See that owl? He's part of a live exhibit of birds of prey and reptiles presented by The Maryland State Park Foundation and The Maryland Department of Natural Resources. This was one of the best exhibits of this type that I have seen. The perches for the birds were built to look as natural as possible. The barn owl even had a little box that he could hide in. Of course, there isn't much you can do with a tererrium so that it doesn't look like a glass box, but they tried. They were in a really prime location, too. Right next to the new climbing wall, er, castle battlements. More on that later.
I have to say, fire not included (a gratuitous mention of combustion), this year was the most fun I've ever had at Maryland. I know that part of the reason was that people I didn't know, total strangers, would walk up to me and say "You must be the Renaissance Faire Junkie!" Nobody does this to me in Texas! Well, I have to admit that everyone (OK, almost everyone ... alright, a lot of people) already knows me in Texas. So it would be a little silly to walk up to me and say that. But I was in Maryland, and it really made me feel at home. I met people who I had been corresponding with via email and I met people who had visited my web site or even only heard about it. So, to everyone at Maryland
Now let's visit Revel Grove. Remember, if you click on the small picture, you will get a large picture.
This is the Year of our Lord
1520
and
King Henry VIII
(Bill Huttel) and his Queen,
Katherine of Aragon,
(Joy Evans) are visiting Revel Grove
in order to meet with
King Francois I
of France (Jonathan Jett-Parmer).
King Henry
is watching a chess match between Queen Katherine and
the Queen of France.
Later on in the day,
Queen Katherine of Aragon
and
King Francois
stroll through Revel Grove together.
Although things seem peaceful enough here, there is really a grave
disagreement between these two powerful monarchs over the rightful
ownership of Revel Grove.
Nowhere is the disagreement between King Henry and King Francois
more evident than on the
Tournament Field
where
The Free Lancers of the Cimmerian Combatives
perform 4 jousts daily.
At each contest, the English knights meet the French champions
to contest the ownership of Revel Grove.
The weekend that I visited Revel Grove,
the newest of the Free Lancers' equine performers,
Great Ceaser's Ghost,
made his debut.
Sir Nicholas Carew
(Roy Cox), King Henry's champion, rode Ceaser against
Sir Alexander de Courtney
(Ripper Moore).
The contest was short.
On the
second pass
Sir Nicholas
unhorsed
Sir Alexander!
Everyone, including Head Squire
Iago Tankreedy
(Richard Patterson)
thought that Ceaser did wonderfully!
I think it was worth it just to see
Roy in his black and gold mounted on a pure white steed.
He looked quite the hero!
Loralyn Coles
creates celtic and fantasy themed pieces by carving the designs in
pewter forms.
At her shop,
Starry Notions,
over on
Mary's Dale Way
you can find pewter ornaments, plates, napkin holders,
switch plates and other items decorated with
dragons, unicorns, thistle, cladagh and other fanciful designs.
One of the new shops in Revel Grove this year is
Wolfstone Kilt Co.
located on
Meadow Lane
near the hair wrapping kiosk.
Here owner
Virginia Watson
is pleating a length of plaid in preparation for belting
the gentleman into a
great kilt.
Quite a crowd gathered to watch.
Wolfstone
also has cirque dresses, great shirts and accessories for
men and women.
I almost walked away with a dress, but clothes shopping
just was not in my budget that weekend.
Next year I will be prepared!
Lamplighting
is the art of glass sculture.
It is quite different from glass blowing.
Sherman Adams, Sr.
has been a practitioner of the art of lamplighting for many years.
You can find him at
Adams & Adams
in the
Queen's Path.
He has dragons of all sizes, including a resplendent green one that is
rearing up in front of a computer!
I wasn't the only person out shopping at the Festival.
Over in
White Stag Grove
the fox tails and leather at
Bullseye
and
The Enchanted Cottage
drew the eye of this girl and her parents.
On a slightly different subject, while lots of people wear fox tails
as part of their costume at Hawkwood (and other faires), I thought
I was the lone horse tail wearer (my Hawkwood persona, Valentine)
until I got to Revel Grove and met about 6 people all wearing
horse tails!
Ahem. Back to shopping.
One of the other shops that I love to visit is
The House of Musical Traditions
on
Valley Meade.
Not only can you find musical instruments from all over the world,
but there is a great selection of
wind chimes
too!
I like wind chimes. I have several sets hanging around
my house and arbor back in Texas.
There are lots of interesting shops on
Stub Toe Lane
and one of them is
Mark Tappen's.
Mark is a wood carver.
He specializes in bowls, both elegantly turned and smoothly finshished
bowls as well as rough-cut carved bowls.
He also makes
turned wood Christmas ornaments
available in either natural woods or painted in cheery colors.
I picked up a couple of the painted ornaments, but I don't
plan to hang them on a Christmas tree.
I wear them on extra-long ribbons tied to the belt of my costume!
Just one more example of
conspicuous consumption
at work.
I first saw
Broon
at the Bristol Renaissance Faire.
He was hanging upside down from a tree limb, in a straight-jacket,
about 12 feet in the air.
This year I finally got to meet
Broon
(Brian Howard).
Besides playing with
fire,
Broon
is a juggler (he juggles bowling balls) and
and escape artist.
Not only does he escape from a straight-jacket, but he
also lets the audience wrap him up in chains and rope and performs a
Houdini-esque escape
(this may actually be one of Harry Houdini's stunts).
Not only is
Broon
a very talented and articulate individual,
Brian is cute, too!
Last year I got a piece of email from
Lauren Muney
asking "where's my picture?"
Well, Lauren was only joking.
But it did start me searching through all my Maryland photos.
First I had to figure out that Lauren is 1/2 of
Whipflash!
(James Frank is the other half.)
Unfortunately, I didn't have any good pictures of Lauren and James;
I had pictures of James, but that was because he wears a kilt.
So this year I made sure that I took in one of their shows on the
Market Stage.
Whips and
fire!
Lauren does this astonishing thing with a wheel of
fire.
You have to see it!
You can find out more about
Whipflash!
by visiting
Lauren & James' web site.
Over at the
Thistledew Theatre
is another one of those acts that deal in
fire.
Yep, it's
The Three Twits
(Liz Demery and Bob Garman).
The Twits
are willing to do anything to entertain.
They are not above working with chickens
(actually, a chicken), twisting the laws of physics
(as shown here),
fire-eating
or anything else all the while in search of a laugh.
Mark Jaster is back again as
A Fool Named "O"
but he isn't alone.
On Sundays (I took this picture on a cold and blustery Sunday),
Mark's children,
Kyle, Emma & Wyatt
appear with their father in
"O", The Next Generation.
I thought the kids were great.
If Dad's not careful, they're going to steal the show from him!
Kissandra
(Laura Lingle) and
Scarlet
(Stephanie Lichtman-Price)
are still together as
Women of Whimsey.
Bliss Goodbody
(Bonnie Orr) teamed up with
Janet Griffin
to perform as
Full Measure.
What was one is now two, and I think both pairs of ladies sound wonderful.
Just my opinion, of course.
Maybe next year they will both have CDs!
Note: There is no
fire
or
fire-eating
as part of either act.
Here's an interesting shot.
This is the entire cast (I don't think anyone is missing) of
The Comedy of Errors
onstage at the
Globe Theatre.
This production of William Shakespeare's hilarious farce was directed by
Tim Shaw
and performed by
The Company of the Revels.
Hack and Slash
perform at the
Royal Stage.
This shot is from their last show of the day,
Ale Extravaganza.
Now, I'm going to make a complaint here.
[whine mode on] The
Hack and Slash
shows are so popular that I can never get a good seat
(a good seat being one where I can get great pictures).
And the crowd after the show is always so big and
Sir Nigel Hack
(John Davis) and
Slash Montanto
(Spencer Humm)
are always so busy signing t-shirts and
chatting with their fans that I have never, in 3 years,
been able to meet them!
At least they have a
nifty home page
where I can read all about 'em.
But I want to meet these guys!
[whine mode off]
Somebody that I did meet at the Festival this year is
Regan Avery.
Broon
(what a wonderful guy)
performed the introductions.
Regan
is a bit of an internet maven herself.
She maintains the
Maryland Renfest Withdrawal Syndrome
web site.
Great site! 4 stars! Check it out!
Yes, I am shamelessly plugging Regan's site.
But if you love the Maryland Festival (or any Renaissance Festival)
you really need to pay a visit.
So do it!
Another friend of mine is
Michele Schultz
who plays the character of
Columbina.
Here is Columbina, with her lover, er, Boss,
Lord Mayor Collier Remmington
(Scott Sophos).
Columbina is his Italian (cough, cough) housekeeper.
Columbina describes her job thusly:
I keep track of the
family jewels, their comings and goings, the ups and downs, the ins and outs
... I love my job, if there is an opening that needs to be filled, I know
exactly what to put in it.
Lots of good things happen at Faire.
For instance, my friends
Debra
and
Eric
were married just the week before I visited Maryland.
Don't they just look like newlyweds?
You can visit Debra and Eric at
Dragonwings
in the
Queen's Path
were you will find a brand new line of
wedding accessories as well as puppets, feathered hair ornaments
and other fanciful creations.
Heidel
(Jennifer Wadford)
does most of her work at Maryland backstage, where very few
people get to see her.
She is
Sir Nicholas Carew's
squire.
Squires are responsible for helping their knights into and out of
their armour, and they have to be able to do it quickly!
They also help take care of the horses and equipment.
Here Jen is repairing a lance that was broken during a joust.
Being a squire is a dirty job (literally, horses are rather
indiscriminate in matters of personal hygeine)
without a lot of free time.
Next time you're at Maryland,
buy a rose
and send it to
Heidel
to let her know how much we all appreciate her hard work.
Unlikely as it seems, I didn't get names from everyone
that I met at Revel Grove.
I have no idea if these two fellows on the left are participants
or patrons. But I dearly love
men in kilts
and that
leather armour
was just begging for me to take a picture.
There seemed to be more interaction between participants
and patrons this year than in the past 2 years.
The
villagers of Revel Grove
in particular seemed to be a lot more active.
One of the more active villagers is the local fishmonger,
Maggoty Mullet
(Alice, who has been working the Maryland Festival since it
first opened in 1976).
Another one of the villagers is this
fellow with the wooden shovel (looks more like a paddle to me,
but I'm sure it's a shovel).
I'm going to take a wild guess here and identify this character as
Barnaby Grimthorpe
(Tim Vert), the local gravedigger.
Meet
Charles, the Pretzel King.
Charles is also known as
Pretzel Boy
(you must say this will a musical lilt to your voice)
to his friends.
I first met Charles at Scarborough Faire in Texas several years
ago (we won't say how many).
Now I find him at Maryland, and I know he does one of the New York faires, too
(Tuxedo? Sterling? I get them confused).
And he's still hawking pretzels.
But now he's in a kilt!
Remember I mentioned a
climbing wall
way back at the beginning of this epic?
Well, this is it.
There were actually 2 walls that made up a corner of a castle.
One wall was easier (a relative term) than the other.
This young peasant is scaling the harder wall.
I think this was the most popular game of skill at the Festival
this year.
There was always a long line of mostly men (why does that not
surprise me?) and youngsters (more boys than girls but there were
a good number of the latter) waiting their turn to scale the castle wall.
Special thanks to
Kay Shelton for identifying the Comedy of Errors photo.
Michele Schultz (Columbina Andreini)
and Bomber
for identifying Maggoty Mullet.
Michele (again) and Regan for clueing me on
on who is Hack and who is Slash.
Slash (the man himself) for sending me the
Hack and Slash
URL.
My standard disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the Maryland Renaissance Festival except as a satisfied customer.
30 December 1997