(no subject)
Jul. 13th, 2004 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learning2flyOk, here goes:
Opening weekend of Bristol went really well. I've never seen such a huge number of patrons for opening weekend. When you can't walk down the street without brushing shoulders with those around you, it's a full crowd.
Within the first hour of the gates opening, I became the first person to receive first aid for the season. (Where's my metal??) My troupe was given the signal to run after one of the directors and the person in front of me threw her arm back while she was running and hit me square in the eye with her ribbon stick. My eye is ok, just a nice long bruise running down my eyelid. No big deal. I got to miss the ceremony for the opening of the Town Square Public House, sit in an air conditioned trailer and drink Gatorade for an hour. Not a bad trade. The first aid guys were pretty cool, they spent my time sitting with ice on my eye telling me jokes and trying to dance with my ribbon. cute. I got to see them again later when I brought the lovely Devon to get her stigmata palms patched up. Flirting is dangerous work, I tells ya.
The main parts of my day are as such:
1. Maypole dancing. My SECOND LEAST favorite thing to do at faire, first thing being wrestling out of sweaty garb to use those evil blue plastic boxes they have the nerve to call bathrooms. Steve has dubbed me the May Queen, which at first I was really exited about. Now he's saying he wants me to take over as Emcee of the whole event. Mind you, we get patrons to do this with us and it is such a pain in the ass because only really little girls and drunk middle aged men are usually willing to try. These people have no sense of direction whatsoever. I tried leading the patrons in a grapevine weavy thing...which turned out to be a 16 stranded knot that took 10 minutes to undo (thank you Becky).
Let's face it, I suck. I had no volume and no one could hear me.
So much for a friggin May Queen.
2. Mummer's Play. We chose to veer away from the whole Robin Hood theme because we're sick to death of it. Instead, we are performing a play about Helen and the Fall of Troy. And I play Helen. It is historically documented that everyday Joe Shmoes would get together and perform mummers plays for entertainment and always with melodrama style and very bad acting. The play itself needs to be cut down a lot but I don't know how to get the person who wrote (and is directing it and playing Achilles) to make some changes. Each character has 6-10 rhyming Shakespearian-sounding lines that could be summed up in 2 and we're losing patron attention spans very quickly. Plus, I can't seem to get a handle on what I need to do to make myself not....suck? gah.
3. Country dance. I had begged and pleaded with Steve to bring back country dances and steer away from all the specialty acts all day long, so his solution was to have a faire wide 'mega mix' open to any cast member or patron. It went fairly well. We had a really fun patron couple jump in and by the end, they were pros.
I danced with Randy (and for the first time in over a year, didn't feel like screaming or strangling him).
4. Patron interaction. I had such high hopes that this year I would be a rock star and make my character awesome. I walked out to the opening gate scenario and all my great and evil plans faded away. I went right back to my usual directing people to the privies and various places along the faire routine.
Phoebe Scarlet is so freakin boring. I smile, I wave. That's about it. Honestly, I'd rather just hang out with my friends than do the five yard away character interaction with people. I'm better with one on one stuff. I can think better that way. I'm not very good with witty comebacks when under pressure.
All in all last weekend made me realize how much my acting leaves to be desired. I'm bummed.
My plans are for next year to work in a booth and forget about anyone knowing who I am at faire. It's been years and no one cares I'm there.
(Present company excluded, of course). I don't know why I bother. People always ask me why I work so hard there in the heat of summer during my weekends off.
Now I'm not so sure what the hell I'm doing there anymore.
I just got a call from Dan last night after not speaking for at least 3 months. Boy tried to take one of my comp tickets! HA! riiiiight. fitty dollah, please.
There's tons more fun stories of what's been going on in my world...when I'm in better spirits I will fill you all in. I am in such a funk right now, mostly because I'm exhausted.
I get so bitchy when I'm tired.
weeeeeeee!
Opening weekend of Bristol went really well. I've never seen such a huge number of patrons for opening weekend. When you can't walk down the street without brushing shoulders with those around you, it's a full crowd.
Within the first hour of the gates opening, I became the first person to receive first aid for the season. (Where's my metal??) My troupe was given the signal to run after one of the directors and the person in front of me threw her arm back while she was running and hit me square in the eye with her ribbon stick. My eye is ok, just a nice long bruise running down my eyelid. No big deal. I got to miss the ceremony for the opening of the Town Square Public House, sit in an air conditioned trailer and drink Gatorade for an hour. Not a bad trade. The first aid guys were pretty cool, they spent my time sitting with ice on my eye telling me jokes and trying to dance with my ribbon. cute. I got to see them again later when I brought the lovely Devon to get her stigmata palms patched up. Flirting is dangerous work, I tells ya.
The main parts of my day are as such:
1. Maypole dancing. My SECOND LEAST favorite thing to do at faire, first thing being wrestling out of sweaty garb to use those evil blue plastic boxes they have the nerve to call bathrooms. Steve has dubbed me the May Queen, which at first I was really exited about. Now he's saying he wants me to take over as Emcee of the whole event. Mind you, we get patrons to do this with us and it is such a pain in the ass because only really little girls and drunk middle aged men are usually willing to try. These people have no sense of direction whatsoever. I tried leading the patrons in a grapevine weavy thing...which turned out to be a 16 stranded knot that took 10 minutes to undo (thank you Becky).
Let's face it, I suck. I had no volume and no one could hear me.
So much for a friggin May Queen.
2. Mummer's Play. We chose to veer away from the whole Robin Hood theme because we're sick to death of it. Instead, we are performing a play about Helen and the Fall of Troy. And I play Helen. It is historically documented that everyday Joe Shmoes would get together and perform mummers plays for entertainment and always with melodrama style and very bad acting. The play itself needs to be cut down a lot but I don't know how to get the person who wrote (and is directing it and playing Achilles) to make some changes. Each character has 6-10 rhyming Shakespearian-sounding lines that could be summed up in 2 and we're losing patron attention spans very quickly. Plus, I can't seem to get a handle on what I need to do to make myself not....suck? gah.
3. Country dance. I had begged and pleaded with Steve to bring back country dances and steer away from all the specialty acts all day long, so his solution was to have a faire wide 'mega mix' open to any cast member or patron. It went fairly well. We had a really fun patron couple jump in and by the end, they were pros.
I danced with Randy (and for the first time in over a year, didn't feel like screaming or strangling him).
4. Patron interaction. I had such high hopes that this year I would be a rock star and make my character awesome. I walked out to the opening gate scenario and all my great and evil plans faded away. I went right back to my usual directing people to the privies and various places along the faire routine.
Phoebe Scarlet is so freakin boring. I smile, I wave. That's about it. Honestly, I'd rather just hang out with my friends than do the five yard away character interaction with people. I'm better with one on one stuff. I can think better that way. I'm not very good with witty comebacks when under pressure.
All in all last weekend made me realize how much my acting leaves to be desired. I'm bummed.
My plans are for next year to work in a booth and forget about anyone knowing who I am at faire. It's been years and no one cares I'm there.
(Present company excluded, of course). I don't know why I bother. People always ask me why I work so hard there in the heat of summer during my weekends off.
Now I'm not so sure what the hell I'm doing there anymore.
I just got a call from Dan last night after not speaking for at least 3 months. Boy tried to take one of my comp tickets! HA! riiiiight. fitty dollah, please.
There's tons more fun stories of what's been going on in my world...when I'm in better spirits I will fill you all in. I am in such a funk right now, mostly because I'm exhausted.
I get so bitchy when I'm tired.
weeeeeeee!
