Renaissance Festival - Texas

Well, we are closing in on the month of October, which means that the annual Renaissance Festival is about to begin.

What do you mean, you’ve never been?

Let’s see if we can entice you to go this year.

To do that, here is an article I wrote three years ago about this Texas fall classic. And accompanying it is a slide-show - with music - from last year.

And that’s exactly what’s great about the event, it is always the same, but different.

So go out, buy your tickets, and we’ll see you there!

************************

What a great way to spend a fall day!

The Texas Renaissance Festival is only 60 miles northwest of Houston near the town of Magnolia.

Leaving Houston just after seven a.m. on Saturday morning got me there by 8:20 with no parking hassle, which I understand can be considerable after the official opening of 9 a.m.

Once through the castle-wall entrance you are in the midst of a bustling medieval village, with the village “residents,” including many visitors, dressed in period clothes, making this the cleavage capitol of Texas for two months a year!

[I couldn’t leave that out because they couldn’t leave them in! And it also certainly looked like a few rare, but noticeable others took this as an opportunity to wear their kinky gear in public: black leather and whip accessorized!]

There are year-round buildings and structures throughout the 53 acre site. Oddly, all of this is used only for this Festival each October and November.

What really interests me about these large, open-to-the-public shows are the people that work and perform here.

They must have a dedicated commitment, a labor of love, especially those who are performers in the Marquee shows, because most actors will never see their name in lights or have a billing greater than a local newspaper or hand-bill.

If it is a numbers game, they probably have as good a chance at becoming a Matt Damon or a Renee Zellwegger as getting a free ticket on a moon rocket.

Yet they find opportunities to exhibit and perfect their craft with dedication, energy and sacrifice that can inspire us all to do our best.

So when I attend an event that has live actors I concentrate on them and am not distracted by the surrounding glitz, crass-commercialism and hype.

With this kind of perspective you never know who amongst them will make your emotions sneak up on you when you least expect it. And an ultimate bonus could be enjoying the performance of that one-in-a-million on her way to stardom that you will recall years later.

Here is a brief pastiche of performers from this Renaissance visit that I made special note of:

*Two young women are billed as the Washing Well Wenches. They perform outside on a wooden stage in front of a large water-filled wash bucket. There are seats for a few hundred people, hugged by a few tall trees. Their schtick is being medieval washer-women who fling soggy wet clothes around and into the audience. Their ribald humor is clever and guaranteed to get a rise out of you. But think about making you look homely - black teeth and all - and then going out and making people laugh, frequently at your own expense! Could you put your ego aside long enough to do this, and do it well?

* There is a magician billed as Isaac Fawlkes who, helped by his self-deprecating humor, repeatedly gets the crowd to react as if to say, Ooo, how’d he do that? He does card tricks with gorilla-sized cards, as well as now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t with ropes that never seem to be what you believe they are. And then there is that raccoon he has that wants to jump out at you.

At the end of his show he jokes that he has a mortgage to pay as he proceeds to pass donation baskets through the crowd. Could you go into your boss every afternoon and put your worth on your sleeve like Fawlkes?

* There is a young lady who is a “Living Statue.” I have seen this before in Europe, both on Paris and Venice streets. Each time my reaction was This can’t be what I think it is! I remember making repeated walk-bys, as I did in this case shaking my head, unbelieving that it was anything other than sculpted white marble. This time, however, I just couldn’t resist a personal compliment, telling the statue that I marveled her work, leaving one of our alittlecommonsense bookmarks in the basket on the ground in front of her, along with a donation.

When I told her that I was going to write about her she ever so gently bent down, looked at me, tilted her head and extended her hands palms-together towards me, as if to say “Thank You.”

I can only imagine the muscle control it takes to stand so still, and in a wind, so that any movement of your body is imperceptible. Just try this yourself for 15 seconds and you will get an appreciation for the difficulty of being a “Living Statue.”

Of course, there is a lot more to see and do than I can present here. But if one of these Renaissance Festivals shows up in your town, take it in!

And keep your eye on the acting talent.

Send this article to a friend!

Copyright 2010.  All Rights Reserved