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'Tis time for the faire
[Times photos: Bill Serne]
Caroline Jett, who plays the Queen, presides over a rehearsal last weekend, as actors prepared for the Bay Area Renaissance Festival’s “Last Huzzah,” its final year at the Largo park where it has been presented for 23 years. |
By LANE DeGREGORY
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2003
The Bay Area Renaissance Festival, a spring standard for 23 years, turns Largo Central Park into an olde English village for the next six weekends.
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LARGO -- The Lord Mayor and his lady are standing in a parapet above the town gates of Puddleton, surveying the soaked crowd below. It's raining at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival. Royalty and rogues have wrapped woolen cloaks around their hand-sewn costumes.
"You'll meet paupers and princes. Bakers and shopkeepers. There will be feasting and fighting . . .," the Lord Mayor promises. "Juggling and jousting. Tea with the Queen . . ."
It's the opening scene, the way visitors will be welcomed into this 16th century world.
Every year about this time, the field across from the Largo Cultural Center is transformed into an Olde English village. Volunteers build taverns and wooden stages. Vendors wheel in hand-carved lutes and flutes, hand-hammered suits of mail.
The Renaissance Festival has had a home there for 23 years. But, alas, the show must move on because the city of Largo would not renew its lease. Organizers are pretending they have to flee their imaginary village.
They still don't know where they'll go.
Casey Loftus, left, and Kevin Hentkowski practice a sword fight for the Bay Area Renaissance Festival, which opens this weekend in Largo.
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So, in the rain last Saturday, they conducted the final rehearsal before the Last Huzzah, which starts Saturday and runs weekends through April 13.
Organizers have added jousting in full suits of armor, a pirate show and two fire-eating acts. The original King Edward has returned in all his glory, along with many members of his original court. There will be henna tattoos and imported cigars, wooing contests, a pub sing and human combat chess. Magicians and minstrels, wizards and warriors. Tavern keepers roasting those enormous turkey legs. Shopkeepers selling flowered headdresses and wax hands. Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, all manner of fools.
Where else can you find a guy in a tunic who lets you pay $1 to throw tomatoes at him? A muddy wench with blacked-out teeth trying to drag you into a Medieval mosh pit? A human-powered merry-go-round? Glittery fairy wings? The Rat Man?
"Fantasy and food," the Queen promises.
"And ale!" someone shouts.
"Yes," the Queen says. "And ale."
Here in the 16th century, dreams really do come true.
Robert Stephens carries away a “casualty” during rehearsals for a fight scene. Stephens, of Sarasota, has acted in renaissance festivals around the country for two decades.
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For the 142 actors rehearsing on this rainy Saturday, being a member of the cast is a labor of love. Some are paid small stipends. Most volunteer.
They rehearse two days a week for six weeks, for five hours at a time. They learn how to wield swords and light torches, how to hold up knickers without a belt, how to talk without saying "okay" or "cool."
They're a mixed breed, these Renaissance regulars. Sort of a cross between Civil War re-enactors and those folks who dress up for midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They range in age from 13 to 67.
Part history buffs, part bawdy, free-thinking fringe-dwellers, they come from all over the country. For different reasons.
"I rode in the rodeo. Then got into jousting. From there, I sort of just drifted into the Renaissance," says Robert Stephens, 42. He lives in Sarasota. He has been stuck in the 16th century for two decades. "It's an entire community," he says, smoothing his soggy kilt. "Former wrestlers, actors, people from amusement parks. You go to Houston, you see at least 20 people you know from here."
Other cast members for the Largo show are local. This is the only festival they do. Some grew up in Renaissance families and are second- or third-generation villagers.
Susan Lentz, 52, started selling Pepsi at the Largo festival as a member of the Chamber of Commerce. A hairdresser in real life, she longed for the tight bodices and full skirts of the earlier age. Fifteen years later, she has "moved up from tavern wench to innkeeper."
Lentz's sons Dan, 31, and David, 26, also are experienced festival actors. David started out as a mere pauper. This year, he has been promoted to nobleman.
Jed Vinson, 16, didn't know much about medieval stuff before last month. He is just starting to study that in world history class at Pinellas Park High. He wants to be an actor. His drama teacher told him about these auditions. Even let him borrow his broad sword.
Vinson landed two apprentice roles: He'll be a town guard in the opening scene each day. Afternoons, after the Queen's Tea, he'll be a bishop in the human chess match.
He gets to move diagonally.
"I'm finally doing something with my life," he says. "My parents are so proud."
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IF YOU GO
The Bay Area Renaissance Festival opens this weekend. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through April 13; also April 4 and 11. 400 Central Park Drive, Largo, near the intersection of East Bay Drive and Seminole Boulevard. Admission is $14.95 for adults, $11.95 seniors, $6.95 ages 5-12. (727) 586-5423, toll-free 1-800-779-4910 or www.renaissancefest.com.
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