What a wonderful weekend Easter Weekend was at the 23rd Annual Scarborough Faire.
Several postings from around the Yahoo groups and the AFR brimming with news...
From: Marsali@a...
Date: Thu Apr 17, 2003 9:43 am
Subject: Mem. Weekend -- Scarby
Only five sites in the entire campground left for Memorial weekend folks! So, if you're wanting to camp at Waxahachie Creek ( Bardwell ) you'd better act fast! According to the online reservation page, sites 38, 39, 49, 52 and 53 are the only thing open. You can check out the page at reserveusa.com and click on the Waxahachie Creek - Lake Bardwell option.
Also, just a reminder...as they have been in the two previous years, sites 15-21 are CAMP LITE, so if you have reserved a site in that area, be forewarned!
See ya'll at Scarby!!
Cider
Dafen's Trouble
Patrick and Jessica's Mommy
Gargela of the Boners
Chaotic Lil' Sis of Red Dragon
CHAOS - Isengrim Division
Faid A' Key
Keeper of Scrap the Barbaybian Dragonrider of CHAOS and Maple the Barbratian Bee Killer
Hoot Wench #2
Trash Tribe
Booser Wench
Black Mary Rackham of the Lifesaver Inn
Sister of the NNN Society
The Lady Drummer
The Wonderous Queller of Fairies
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From: "Wesley Bonser"
Date: Sat Apr 19, 2003 12:50 am
Subject: Re: [SFfriends] Question about this season
>From: "Matthew"
>Reply-To: scarboroughfriends@yahoogroups.com
>To: scarboroughfriends@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [SFfriends] Re: Question about this season
>Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 04:01:47 -0000
>
>Ernesto wrote:
> > By the way,
> > Are there any recommendations for new acts to catch?
> >Unfortunately we won't be down until after the Swordsmen's run, but I don't know what other new acts to check.
This is "Russell the Village Idiot"s last season. Hes on the Brothers Stage this year. He was King Arthur at TRF for several years. Then moved on to be King Henry for Az. and Carolina Fest's with Baj as his queen.
>Well, 'Nesto, a lot of the "new" acts this season are simply ones that have returned to Scarborough after an absence, like The
>Swordsmen and Wings of Isis (formerly the Stardancers). *VERY* glad to have all such folk back! :~D
Small correction here, Wings of Isis are still part of the Stardancers. There are now several groups under the umbrella of Isis's company.
Smee and Blogg are returning for the first time in about 19 years.
Roy has a new female jouster. She from Canada and a strong opponet.
Whipboy, he's a comedy / stunt show.
Zilch has also returned.
Iris & Rose, Jim Hancock, Queen Anne's Lace, The Rogues, The Shantyman and all the other musical favorites have returned.
>I would suggest this year's Chess Match (haven't seen it yet, but I've heard raves about it from people not known to be demonstrative in their praise).
Ive also heard its a great show.
Novie has brought back The Pub Sing, a great return to what made Scarborough a success. They ( thank goodness) have removed the Crown Meadow brawl. Some great fights were done, but it was too much all at once and made the end of the day (in my opinion) too violent.
The fair built a ship stage... lets just say, its not Minn's ship. Ill leave it at that. The fair also added several beautiful flower gardens with waterfalls etc. Its great work!!! The sight gardener is incredible. I had the great pleasure of working with him a great deal last season.
We have a great new armory. If you were not aware, Michael (Marcon Armory) died the friday before close last year.
Angie (Ezmeralda) left this world after Irish Fest. this year.
They both will always me remembered as positive force in our fair. They carry all of our love and respect on their journeys.
I hope this helps a bit....
Looking forward to seeing you... Wes B.
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. If anyone cares to join us at the Captain's Pub each day at 6:00 we would love to have you. We would also love to
you spread the word to others that Pub Sing is indeed back. It is at the Captain's Pub every day at 6:00. The songs are all sing
along (the daily standards are Spainish Ladies, Companion, Mermaid, Drunken Sailor, and occasionally Irish Rover), the toasts are open to whoever wishes to make one, and the dances (either a waltz or a polka, and Wall's of Lymeric) are open for all to join.
It's fun!!
Now back to your regularly schedualed E-Group messages.
Jessi ( sorry it sounds so much like a commercial)
aka Yasmina Wispersteppe
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Opening weekend scaby
http://www.pbase.com/lettie
Lettia Rose
Duchess of Glenkinchie
Lady of Ethics to Queen Margaret of Scotland
Knight of the Thistle
Lather M'Crack
IWG#413 Madame Cum Laude
Sisters of Rose 1st Bloom
Haggis Crone Part Owner Tom's Inn
Cyanne Arrow Amazon Warrior
Rabbi who?
Pink Bow
Booser, Renrat, and so on.....
AIM: Lettia69
ICQ: 212753355
www.geocities.com/Lettia69
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Subject: Re: [RenFairePhotos] Snow Clan at Scarby
I finally got my itinerary nailed down. I will be at Scarby all of Memorial Day Weekend and again on June 1st. On May 31st I'll be in
Galveston scuba diving (So Hayden, while you're in Waxahachie, I'll be in your neck of the woods). The 27th through the 30th I'll be in
Shreveport visiting the parents and seeing friends (Daryl, you want to meet sometime during that time?).
-Todd Leatherman
aka Captain John Walker
> Alas Captain Walker and list members, The Snow Clan won't be at Scarby the weekends you're there. Due to the kids school, we'll
> have to go next to last weekend, attending the Saturday May 31st, rather than Memorial Day Weekend, which has been our
> tradition previously.
>
> We'll have to make our reservations soon. We always stay at the Red Oak Days Inn, not because it's great, but because it's
> tradition and they know us. Another Faire tradition for us is to always make one meal at the Catfish Plantation in Waxahacie, great > food. I love the sweet potato fries and fried corn. We'll post the Faire Photos after we get back.
>
> We'll be in Shreveport after Faire for a few days. May even get a gathering of the old Gas Light clan together one night.
>
> Hayden "Arcane" Snow
> List Owner
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Posted in Scarborough Friends
From: janet m shull
Date: Mon Apr 21, 2003 7:23 pm
From what I could see the fight was blocked nicely from where I could see and Bill and Jason did a very nice job. Susie thoughtfully gave a prepub sing percussion performance, that helps to publically announce SOMETHING'S GONNA HAPPEN. We're flexing our muscle, and putting back in place the pub sing, we'll keep tweaking it. We are arriving and we are just going to get better. Novie, Jason and everyone up on the front table do an awesome job of keeping the ball rolling. And patrons seem to be enjoying themselves. It will grow, just wait and see...thank you for the feedback.
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From: "muleguru"
Date: Tue Apr 22, 2003 12:27 am
Subject: SF new photos up
Join the Crew of the Isabeau and our revels at Scarborough Faire!
See you there each Saturday!
Captain Marga!
New 2003 photos posted at... http://www.geocities.com/shadowscastlerenfest/
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Finally here presented is a terrific review wriiten by a cast member and posted in the AFR...
From: Lys (lys_childs@NOSPAM.hotmail.com)
Subject: Scarborough Faire: Performance Weekend #1 (very very long)
Newsgroups: alt.fairs.renaissance
Date: 2003-04-21 18:55:33 PST
The excitement has been building for the cast for several weeks now. We were all panting for patrons three weeks ago, so the feeling in the air was electric as we woke up bright and early Saturday morning. After quickly loading the truck, the hubby and I piled in and headed on out. He was mostly dressed, wearing his plaid trews, shirt, doublet and jaunty plaid cap. I, of course, had on chemise and bloomers, since the rest of my outfit doesn't ride well in vehicles.
We got to the SAPA (Scarborough Academy of Performing Arts...the name of the cast) parking lot around 8:05 and gathered everything, hurrying down to Crown Stage, where morning meeting and fight call are held. Fight call wasn't til 8:30, but my seamstress wanted to meet us there early to do a few last minute touches to the new dress. Unfortunately, she wasn't there yet!
So hubby began dressing me, as a proper lady's maid should do *snerk*, lacing me in and so on. The new dress is stunning...I adore it!
After he got me into my clothes, he ran off to do a couple of quick errands before fight call, getting back a few minutes into things. We stretched and everyone began running their fights, practicing and setting them in their minds for the day. The third member of our fight finally showed, and we got down to practicing as well.
Half an hour later it was time for morning meeting. The director got up and gave us her notes for the day, handed out the final rehearsal award, and had folks lead us all in physical and vocal warmups before telling us what Faire Time was and then finally sending us off to play with patrons. Little did we know what was awaiting us outside those gates!!!
The shock of it was enough to make several performers stop in their tracks as they went out the gate. There was a veritable sea of humanity awaiting us out there! The cast, to their credit, all dove right in and began playing up a storm, greeting and meeting, meeting and greeting, drawing people into our world with an enthusiasm that seemed to only get stronger
with each passing moment. It was beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! And then at 9:45 the first cue was given and the first line was said...and the improvisation was on. You see, Scarborough is doing things a bit differently this year. There is NO SCRIPT AT ALL. We are given an opening line, a middle line, and a closing line (different ones every day with different people saying them every day) and we are improvising the entire Opening Gate show, as well as post-parade proclamation too. So those of you who attend every day will get a new show every day. :)
It was a bit different than it had been when we'd practiced it in previous weeks. Before we'd not had to fight the extraneous sounds that fill the morning air during that time. So at times it was difficult to hear, but things did begin to click as the royals were introduced and the various stage acts were given their plugs as well. The fight of the morning commenced and was completed, the closing line was said, the cannon sounded and the gates were thrown open! The crowd began pouring in as quickly as the poor ticket punchers could pass them through, and so began the flood of people culminating in numbers giving us the second largest opening day EVER
at Scarborough Faire!!!
I headed inside at this point, finding a spot near the path where I could play with entering patrons. After a while I spotted my hubby coming toward me, and we joined up to go buy me a new pouch, since my old one just didn't work with the new gown. The old one is made of the same blue material that last year's outfit was made of...this year I'm wearing crimson and grey (for now...have another new dress still being made *grin*). We got to the leather booth and I picked out a lovely black box pouch and a silver clasp,
and the nice gentleman said it would be put together in about half an hour, so we continued on our way. Hubby went off to get to noon Court Dance and I began making my way around the faire.
First stop was Pendragon, to say hi to everyone. Lots of hugs and so on, and the obligatory costume adjustment by Kelly. Someday I'm going to walk in there and she's not going to adjust me ONCE while I'm in there, and I'll die of a heart attack from shock. *laugh* From there it was on around the end and stopping in at several shops on Taylor Lane to let them know that Scot's Court was going to be held along there at 3:30, and that we were starting it with our lane fight. We wanted them to know so that there weren't any problems when our crowd control blocked most of the lane during the fight. Luckily the vendors along that stretch are all very cool people, and agreed that anything the draws large crowds, who will potentially go into the shops after the attraction was done, was a good thing! I'm glad that the majority of Scarby vendors are such cool people. Things go so much more smoothly when there's courtesy on both sides, I think.
Well, then it was onward and upward, continuing toward my usual spot on Eagle Crossing. I got to the bench in time to play a little before we had to get ready to water the parade. And as I'm sitting there playing, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a Moorish musician and eight tiny rein...oh, wait...that is a Moorish musician trailing a certain Friar Merriwether. :) The good friar joined us at the bridge as we waited for parade and played with passersby. Oh, and did I mention the nice long line of Musketeers and their ladies? You know, it's a rough life when you have a good dozen handsome men in tabards all lined up to kiss your hand. Ohhhhhh
the suffering. *snerk* All too soon the cannon sounded, indicating the beginning of the parade, and the watering team all took our places, prepared to give ice and water to those overheated beings who were doing the daily Death March..er...parade. On the walkway above Eagle Crossing, Wulfie, Percy and Fernando had gathered bearing crackers and cheese to toss down to the marchers. There's few things more amusing than watching King Henry VIII standing beneath an archway with his mouth open, trying to catch flying cubes of cheese! *laugh*
The parade made its way by, and the water bearers got a much needed breather, then I was off once more, headed over to where we do Maypole at 2:00. I'm what we call 'colour' at Maypole. I comment and help draw the crowd's focus to what's going on...and I also keep an eye on the safe table, which is where the performers leave things such as baskets and mugs and so on while they're doing the Maypole. Scarborough's Maypole is oriented toward the children (which I privately find very amusing, considering it's origins as a fertility rite), which means that you don't want things swinging around on your belt because you'll probably end up accidently whacking some poor child in the face.
The Maypole went really well, the children and the performers working together to weave the ribbons...and a couple of our weaves were pretty darned good looking!!! Then, according to our plan, the village Hunter got caught in the wrap up and was trapped against the pole! Luckily for the single women of the village, the Governess (myself) and the Mancatcher were on hand to take care of the situation, and we promptly auctioned him off! *laugh*
After our good Liam Hunter was led off by his soon-to-be new bride, I settled for a bit of a rest at one of the tables, and waited for our good Friar Merriwether, as I'd been told that he was heading my way shortly.
The next part of my day is the most strenuous...and what I think of as the most enjoyable! You see, my good readers, this year Lady Frances has teeth! Well, actually, she has swords! A beautiful set of cased rapiers...and she knows how to use them. :) This is demonstrated every day at 3:25 p.m. when we open Scot's Court with a lane fight between myself and two Scottish Navy Captains.
This first day I was a bit nervous. Would we gather a crowd? Would we do well? Would we all remember the choreography and the lines we'd put together so painstakingly 7 months ago? Would everything work out as planned?
I shouldn't have worried. It was GREAT! The fight went fairly smoothly, despite a blown hoop on my part that kept trying to trip me but never succeeded in doing so! The crowd grew as we fought, until the draw was beyond what we'd dared hope for. They cheered and called, and laughed at the lines, and bet on who would win... It was more wonderful than I can ever describe. And when it was done, the crowd stayed for Scots' Court, which was part of why Queen Margaret had liked the idea of starting Scots Court with our fight...so that it would have decent draw.
I think that I floated through the rest of the afternoon...or at least I floated back to my bench on Eagle Crossing after hiding my swords at The Slashed Shoe and putting myself back together again.
Then a second wonderful thing happened. I was sitting on my bench, just being Lady Frances as only Lady Frances can be, and there was a gentleman and his son sitting across from me. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as I bantered with passersby, and they sat for about 20 minutes. Finally they arose and the gentleman crossed to me and said the following:
"My son and I are about to leave for the day, but we just wanted to tell you that we think you're the jolliest person we've seen out here, and that it's a joy to just sit and listen to you."
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why we're insane enough to do this in the heat and the rain, through 2 months of rehearsals and 2 months of performances, gruelling 10-12 hour days without a break. THAT is exactly why...those few people who take a moment to stop and say "You made my day happier." For the times when the Boss comes and says, "Hey, during my exit interviews I had someone tell me that the best part of their day was something you did." For those brief and glittering moments of recognition.
Sure, the recognition from our fellow performers means a lot, but ... *smile*...hearing it from the patrons just makes your day shine like a new-minted penny in the sun.
I almost cried as he walked away. To have someone say that to me on the first day of faire was both a blessing and a challenge. I know I've come a long way, and I have challenged myself to go even further this year.
I played for a time more, then headed up toward where closing gate would be. I found a place where I could play with the people heading out, and even talked a few into staying another few minutes to hear us sing "Parting Glass" before they left. And then the next wonderful moment of my Opening Day occurred.... Jacques walked by, stopped, turned to me and said, "Would you like to fire the cannon?"
What a silly question!!! Of COURSE I would LOVE to fire the cannon!!!! And so off I went, up onto the parapet to get a quick lesson in Cannon 101: Introduction to Cannoneering. *grin* The faces of the other performers when they realized just WHO was firing the cannon that day were priceless. Generally the reaction went something like: "Oh look! Frances is going to....OH MY GOD! They're letting the Governess fire the CANNON???? AUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!" *laugh*
And so the time came, the royalty came onto the parapet, the goodbyes were said and the song was sung. Queen Anne said "Godspeed and fare thee well!" and I touched the spark to the cannon...
You can FEEL it go through you when you're that close to it! And it's the most amazing thing! (Not to mention QUITE addictive!) And as I revelled in the feeling, and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the Rogues playing outside the gates as dancers whirled in joy to the pipes, all that I could do was smile. It was a glorious Opening Day! From the morning meeting to the parapet where Queen Margaret, King Henry and a happy little Governess all shook their groove thangs to the sounds of the Rogues. *laugh*
I know that this is just Saturday, and it's supposed to be the whole weekend, but this has gotten so long already that I don't think I should continue. Let it suffice to say that the wonder of the Opening Weekend did not end there. Later that evening, Latimer asked us if we would be the first people to do our fight at Pub Sing. No one had fought on Saturday, but he wanted us to do ours on Sunday. We agreed, and I have to say that the energy at Sunday's Pub Sing made our fight even better than it had been earlier in the day.
Now, to those who are still with me...gold stars to all of you!
Later this week I shall endeavor to post my musings on the second weekend of faire! I hope you're enjoying!
--
Lys
aka Lady Frances Parker Trumpington
aka Svetlana Yasmina Ivanova
Bard #151
GuildMistress: Bards' Guild
Wench #1793
Ship's Cook on Ye Squid Defiant!
Pinned RenGeek, 97% Freak!
Official Mead Horde Dancing Girl #1
Head Sous Wench of Renntopia
aka Snerkus Reptilius of the Clan Sarcasitca
(or "She Who Wants To Know All The Details")
treasurer@bards.atthefaire.com
lys_childs@NOSPAM.hotmail.com
AIM: RenFaireLys
