On My Way to the Ren Fest!

So I have FINALY come up with a way to use this blog! I am going to document my journey on the way to realizing my dreams of joining and traveling with the Renaissance Festival. Ok, so the people who are close to me know that I have been focused on joining the Renaissance Festival for quite a few years now. This year I have FINALLY taken the steps to act on that dream!

I am a part of the 2011 cast of the Arizona Renaissance Festival as a Stage Manager! Now I know what your thinking, "Katie, why are you working behind the scenes? I thought you wanted to perform!" It's true, my passion is to eventually be in an existing act or make my own, but to be able to do that I need to learn as much as I can about the current ones. I have spent the last couple of months looking up acts on youtube and trying to understand what the audiences respond to.

So as part of the cast, we attend weekly workshops to explore everything from the time period to our characters. Although the only ones that have happened so far have only consisted of first and second year performers, you can already see a family forming. Being the incredible shy person that I am (sarcasm) I have met quite a few people so far, a sixteen year old who is playing the youngest princess to another girl my age who is also a stage manager. It's very nice to be around people who want to dress up and talk in british accents for a couple of months and not think it's wierd. :-)

So far we have covered the rules of working and camping at the AZRF, and the guidelines on the classes and costumes of the period. I am playing a Lower Middle Class working young woman, so I have a good amount of freedom on how I can dress and colors I can use. Although I have sewed before I in no way consider myself a seamstress, so I am nervous about making my costume. I have NO pieces of my costume currently. I hope to start working on my costume VERY soon! I only have four months!

So at this past week's workshop we did some improv and did some exercises to help us make clear decisions on our characters. Not only did I get to have an epic death scene (complete with an exorcism), but I also got to get into a small fist fight with the sixteen year old princess. Overall these workshops are something that I look forward to weekly and I can't wait until February when we get to perform!

Things coming up this week:

Halloween at the Big Bang-So lots of drinking, dancing and singing. :-)

Victim Job- Pretending to be sick so future Dr's and Nurses can practice on you.

Looking for an Apartment- Fun Times

Bellydancing Class- I'm going to be dropping in on a Bellydance at Plaza De Anya.

To Do List:

Finish Costume

Finish Character Sheet

Find Apartment

Find Job

Go Hiking!!