradual slope under an artistically ramshackle roof structure faced the stage and pit.

     Culturally conditioned that seats closer to the show are better, Lili and I took seats in the third row as we mused over our morning spent watching Don Juan and Miguel, a Pirate Show and just perusing the faire like the newbies we were. The spectators that arrived after us filled in the benches behind us, not a single one in front of us but we were too absorbed in our discussion to really notice. The show began without us realizing that we sat alone in the third row, an island of 21^st century hygiene far too close to a mud pit.

     As the two men portrayed the classic tale of Hercules, they gradually got muddier and muddier. Every once and a while the audience would be called upon for some sort of vocal interaction as the men hopped around and fought, spewing mud everywhere in the process. It was so intriguing to watch the minimalism and coarseness of the performance that was nonetheless artistic and accurate, not to mention fully amusing. The audience got into its Medieval character, egging them on and cheering when one was pushed into the mud pit, especially when it involved falling in face first. Like everything else at the fair, it was very authentic.

     As laughter erupted again, I looked from side to side and saw no one; I sneaked a look back to see the crowd sitting two rows behind us. I had just leaned over to ask Lili her if she’d noticed, when the Mud Beggars started to chase each other around the pit, up onto the makeshift stage, then, to our dismay, into the audience and straight toward us.

     “Ahhhhhhhh!” We scampered for our lives, holding our skirts up and jumping over the benches as mud splattered everywhere. We left everything that wasn’t attached to us; Lili abandoned her purse and I dropped the map we were only worried about escaping the mud monsters, complete with dripping sludge, coming straight at us.

     Lucky to escape mostly unscathed, with just a few small flecks of mud on our persons, we watched the remainder of the show from the far side of the seating and well outside the range of mud splattering. Our senses returned as the crowd dispersed and Lili remembered that she left her purse behind, her purse with her cell phone, ID, money and souvenirs all inside. Carefully we picked our way across the gravel and in between the mud splattered rows to where we had been sitting. While we may have fled in time and suffered only minimal mud marks, Lili’s purse and the map were not so lucky.

     Lili’s purse has never been the same and neither has my white blouse which even the small mud flecks sufficiently stained, the map didn’t survive at all. Our chaperon has yet to let us live down our shrieks and facial expressions as we raced away from the Mud Beggars. Now whenever I see mud in my day-to-day life, I can’t help but remember that fiasco, and smile.

     This was just the first of many times I would return to The Sterling Renaissance Festival, although I no longer sit in the third row at the Mud Beggars’ Show, but I don’t warn the people that do either, I’ve come to think of it as a rite of passage in the world of Renaissance Faires and, of course, great source of amusement for us old hands.

Swooping vs Helping

It’s an interesting observation how much animosity can arise in such a short time between individuals and organizations that worked together for years previously. A current example of this happy family breakdown is going on in Washington state, where a few months ago the Washington Renaissance Faire had it’s plug pulled only a few weeks ahead of it’s opening of a three weekend run at a new venue.

The why and details of the cancellation aren’t particularly relevant to the situation, since they were permit and civic politics related. Anyway, even while Ron Clevland raced to see if the 2008 event could be salvaged, another organization scrambled to scavenge the patient while it was still on the operating table. The Avery Renaissance Festival was born out of a few groups and individuals who sensed an opportunity to jump at the opportunity not to help or continue the original Faire which had built up the reputation in the region for the prior six or so years, but rather to start up something new to try to bleed off the existing client base in a relatively limited region.

What this really brings up is what’s good competition (not unlike two vendors selling the same or similar wares at a single event), and where does the line get crossed into poor taste.

In the example of Uncle Aziz, a West Coast vendor up until a season ago, who had been selling a particular line of peanut bows on consignment by the maker. He decided to copy the pattern in full and create knock-offs (though with a different color stain on the wood, which he insisted made them his own variant). That would seem to cross that line into bad taste.

It would have been the same if Washington Renaissance Faire would have died of it’s own accord (lack of management, revenue, patrons, whatever). But this was an example of a not unhealthy faire (ok, so no one particularly buys the 20k patrons per weekend number counts, but the attendance was by no means shabby) and having their thunder scooped.

Recently in California the Truckee Renaissance Faire announced that it was going to have to cancel it’s 2008 event due to a number of issues, and several production groups were on the phone with them inquiring how they might be able to lend resources to continue that event so it wouldn’t have to close it’s doors. That producer still opted to close their doors, but made it clear that they hoped to continue in 2009 and reopen. That said, there’s no producers around who would think to jump in there and pick it up until the original owner said they were done with it.

Granted there’s always the page from the playbook which says that if you can set up shop and offer a better product to a customer, then by all means do so, and let the others fall by the wayside. But in such a case, you can’t then also espouse the family/community support tenants. It’s capitalism, or it’s community, but not both. If you’re going to play by the sword, then you also open the door to not having any ground to stand on when someone else comes along to cut your legs out from under you by whichever means they might find most appropriate.

The Original: The Washington Renaissance Faire

The New Kid: The Avery Renaissance Festival

Another loss in the Iain Abrach MacIain Family…..

Forwarded from Tim Jesus:

It saddens my heart greatly to report that our patriarch, Ken Wiepert passed away this evening (1/27/08) around 11pm. His passing brings him and his wife Joan back together. As soon as Services are arranged, I will let everyone know the specifics.

As Ken stated in his goodbye to Joan at her memorial, “We apparently touched a lot of people.” So please pass the word to those that my not have access to this posting.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions?

Thank you,

Tim Jesus
(925) 360-2579
Guildmaster Clan Iain Abrach MacIain

Lady Margaret’s Answers, Tidbits, and General Wizdom - Dealing with drama

Question: 

So, I’m laying in my tent in actors camp, awake.  I hear a few fellow guild members dissing me.  How do I respond?

Answer:

You get peeved!  Obviously!  If you truly didn’t care what they were saying you wouldn’t have written in to ask me how best to handle the situation.  But I urge you to take a few deep breaths and to not react from an emotional base.

Sometimes, hearing criticism is the hardest part of being a performer and being a human being.  The reality is that regardless of our ego and our own opinions of ourselves and our performance, there can always be a higher standard to hold ourselves.  It is your job to determine if these comments are constructive criticism or are they based on a personality conflict?When you hear negative comments, the first step is to address the critic directly.  Perhaps there was a misunderstanding? Or, are you hearing someone’s thoughts by third-party messenger?  Go to the source.  One of my pet-peeves is when I hear “People have said…” or “I heard that…”  As I’ve grown older and wiser, I tend to not put a lot of value on commentary that is not spoken directly to me.  I truly feel that if someone has something of import that they wish to pass along, something that will make my performance or my life better, or my fair experience more fun; they will speak to me in person, not behind my back.  It takes courage to speak your heart to someone, and true partners, friends, and co-workers will speak to you openly and honestly.If there is a personality conflict in action, it may mean that you agree to be civil to one another, sometimes you have to put your personal feelings on hold…you don’t have to like someone, but you are expected to be polite.  If you enter into a confrontation or communication with someone and you are covering a sensitive or difficult issue, try following these specific guidelines:

1.      Describe the situation or behavior (limit yourself to observable data not judgment)

2.      Express your thoughts or feelings from the “I” position.  ·         “I felt hurt…I felt angry…”

3.      Specify a change (never bring up a problem if you don’t have a solution!)·         “This is what would work for me (describe details)…is this acceptable to you?”

4.      Describe the consequences …always positive first·         “If you can do this/that/or the other, I will feel/do/provide…”

Drama is emotion feeding upon itself.  If you do your best and are still having trouble, speak with your Guild Master, Manager, Director or whomever is your “boss.”  Usually having an intermediary will help in those harshest circumstances. 

As we age and mature, we can choose to make unpleasant circumstances more pleasant or we can unfortunately choose to create more drama…Truly, we all have enough drama in the “real world” don’t we?

(If you have questions for Lady Margaret, or responses to this column please post a comment here.)

A word to the wise

How fun is this?

So the halls are still a bit quiet, but the ball is starting to gain speed as it rolls downhill. We now have a number of new writers signing up, so the winter magazine will be full of great stuff. It’ll now fall to those of us who are coming in to start the editiorial guts for the Burlap.

I’ll be posting every few days with commentary on the state of being a regular rennie: more than a newbie, but keeping my head down well below the bustle of the management hullabaloo. A former member of St. Andrews, and later of St. Giles, and then largely independant since school took me away from being able to attend regularly, I still try to keep an ear to the ground and enjoy those times that I make it out to the faires.

My first real post will come after Golden Gate, and then we’ll get down to it.

The story thus far…

So the season is a bit more than halfway over and we’ve already had Visalia, Valhalla, Fair Oaks, SLO, Willits, and Pittsburg - and now we’re into the tail stretch with Golden Gate, Jousting Championships, Shasta, Folsom, and Ione.

 The year hasn’t been a bad one, especially with the completely awful weather we saw in 2006. The first quarter of the season being up to armpits in wet and mud, and then then next half of the year in extreme heat. Which capped by the ‘Stupid Hot’ temperatures of Fair Oaks that season - when the weathermen on TV are telling people that they shouldn’t stay outdoors any longer than is absolutely nessicary, then it’s by all means time to give it a rest rather than climbing into heavy clothes and running around in 114 degree heat.

Every year it’s something new and different, and here we are in the halfway point and trying to mull if we’ll make it all the way through.