By Acroyear
The following are histories from Joe "Acroyear" Shelby, one of the Performers at faire, as taken from various posts he has made to his Website. You can find Joe's Morris group The Foggy Bottom Morris Men.
| 2003 | ||
| 2002 | 2001 | 2000 |
| 1999 | 1998 | 1997 |
| 1996 | 1995 | 1994 |
2003
A time of tension and transition. Perhaps the real world was getting to us, perhaps it was just the intensity of the village plots, perhaps our adjustments to our new castmembers weren't done yet, but it was a tough year in many ways.
It began long before the season, as one of the stage managers and the sound man for the joust field, Chuck, had died of a heart attack in February. He was also the one who made all of our performers badges over the years, and many of us continue to wear an old one on occasion in his honor. His widow struggled through a year continuing her work in leading the village choir.
The heavy side was certainly lifted up by a fantastic Taming of the Shrew with Tim Shaw and Brittany Sweeney, along with Tim O'Kane (who also provided fun as a new addition, "Mickey Hooligan" at the pub sing). Glenn and Joy Evans directed.
Wolgemut debuted...although starting out on exactly the wrong stage for them (the Market simply does NOT work for music unless its hyped-and-amped a-la the medieval babes from the previous year), they certainly took the pub sing by storm enough to garner a full 9-week run in '04.
Stupia goes solo! Yes, Stupina gets her own show and the newly created Revelers' Bower, otherwise used for smaller children's acts like William Teller, Storyteller (Bill Wood), who's been at the festival longer than I have. One of these days I'll ask just how long...
The mud show had a change, with Scratch's lovely (even when mudified) wife joining the group...their pub-sing antics did get a little stranger than usual, if that's possible...
Rat-pucking with Emrys Fleet continued, got slightly more organized, and resulted in the first Crimson Rat Tournament, won by my lovely wife (and NOT by cheating or bribery!).
Desmond would leave because of "an angry husband or nine" being on his tail, and his street conning duties would be taken over by Diego Natividad de la Estafa, aka "Dinty, The Moor", described in 2004 as "about as Scottish as Taco Bell."
I had WAY too much free time on my hands, as I was unemployed during the week and would be until january. Careful planning kept faire from bankrupting us.
Scottish weekend, in contrast to its record-setting days of the 90s, would be the lightest day we'd had since Dennis came to visit. The day started with a heavy rain, and then the humidity kicked in for a total sauna that afternoon. The least comfortable Scottish I'd ever been in.
Though of course we wouldn't know it yet, this would be the last year for Kelley Anthony of the village dancers, Jim Neib of Bloody Drama, the Mud Show (and Scratch's antics @ pub sing), the Rumming Gang, that particular line-up of St. C's dancers, a 6-man Corsairs (they're down to 4 now, but its a good thing), Lars performing with the Rogues, the village choir...
...but if my recaps of the last 10 years have shown anything, its as Tim Shaw said was the motto of the 2004 opening weekend: "Its All Good."
2002
The best laid plans...
Bill's death shook us all, as it should have. Still, the show must go on, and on it did in fine fasion with the addition to the cast of Fred and Kris Nelson.
We skipped the divorce, and sadly, Joy Evans might never have gotten the honorable send-off a Queen deserves, until finally this year's (most excellent) Katherine's Story premiers.
Mary Anne held the court together as Anne Bolyne, though she wasn't quite Queen yet. A half-hour show at the Globe would coronate her and debut Fred as King Henry. (Historically accurate, b.t.w., as King Henry was not present in order to let the coronation be "her day"). "Pantalone" instead had fun with morning musical merrymaking and on occasion hanging with the wenches at the Dragon. This was to be a "people's king", and most people were glad of it.
Speaking of Wenches, this year marked the debut of the Rumming Gang, and the Guild of St. Cecelia dancers.
The village plot was a bit complex, as it seemed that several things were separate that were later revealed to be intertwined. A "ghost" had been terrorizing the villagers in recent weeks, making the court nervous, as the royal crown jewels were on the village property and perhaps at risk of being stolen...
Somehow, the Gizzards have not only managed to avoid getting caught for their involvement in things, they keep getting promoted each year!
The Market Stage and Boar's Head tavern return in fine form and become the home stage for Puke and Snot.
Charm City rapper had their last year on stage. Beginning in 2003, I would only be part of Cat and Fiddle Morris.
And rat-pucking!
Emrys Fleet makes his debut as a street performer, and ratpucking begins in earnest.
Also debuting this year was Christophe the Insulter.
Teatro switched to smaller shows, with Stupina the fortune teller and 2 occurances of "The Italian Wedding".
Patrick also did his St. George and the Dragon regularly at the Fortune stage.
Pub Sings, of course, took the hardest hit of any for the changes made, but through our grief, I hope we did our best at making our King feel welcome to our pub, our village, our home...
Top
2001
The 25th anniversary of the festival, and the Grand Celebration marking the 25th birthday of the village of Revel Grove!
The idea was that this year would be a light-weight plot, allowing for the anniversary to have fun, and next year (2002) would be the same year "1 week later" with all hell breaking lose and playing out the divorce from Kathering and marriage to Anne. Circumstances would change the plans...
Chris Ellison became Mayor Bailey, with Anne Frates his wife, Goodleaf. Panic insues as he grovels before the King regularly due to mistakes made along the way, like giving the King spoiled wine (vinager), and discovering that the deed to the village, signed by Henry's brother Arthur, was null and void...before the King surprises all by presenting a new deed for a new 25 years! Huzzah, indeed!
Lisa would reprise her character "Spooky Maid Dora" from the Vpstart Crow production (A Civil War Christmas).
The three core Skum members would produce a new and wonderful form of Punch and Judy.
The chess match was Pirates vs. Royal Navy, beginning with a major bar-room brawl at the Dragon Inn.
Pirate Invasion begins for the first time (I think), with the Corsairs and Crimson Pirates. On Pirate weekend, Zack Rackham (now returned to IRF after 2 years in OH) got revenge on King Henry's splashing him with water at the bar-brawl, by arresting Rex the Pirate and splashing HIM with a mug-full.
Teatro continued with THAT Show, now with Mike Martin taking the 3rd role from Steve. In addition, they debuted their half-hour Taming of the Shrew (which will get an encore performance at 2004's Shakespeare weekend).
(note: these next two might have taken place in 2000)
The Boar's Head was no more! down she went, and only a small platform for the market stage took its place until 2002 when the Puke and Snot Boar's Head and Market Stage made its debut.
The Dragons Tale made its debut, taking many of the specialty beers that the old Boar's Head used to carry.
And finally:
Cat and the Fiddle Morris debuts! After 6 years, I finally developed my own act...now to actually figuring out who our audience was. It ended up that we really did become a great kids street act, and continue to be today...
9/11 made for Scottish and Pirate weekend audiences to be far smaller than usual, but we kept open and kept at it.
In october, when word had gotten out that the US started its invasion of Afghanistan, all pyrates and friends assembled drank a toast and sang probably the most poinient rendition of Nelson's Memory I would ever witness.
"And bring peace and contentment to all our brave tars..."
2000
Ah, the Romans have arrived...sort-of.
Mistress Filberta Fowler (Diane Wilshire) has discovered evidential proof that the Romans once resided in Revel Grove, and continues to promote that throughout the day, culminating in a play-within-a-play of a Roman legend before the royalty at Courts Court (an hour long). Scott probably doesn't have the fondest memories of being in that play...
On the closing day, my 2nd funniest memory of Bill: just before the play actually starts, each noble gets to have a one-off line ranging from "oh this might be interesting" to "oh why are we enduring such peasantry". Bill's line on closing sunday : "And to think I had to miss a Redskins game for this?"
Anne Frates plays what should have been her last year as Queen Maggie, divorcing from her husband during Courts Court just before the play starts (and then oddly enough getting along famously with her ex-, Sir Angus, confusing the King and court).
Courts Court being an hour long, from 430 to 530, and taking out all the nobles, left the German Guards to turn "The Wine Garden" into "Zee Vine Gardenz", creating the beginnings of the Order of the Drunken Sots that continues to this day.
Duelling Sherrifs continued for one more year.
The villagers all had to contend with Pricket's Court, as a puritiranical judge decided to become the law and order of this town...the trials themselves were almost of the Lewis Carroll variety.
I believe this was the MDRF premier of "THAT Show" by Teatro, and the MDRF debut of Lelio (now Robin Hood).
I believe this was the first year of the actor's training guild, led by Paula and Larry, which would evolve into the Hengrave Hall crew a few years later. Of that first class, only 2 I think are still with us non-stop, John Lasher and Robert Teachout. Rafe Yadweb took time off but has returned to the faire as well. I may be off by the start year, though...
I took my own "career" at faire into my own hands. Three Left Feet was not invited back for various reasons, so I chose to take my relationship with the morning dancing more seriously. I joined up with Bill and Cathy Palmer and family, "the Ditties", doing a daily dose of morris and scottish dance.
Incredible weather from Scottish weekend onward brought record crowds. Scottish Saturday itself set the record at 23,500 on site. Privvy lines alone were 20-30 minutes, and that's WITH people on privvy duty and mens troughs still around.
1999
Ah, the big Murder Mystery year.
A visit from the Holy Roman Emperor (Scott Sophos -- Collier Remmington was on "The King's Business") is accompanied by a number of attempts on the life of local noble, Sir Edgar Hargrove (played by Glenn Evans -- Lisa continued the role of Lady Edina Hargrove, now revealed to be his wife). The mystery was solved at Courts Court, though too late for poor Hargrove, who dies before the end of the show. Sister Mary Margaret (Debs Szymkowiak) reveals, *almost*, that the HRE was the real force behind it all, but the Emperor casually brushes the accusation aside and both go on to the final joust and pub sing in peace.
Glenn continued to attend the pub sing, on saturdays at least, coming up with different reasons as to why he should be there. Some days he switched to his Cardinal Wolsey character, some days as Edgar's brother. One day he played "Regarding Edgar" (a parody of Harrison Ford's Regarding Henry), having lost his memory but surviving the final attempt on his life after all.
The Tiddington-Revel Grove rivalry continued, though not nearly as potently as the previous year. It was mostly used to give the Chess Match a plot. Duelling Sherrifs continued for its second year. The mystery took the primary focus of both court and villager.
That Liar Desmond Deveroux debuts his charm this year.
Hurricane Dennis decided to gate-crash our party, dumping 5-10 inches of rain for all three days of our labor day weekend.
2 weeks later, Hurricane Floyd hit harder, if briefer, during the week leading up to Scottish weekend. The faire was left without power and concerned that they couldn't open.
In the end, on saturday, they hired portable generator trucks (the kind used for state fairs and carnivals) and hid them behind the booths to keep the power going for food and credit-card sales. EVERY open restaurant in town was booked, as most local people still didn't have power at their homes to cook with.
Even the scotch-tasting party had to be postponed.. I may post more later, but that's all I can remember right now..
1996
A heavy year. 20th anniversary.
As noted, the ill king and his 6th wife visit the village. Much of the village and royal plots hinged on attempts to help cure him. But to no avail. He dies in an absolutely brilliant (tear-jerker, and more so now) show at 5pm at the lyric, and Edward is crowned king at the joust and presides over the (still at the boar's head) pub sing. The actor who played Edward was originally a YAE.
Cami St. Germain performed her first (and only) year as a member of the cast, playing the tavern wench of the white hart. Years later she would come back to the faire as a member of the O'Danny Girls.
Wesley Stubs had left the pyrates to persue his medical degree, and Fifi (Jennifer Bell) joined.
The Daring Devilini's were there, on the Gatehouse stage.
Daniel, Duke of Danger performed at the Globe.
A production of Cyrano De Bergerac was performed at the Gatehouse (Tom Plott lead).
As I posted in the '95 entry, Ben Howard as Mayor Earnest T. Fibber was punished and sent to the mud show. By the end of the gate show, Jack Rackham would be mayor.
In the village, a pair of puritans were trying to "correct" all of our misgivings. By the end of the day, the villagers would have corrected them instead.
The Shakespeare show that year was The Tempest, and one of the best productions I'd seen there. Tom Plott (he gets around, doesn't he) was Prospero. Stephon (now in Skum) was Caliban, playing deformed and limping the whole show. The ending was absolutely brilliant -- Prospero would curse his books and toss them down a trap door (boom!) ... then slowly, Caliban would crawl out, holding the books and the robes. Carefully he would stiffen up, the "magic" in those books having healed his disfigurement, and he would walk off in silence.
The year that Roy Cox and the Free Lancers, and competitive jousting, returned to the Maryland festival.
Final pub sing was probably one of the most intense evenings I can recall...and I can't recall nearly enough of it.
There used to be a regular tumbling-gymnastics troop that would come by each year for a weekend or two. They performed that year on the new Jury Rig mud-show stage (which didn't have the castle look it has today -- it looked more like a fishing pier).
Scottish weekend saw the first visit of the Rogues and the Tartan Terrors, who would become friends and co-teams for the next 3 or 4 years. The "Scottish Swing" would be one of the highlights of pubsing.
It was the last year for Washburne and Ware, a musical duo.
The Castle stage existed and was used for kids shows, particularly Dragons by the Tale.
The also had a Moliere production at the Gatehouse, obnoxious make-up and all.
Hack and Slash finally moved to the Royal. They also had hair.
Liz Demery (not her name at the time) and Bob Garman had a show on the new Fortune stage, the Three Twits.
HMT still had their "unattended children will be sold as slaves" sign up.
At one point, Tee and Prince Edward did a "prince and the pauper" switcharoo, and Paula as Anne of Cleves played to it brilliantly, leading Tee to handle the 4pm joust and leaving behind the real prince edward to cheerlead on the sidelines.
One night we celebrated the dawning of our new government (King Edward) by singing Schoolhouse Rock's "We The People".
The Handsomes used to regularly do a "Three Musketeers" bit during the run, much the same way as Victor now leads a "Cardinal's Guard" day.
Joyce Piefer and Megan Vandergrift had a swash-buckling sword show on section A, about the pirate Bonnie Rackham (Joyce's character at the time).
Health to the Company was started by Cami and Joyce, not by Tim.
Morning music consisted of Bob and Sue Esty, Mistress Gwenna, Maggie Sansone, and Bill and Cathy Palmer. In this, I suppose not much has changed.
Richard the Merry Minstrel joined us for (I believe) the first time. Bob Mitchell was still our regular piper and would be for another year or two. Most recently, he's been a member of Iona.
"You are all the authors of my fondest memories, and for that, am I truly, eternally in your debt." -- a tearful King Edward's final speech, final pub sing, that actors final apperance at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
1995
Your's Truly's first year as a performer, one of the peons of Three Left Feet. We would do 5 weekends (1,2,5,6,9), and I showed up on Scottish weekend full-effect kilted as well.
Tee Morris still played the mad inventor, and was dating Michele/Columbina then (before she invented that character).
The village plot was that a lost treasure was suspected to be in the village somewhere, with the day ending by having all the villagers rush madly onto the joust field after the last joust (I joined them once or twice).
There used to be a birds of prey demonstration down on the boardwalk.
The Shakespeare Production that year was MacBeth (Tom Plott playing the lead).
That year, and the previous, and I think the next as well, the cast (at least, the villagers) used to all gather for a picnic on the grounds by Middletons for their lunch. That sort of dwindled away as too many were getting busier with shows; by the time it stopped, only Columbina and whomever she could muster were doing it.
The gatehouse stage got its remodelling with plaster to the look it has today (instead of badly-painted wood).
The London Broil were still around (Gatehouse stage), as was Broon (Market) and Puke and Snot (Globe).
It looks like this was the first year of Mayor Earnest T. Fibber (Ben Howard) who would have the role for one more year, being "punished" by being banned to the mud-show (in '96). He retired before the '97 season, but came back to film footage for two tapes (one on faire during the day, the other on pub-sing) to be released in '98.
Pub sing (still at the Red Barrel before it got renamed to Boars Head (Pig's Butt)) usually had us dancing "The Fling", and though not formally a village dancer, I joined in anyways. There was little more annoying than doing scottish dances on gravel rocks. I still have (and wear at least once a season) every piece of garb I wore then.
This dancing would begin my unofficial association with the village dancers, which would become official in 2000 and lead directly to the eventual formation of Cat & Fiddle Morris.
The Scotch-tasting party was still held on site.
The Mud Show was the first (of several) held "in-house", with Rik Amick heavily involved in planning (and I think directing). Rik would later be the faire's first webmaster.
1994
Flashbacking through some videos shot by an old college friend (who was cast at the time) leads to some recollections:
On the subject of Paula as Queen Anne of Cleves
Yes, Paula and Larry were (are) Landskenects. they founded the local group, bringing with them their experiences as being part of the German military guild of RPFS in the late 80s to early 90s before coming here.
Paula was chosen to be Anne of Cleves for both having the right look, the talent, and being able to speake fluent german to boot.
When they came to MDRF, they offered their unit to play "guards", which would have been historically correct (Henry's guards WERE Landskenects, a gift from the HRE for his marriage to Katherine of Aragon). This coincided greatly with the faire's desire to have the royalty better protected after an incident with drunken 'danes led to the barring of weapons among patrons a couple of years earlier.
Paula played Anne (in '95 and '96 as the King's "sister"), then as the earless of Oxford, and finally as Lady Kitson. However, she and Larry continue to lead the Germans in the off-season, particularly for their setups at Marching Through Time and Military through the Ages.
After taking the role of Anne, Paula never specifically played a German on site except I think Oktoberfest weekend on the odd year or two. Larry has been both German and English throughout his time @ faire, depending on needs and circumstances.
Iona used to perform regularly, and that year had Elke Baker as occasional guest fiddler.
The gatehouse stage wasn't nearly as impressive as it is now.
Where the "royal knighting" takes place was the original priory/stocks -- the Dragon wasn't built yet, much less all the stuff behind it. In fact, certain "mainstays" of the joust area today weren't there at all (Dan the Master Joiner, Sharks, the sword booth next to kates).
The mud show was where the ax-throwers booth is today. The current jury rig is on what used to be the elephant walk when that arrived in '96.
Tee Morris (the filmmaker-friend I was referring to) played a mad inventor, who at one point during each day, attempted to "fly" with wings strapped to his back.
Capt. Moone's beard was still reddish-brown.
The location of the Fortune stage today was the "Thistledew" stage then, much smaller, with its back to the boardwalk area, and used for childrens shows mostly.
The Free-Lancers weren't the jousters at the time; the joust was choreographed/staged, not competitive as we have today.
Tom Plott played Cromwell for this year (and the previous) and was an extremely nasty plotter/conspirator compared to our current one. The final joust ends with him being stripped of his office and finally beaten down as he makes a run to try to fight the King.
Steve Bilanow's "Cappricio Catch Club" was only 3 men at the time. At the group's height, it would be 5 times larger.
And anybody who says that today's stuff is too leud certainly never saw the men of the village grape-diving (plum-diving?) through bliss goodbody's cleavage...
