Well, it's official.  MOPO will remain in hibernation for another summer as Bonny Kate and I return to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This in all likelyhood means we wont be seeing many of you for at least another year, and that makes us sad.  We had hoped very much to be able to make some September faires in 07, but scheduling and work and school was against us.  Again this year we'll have one week between the end of the school semester and our reporting date, and the same window towards the start of the fall semester. 

The only consolation is that we are very, very happy they have asked us to come back, myself as the Production Manager / Technical Director, Bonny Kate as the Charge Scenic Artist.  I'll be designing lights for one show, and Kate will design sets for two.  It looks like we'll be teaming up for "Big River." and we're very excited about it.  I've put up some photos of our current colaboration for KSU's production of "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in The Moon Marigolds," or as I call it, "the play with the really long and hard to remember name."  Anyway, this is Bonny Kate's set design and my light, and I think it's indicitive of our product.  It's just natural that she and I work together, and frankly, theater pays beter than faire.  (WOW!  SOMETHING THEATER PAYS BETTER THAN!)  Or at least it's more steady.

Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know we probably won't see you this summer, but that we're doing well and we think of all of you all of the time, especially MerryDeath because I didn't specificly mention her last time and she got pouty... so here's special luv to the Nutella Godess.

Be good to each other... THUMBS UP!

Well, the show was a big success... we sold out all three performances, the audiences all responded exceptionally well (laughing in all the right places) and the cast had a terrific time with the whole thing.  A very positive experience to be sure.  I'm so happy I was able to be a part of it, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

You'd think that now I'd have all kinds of extra time on my hands.  Not true.  We go straight into tech rehearsals for "Fiddler On The Roof" this weekend, where I'll be running sound for the show.  That actually starts on Thursday night for me, marking the first of a full week of tech/dress rehearsals and then five performances.  Once that's over it's time to design lights for our winter dance concert... and then auditions for the spring semester, and once that's over and I find out what (if any) roles I have landed, I'll be questioned on how many design projects I want to take on in the spring, along with enrolling in another 15 or 17 hours of classes and being pestered into submitting another directing proposal for next fall.

*sigh* -- does it ever end?  And what would I do if it did?

Ta for now!  THUMBS UP!

Really I'm just checking in to let you know that we're not dead yet.  I mean, we're pretty inactive and all... but not dead.

So, we're gonna miss everything this year after all.  No KC, no Riverssance, no Minnesota... not a single faire attended in 2007.  Major bummer.  Ah well... that's what happens when it's really, truly neccissary to put food on the table, keep a shirt on your back and be assured that the heat will stay on through November.  I know... this is becoming a mantra of sorts, but we MISS YOU ALL!

Things at school become increasingly complex.  I'm directing one of the four major productions this year, so almost all of my evenings have been spent trying to teach some semblence of Commedia to college freshmen.  Not an easy task... not easy at all.  They keep thinking that they're "over acting."  I keep telling them that it isn't "over acting," that it's a highly stylized form of presentational theater, and that it might seem goofy and over done, but there is a very purposefull structure behind it.  We don't have time to do a proper commedia, and so I've been buisily teaching lazzi after lazzi after lazzi.  However, I've got some great zannis, a pretty spot-on Dottorie, a fiesty little Harlequin and an Ottavio who is showing great promise.  The star of the show right now is my Brighellia, who brings a whole new meaning to "chewing the scenery."  We have two more weeks before we open, and right now I'm just hoping the giant sausage gets made in time.  (Oh yea... giant sausage... great gag)

Otherwise, it's all logarythms, (common AND natural) sound designs, costume renderings (I never thought I'd get into costume design, but it's way more fun than I thought it would be) sound design and a little public speaking tossed in.  (Can you believe they make me take public speaking?  Like I have no clue how to communicate with an audience... pish!  It's an insult I tells ya!)  And, of course... there's the little script project I'm working on.  A couple buddies of mine who live in NYC are working to help me get a play produced off-off-off (oh fine, off to the fifteenth power) Broadway.  We'll see how that works out... but I am submitting the silly thing to a batch of contests before I submit it for publication.  (Yah, like that will happen.)  So, even without faire, the plate is brimming with things to keep us buisy.  Hope Samhain finds everyone safe and pagany!  Ciao ciao for now!

Well, long time no blog.  Kate and I are now back in Manhattan, and the school year is three weeks old... back to the old grind again.  We had barely five days to unpack all of our belongings from storage and move them into the new apartment... and we've decided we just own too much damn stuff.  We've got boxes coming out of our ears!

Despite repeated attempts by The Big One (aka Porkchop) and Rae, we were unable to attend either weekend of their pirate gathering.  After the effort of moving our stuff in the 105 degree heat and 99% humidity, we were understandibly wiped out, and the school year has already got us both hopping like one-legged men in a kicking contest.

Kate has two shows to design for the mainstage season this semester, and both are fairly large.  I am directing a show in the student space (Scapino! -- a modern take on commedia for anyone interested in such things) which is consuming a lot of my time on top of 14 hours of school (including two upper-level design classes) plus stupid math.  Why o why did I decide on a BS instead of a BA? 

We had a great summer in South Dakota -- it was a long and hard road, but as always you only take out of the experience what you put in.  I'd say we put in a damn awful lot, and therefore we got a lot out of it as well.  All in all an experience I'd consider repeating again - for slightly higher wages.

So, probably wont make ANY faires this year.  That's a bummer.  Kate was just saying the other day that it's been weird this year not seeing any of our faire friends, and of course she's right, but I've been all moony over that subject in past blogs, so I'm not dredging it up again.  We're moving forward, and MOPO will return in some form at some point.  Festivals International is already wanting us to do their new Pirate Fest next October in Omaha, but of course everything is subject to change.  You just don't know what the future holds until it's the present.

Anyhoo... Manhattan is fine.  The Wildcats are 1-1, and more importantly the Huskers are 2-0.

Just got a note from our good friends The Horsemen (look to the right) and it started me thinking about how much I miss not being at faire this summer.  Don't get me wrong... we've been having a really great time out here in the Black Hills of South Dakota... and to be quite honest we're making better money too... but that was never the point of starting a troupe.  We did that because of our love for the rennie community and our desire to surround ourselves with pirates, wenches, knights, fairies and (in my case particularly) lots and lots of cleavage.

It's been difficult to keep tabs on all of our friends as the summer progresses.  Granted, in the Midwest this is the dead time... July and August are just too blasted hot in Nebraska and Iowa (See Riverssance, year one) for faire, but there were those couple of events in May and June that got us all back together and then glorious September where we were all running together every weekend at some little town or another.  We still really want to make it to Des Moines as Playtrons if only for the chance to see those dear, close friends we haven't seen for nine months.

To wit:  A shout out to those dear and close to our hearts.  The Horsemen, of course.  Mel and Mandy (The Wenches of Canterbury), Porkchop and Lady Rae, William and Blackjack, Rowen, Dead Rennie Photog, Eldorian and the rest of the crew from Nodaway, Queen Larry and Siobhan, Gizmo, Amos and his amazing crew of cooks, (GOD I NEED SOME KINKY SPUDS!!) Captain Boyd and the Pirate Comedy Show, Queen Kate, Queen Titania and others too numerous to mention.  You are all in our thoughts and (heathen) prayers, and we hope you are all missing us as much as we miss all of you.  Much success and joy throughout the summer to you all.

And as always.... THUMBS UP! 

Right... so things in the Black Hills are fairly cool.  We've put up two shows so far, and things have been pretty smooth all things considered.  I will say we're putting up some bloody big scenery for such a little theater, and there isn't really a lot of time between shows.  Two weeks to be exact.  Luckily for us the next show tours in, so we get four weeks to build what becomes the fourth show and another two for the last show.  The mountan to climb was getting show number two up, and now that it's done, we're on the downward slope... of course I've always felt it was easier to trip coming down the hill than going up... so we'll stay vigilant etc.  

Bonny Kate and I like the area.  Wish we got to see more of it than this one valley.  Our next day off is going to be spent doing as many "touristy" things as we can.  Y'know, with all the tourism in this area and the wealth of pleasant, shady and picturesque locations, there is no Ren Faire out here that I know of.

Hrrrmmmm.....

Well, just a quick update for all of you enjoying the first couple of faires this year...

Bonny Kate and I are firmly entrenched in the Black Hills of South Dakota at a venue appropriately named The Black Hills Playhouse.  We're about five days away from first tech and six days away from a complete set.  Once we preview a week from tonight, we have ten days to build the second show.  Somewhere in there we get a day off.  Suffice to say, it's typical summer theater.  There are, of course, more nuanced and interesting stories to be told, but those are best by campfire with grog in hand... not in pixelated text.

BHP is located in Custer State Park in the south west corner of the state.  We're about fifteen miles south of Mt. Rushmore.  There are roaming herds of buffalo in the park, and according to the veterans here, they DO wander onto theater property.  We've been told to always carry a flashlight, because they're hard to see at night and it's possible to run right into them.  So far, all I've seen are a bunch of barn swallows and a few deer that wander by at night.  Although, there are definatley sign of buffalo... quite unmistakable if you know what I mean.

At any rate, things are smooth if not perfect.  Hope to hear many stories of the faires we're missing! 

Thumbs Up!

Here's an interesting entry from Andrews... it appears on page 84 of the book mentioned in my last blog:

"Thomas Banister and Geoffrey Duket (...) embarked with a party of thriteen other Englishmen and some forty Russians in a 70-ton ship, the Thomas Bonaventure, in which they sailed down the Volga and across the Caspian to Shirvan.  They spent three years and more in Persia, during which Banister and seven other died, but when Ducket and his remaining companions re-embarked for Astrakhan they carried a rich cargo of silks, spices and other goods.  On this voyage, in May 1573, they were attacked by Cossack pirates.  Several of the Russian crew were killed and all the English wounded, the ship and goods being surrendered."

So, apparently Cossacks were plundering ships in the Caspian Sea during the reign of Queen Elizabeth... which in and of itself isn't really a surprise, but it's the only reference to Russian piracy in the renaissance I've run across.  Heck, it's the only reference to Russian piracy of any kind I've run across.  It kinda opens up a whole new avenue of investigation.  Can you imagine walking down the lane at faire and running across a bunch of wandering Russain pirates?  Gives me some really interesting persona ideas! 

So I had a feeling when I enrolled in History 579, (England to 1603) that eventually I'd encounter some piratey goodness.  Interestingly, the earliest mention I've come across is in a Heroic Poem entitled The Battle of Maldon, which occured, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, in 991.  The word "pirate" is used a number of times, but because this was a battle fought between Brytons and Vikings, it's hard to say if the word "pirate" was simply used by modern translators.  The original word, "saelida" is defined as "sea farer or pirate." 

More recently, however, I have started a book review of Kenneth Andrew's Trade, plunder and settlement; Maritime enterprise and the genesis of the British Empire, 1480 - 1630.  Although piracy is not directly addressed, the notion of it is.  As early as the late 1490's and early 1500's we can find clear examples of piratical acts committed as far west as Newfoundland by English sailors.  Granted, it was a sort of "piracy by neccessity," as the account is of one of the earliest known attempts to find the Northwest Passage... the ship had foundered, and after eating a few fellow crew members, the survivors fell upon a french fishing ship, stole it and sailed themselves back to Bristol. 

However, there are far more accounts of Piracy under Henry VIII, mostly after his failed attempt to join with Charles of Spain against France.  Henry did indeed comission a number of privateer types, but once Spain declared peace with France, it seems these privateers turned pure pirate, attacking French, Portuguese, Flemmish and Itallian ships at whim. 

It's interesting stuff... and seems to say that if you want to research piracy before the "Golden Age," you need to pull the info bit by bit from sources dedicated to other topics... but after all, that's what 'research' is all about, right?

Well, I was just thinking that in the course of a "normal" spring, we'd be trying to get our merry little band together for some serious rehearsal time before launching the Renaissance season later this Month, enjoying a May and June full of appearances, doing the odd show here and there in July and August, and then spending most of September traveling from show to show.

Alas, 'tis not to be this year.  And it makes me sad.  Those of you who know me are already aware of the situation that takes MOPO out of the picture, but what you probably don't know is how much I'm going to miss it.  Mind you, it's not the faithful adulation of our three or four fans, it's not the thousands of pennies we're not going to make in tips, and it's not the idea of spending an entire spring/summer/fall without ever once getting hit in the face with a pie...

It's the companionship of my fellow Rennies I'll miss most.  Yah, we'll probably show up at one faire or another as playtrons this year, but then again, maybe not.  it's hard to say.  What is very likely, however, is that I probably will not see most of the folk who have become dear freinds and buxom buddies.  (I like being buddies with the buxom.)  In other words, I'm going to miss ALL OF YOU!!! It's the people that make faire, and I will truly be somewhat lost without the commeraderie and fellowship of gypsy camp, those fleeting moments of inspired street theater with the crazy and lovable characters that compose our little geeky corner of the universe.

That being said, I hope everyone has a wonderful, successful season, may your cups overflow and your bossom's shelf like never before.  Think of us often and fondly, and should you happen to see a large purple feather bouncing high above the heads of the patrons, don't be completely surprised should you find Sir Eric bobbing along under it.  Fair wind to all!