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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE
MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL

presented by

Jennifer S. Moore

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Masters degree in Theatre ‘

 

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Date April 23, 1997

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MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested.

 

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1M W.m14

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL
By

Jennifer S. Moore

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Theatre

I 997

ABSTRACT
A DESCRIPFIVE STUDY OF THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL
By

Jennifer S. Moore

No comprehensive Study of the Renaissance festival or the theatrical aspects of its
environment has been undertaken. As one of the higher attended and larger Renaissance
festivals in the United States, the Michigan Renaissance Festival serves as an excellent
representative of Renaissance festivals in general. More often than not a Renaissance
festival is dismissed as a large craft show -- nothing more. The undeniable popularity of
this performance environment phenomenon among both patrons and performers merits a
closer look. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the Michigan Renaissance Festival
and how it creates a unique performance environment by using personal experience,
workshop documentation and interviews with Clark Orwick, director and writer of
Missed-A-Piece Theatre, the actors involved in Missed-A-Piece Theatre, and its current
entertainment director Michaella Dionne. These resources combined with the qualitative

methodology put forth by Michael Patton inform the whole of the research.

Copyright by
JENNIFER SUE MOORE
1997

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the contributions of many people
within the department, and the many individuals outside the academic realm. Their
experience and support kept me sane and my writing lucid.

I would like to thank my collegues and peers at the Michigan Renaissance Festival.
Their help and enthusiastic participation got this work off the ground and has opened a new
area of study. Most of all I wish to thank Dr. Georg Schuttler for his careful mentoring
and support. He gave me the confidence in my ideas and writing.

Finally, I have to give a heartfelt and sincere thanks to Rachel Abramson, Rick
Bullis, Mark Moore and Victoria Balloon. Without their love and support, I would have

burned the thing weeks ago.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................. vi

INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1
Notes ......................................................................... 6

CHAPTER ONE

METHODOLOGY USED IN THIS STUDY .................................... 7
Notes ......................................................................... l 1

CHAPTER TWO

WHAT IS THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL? ................. 12
History ....................................................................... 12
Era Guidelines ............................................................... 13
Themes at Michigan Renaissance Festival ............................... 15
Weekend Themes ........................................................... 17
The Set of the Michigan Renaissance Festival ........................... 19
Characters and Costumes .................................................. 26
Forms of Entertainment .................................................... 37
Notes ......................................................................... 42

CHAPTER THREE

THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE ............. 43
Areas of Production ........................................................ 43
Foods and Crafts ............................................................ 43
Entertainment ................................................................ 47
Support Staff ................................................................ 51
Entertainment Areas ........................................................ 52
Audience Participation ...................................................... 60
Notes ......................................................................... 62

CHAPTER FOUR

HOW ACTORS SEE THE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENT ............. 63
Comments from a National Performer ................................... 63
Comments from Local Performers ........................................ 66
Comments from the Entertainment Director ............................. 68
Notes ......................................................................... 70

CONCLUSION
Recommendations for Further Study ..................................... 71

APPENDIX
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ............................................... 73

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................... 78

V

Figure I
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4a
Figure 4b
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
Figure 20

Figure 21

LIST OF FIGURES

Caber Toss Championship ..................................................... 18
17th Annual Michigan Renaissance Festival Program (Map) .............. 22
Row of Shops on Queen’s Walk .............................................. 23
Ormworks (exterior) ............................................................ 24
Ormworks (interior) ............................................................ 25
Pirate Show on the Griffon Stage ............................................. 27
Area Manager at the Market Square ........................................... 28
Entertainment Director (left) and Area Managers ............................ 29
17th Annual Michigan Renaissance Festival Brochure ..................... 30
Area Manager with Falconer at Joust Field .................................. 31
Examples of Middle Class Characters, Costuming ......................... 32
Middle Class and Peasant Characters, Costuming .......................... 33
Nobility, Costuming ............................................................ 35
Royal Court, Costuming ....................................................... 36
Musician at the Little Guinness Pub .......................................... 39
Members of the Academy Perform a Maypole Dance ....................... 40
Michigan Renaissance Festival Management Structure ..................... 44
Blacksmith Shop (interior) ..................................................... 46
Entertainment Management Structure ......................................... 48
Site Management Structure ..................................................... 50
Don Juan and Miguel Perform at the Swan .................................. 53
Afternoon Parade ................................................................ 55

vi

vii
Figure 22 Body Puppet Performance at Joust Field ..................................... 56

Figure 23 Audience Gathered at the Greengrove Stage ................................. S9

INTRODUCTION

Each year, for times varying from one weekend to two months, Renaissance
festivals around the United States open their gates to enthusiastic patrons. Their popularity
among audiences continues to grow. Sixty—eight Renaissance festivals currently operate in
the United States and in 1996 eleven new festivals opened. A popular cultural
phenomenon unexperienced by many theatre professionals, such festivals require a unique
and innovative performance atmosphere and style deriving from a variety of sources. A
closer examination of a specific festival, the Michigan Renaissance Festival, will serve as
an example of this type of theatrical environment. This work will describe what the
Michigan Renaissance Festival is and how it creates a unique performance environment.

Before describing a Renaissance festival, two important questions surface. Why
should anyone want to re-create the Renaissance as an entertainment venue and why does it
carry such appeal for audiences? How unusual that an American public takes great delight
in an era of history which did not involve their own country. The average visitor knows
little about the specifics of Renaissance history, and yet he or she feels enough familiarity
to make meaningful connections to the names and symbols used at such a festival. The
audience enjoyment of this environment has made it so popular that an examination of its
appeal will help in the description of it as a theatrical venue.

In answering why re-create the Renaissance, a brief examination of myth and
culture needs to be made. Humans, as a species, enjoy a good story and, of the genres
available, romance remains the most appealing. A romantic myth serves splendidly for
common recognition by a large audience. With this idea as a beginning, “It is important to

identify which myths are popular in a given culture.”l The United States built itself and

2

continues to build itself on multicultural ideas brought over from many different countries.
These ethnic groups have maintained their own myths and folklore or have dropped their
heritage altogether. At best one can say that, “American myth is a collage. . . a collage of
cultures.”2

Looking at this collage to find a common tie, one possibility presents itself. The
closest thing to a romantic myth structure in the United States would be the Civil War, but
certain problems exist in using this as a common myth. First, this particularly divisive
period of history continues to separate people in some regions of the United States. The
continued display of the Confederate flag at some southern state institutions consistently
comes into question. This type of romantic myth also reinforces a negative historical
experience for the African American community. Other romantic myth structures, such as
Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, tend to be too regional to provide a recognizable story
for many Americans.

In the face of a hodgepodge of American regional and cultural myths, what is
needed is a common experience that can reach and mean something to a larger section of the
population. Originally, “Every festival reunited the individual with the collective. It
reawakens and strengthens feeling of solidarity among persons who will actually benefit

from it.”3

The humanist movement of the European Renaissance provides this common
experience. During this period of history, every country sought to elevate what is best in
humanity through both science and art. This rise in secular humanism and a return to the
classical teachings of the Greeks and Romans helped form our Western worldview. From
it we derive those “conventions, moralities, customs, and values of a people, period or
group.”“ By going to a Renaissance festival, people in the United States may find their
roots as a people by partaking of the fun and entertainment offered in this environment.
While people of the United States form their culture from a number of sources, it

predominantly associates itself with the English literary tradition. While this society

encourages contributions from other groups to the richness of American cultural fiber, the

3
unifying ingredient remains the language -- English. The English language developed into

the modern variety which we use today during the English Renaissance. Add to a common
language the burgeoning English middle class forming a market economy, and the
Renaissance, especially in England, holds as the furthest common historical point which
can retain an exotic atmosphere and still allow us to recognize aspects of ourselves. The
culture in existence then compares readily with our own, and the average patron easily
identifies himself with the various aspects of both the environment and the characters
occupying it. While familiar, it retains in its faraway time -- the Renaissance —- enough of
an exotic taste to render it exciting.

Re-creating the Renaissance gives the public a rich source of mythic symbolism and
culture to which a large section of the population can relate. While this answers one
question, another takes its place; why create a festival atmosphere and not a living
history/museum form of presentation. The growing attendance of Renaissance festivals
around the country attests to the draw of the performance environment. The popularity
stems largely from the degree of participation for the audience. Three main elements reveal
the reason for the enormous response: a carnival atmosphere, exotic environment without
having to travel far, and a blurring of fantasy with reality in the everyday world.

The carnival atmosphere’s success at a Renaissance festival is two—fold. The first
involves carnival as an actual celebration. Evidence of annual celebrations occurs
throughout much of history. These breaks from routine allowed the suspension of work as
well as social conventions. It gives the public the opportunity to behave with impunity in
whatever manner they believe Renaissance behavior dictates. People feel free to wear
costumes or masks relinquishing their true identities and places in life for a period of time.
A Renaissance festival in this way becomes a Brigadoon -- an enchanted place where out of
the ordinary things happen for a short time but then disappear until the following year.

Another examination of the attractiveness of carnival atmosphere derives from this

idea of celebration of the lower classes during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The

4
work of Mikhail Bahktin, a noted literary critic and scholar on the carnivalesque, adds to an

understanding of its popularity. His critical theories reveal that the heteroglossia of the
market place -- where ideas and language form a dialogue from folk traditions among other
sources -- bring our notions of the high and illustrious aspects of culture into a juxtaposed
relationship with the low. In this way we see that the high and sometimes intimidating
cultural symbols of the Renaissance are appropriated by the common public. “By bringing
privileged symbols and officially authorized concepts into a crudely familiar relationship
with common everyday experience, carnival achieves a transformation downward or
‘uncrowning’ of de jure relations of dependency, expropriation and social discipline.”5
This means that the relationship between “classes of culture” mingle and benefit from one
another. As an example, most people associate the Renaissance with Shakespeare and his
plays and, even further, they equate them with the idea of culture. As Peter Brook wrote,
. . one associates culture with a certain sense of duty, historical costumes and long
speeches with the sensation of being bored . . 3’6 The idea of the carnivalesque takes the
lofty cultural veneer we place on Shakespeare and rips it away to reveal it as the bawdy
popular entertainment he orginally intended. This is especially true of how the actors view
themselves and their audience at a Renaissance festival.

Returning to the earlier discussion of the celebratory aspects of carnival, the
atmosphere created by this release transports the audience. In this instance, a Renaissance
festival transports the audience to the English Renaissance. Most of the population will
never get an opportunity to travel to Europe to learn about the people and geography from
first hand experience. Cost of travel, time off from work and the bursts of political
instability in some European countries make travel difficult for the average US. citizen.
For far less money and travel time they can go to a festival. History becomes entertaining.
Regardless of whether or not that particular festival presents a truly historic or geographic
representation of England (or anywhere else for that matter) and its people, the public at

large accepts the image of time, place, and people as truth. Of course for the entertainment

5

value only the best, amusing, and romantic aspects of the period create a utopian view of
history.

When you combine the two elements of carnival with an exotic immersive
environment, you get a situation where the lines separating fantasy and reality occasionally
becomes blurred for the audience. It helps that festivals in general, “. . .typically combine
solemn and stately formalities with a suspension of some of the ordinary rules of social
life.”7 It is encouraged and accepted for the audience members to take on their own
persona for the day. Many do, as evidenced by the number of people who attend in
costume or buy articles at festivals which help them to create a character. I heard many
patrons remark with tears in their eyes that they wished they might live at the Michigan
Renaissance Festival or that the festival felt more real than their own lives. Once this level
of immersion has occured, . . [it] eliminates the social boundary or proscenium that

separates performer from onlooker.”8

When the boundry disappears between actor and
audience, the audience makes a larger investment of themselves in the suspension of
disbelief, making the experience intensely real. Without this audience commitment, the
other factors cease to have power in creating a unique theatrical environment.

Renaissance festivals compensate for the lack of a common myth structure or
cultural heritage in the United States. The English Renaissance in particular provides a
maximum point of English speaking commonality as well as recognizable historic markers,
such as Shakespeare, to create a romantic myth in which a broad section of the population
can participate. From this myth, it creates a carnival atmosphere which does not intimidate,
but allows the average patron to taste the exotic both in place and culture. Once immersed
in this type of environment, a blurring of fantasy and reality is encouraged, during which
the boundaries between audience and performer gradually dissipate. The resulting

performance situation constitutes a unique vehicle for the enjoyment of theatre and a

popular entertainment phenomenon.

NOTES

' Goodlad, J .S.R., A Sociology of Popular Drama, (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and
Littlefield, 1972) 7.

2 Codrescu, Andrei, “In Search of the American Myth,” America_n Theatre, March 1996:
64.

3 Bristol, Michael D., Carnival and Theater: Plebian Culture and the Structure of Authority
in Renaissance England, (New York: Methuen, 1985) 29.

4 Sacks, David Harris, “Searching for ‘Culture’ in the English Renaissance,” Shakesmare
Quarterly, 39 (1988): 466.

5 Bristol, Michael D. 22.

6 Brook, Peter, The Empg Space, (New York: Atheneum-Macmillan Publishing, 1968)
11.

7 Bristol, Michael D. 26.
8 Bristol, Michael D. 65.

CHAPTER ONE
METHODOLOGY USED IN THIS STUDY

No comprehensive study of the Michigan Renaissance Festival or the theatrical
aspects of its environment has been undertaken. As one of the higher attended and larger
Renaissance festivals in the United States, the Michigan Renaissance Festival serves as an
excellent representative of Renaissance festivals in general. It possesses points in common
with other festivals in terms of number of actors, the size of the grounds and the number
and types of standing structures found at a typical festival. By using select qualitative
techniques set forth by Michael Patton (1990), this study will provide a descriptive analysis
of the Michigan Renaissance Festival. This study will explore this particular festival by
identifying the various aspects which give it an identity and observing the way these
aspects interact with one another. It is hoped that this study will provide a lens through
which the Renaissance festival may be given cultural identity.

The elements which constitute a general Renaissance festival are numerous. Since
each festival is potentially different and generalization of the sixty-eight festivals currently
in operation is not possible, this study will undertake only to describe the Michigan
Renaissance Festival, hereafter referred to as the MRF. My working relationship at the
MRF provides unique insight along with some clearly identifiable problems. In the eleven
years of my employment at the MRF, I have done a variety of jobs. I began as an area
food supervisor working in a food booth my first year. For the next four years, I served as
an apprentice in the Academy learning to become a street musician and entertainer.I Since

that point, I have been a member of the production staff, served as the Academy director,

8
played in a stage act both as a musician and a member of the body puppet troupe and have

been a member of the royal court.

A qualitative study of the MRF requires a blending of two theoretical traditions:
ethnography and heuristic inquiry. The ethnographic approach aids in answering what a
Renaissance festival is and who works there. In this way, a researcher observes the
essentials at the center of the MRF that separate it from an art fair or repertory company,
and views who and what are at the center of creating this festival. Since there are gaps in
the information kept by the MRF, and a lack of research available on this entity, a second
approach is also necessary for fuller understanding and definition. Heuristic inquiry
creates a benefit and a hurdle in this particular area. This approach usually describes the
experience of the phenomena by comparing and contrasting the experiences of several
researchers. Grounded in the researcher’s personal experience and the intensity of the
relationship with the phenomena yields an understanding. Most of this information comes
from tacit knowledge of the subject. It is usually the case that several researchers serve to
support the meaning, essence, and quality within the experience. In this particular
investigation, this is not possible since there is currently only one person studying the
phenomena. While this creates a difficulty, the use of research materials, available data,
and interviews will assist in supporting my experiences in working at the MRF.

The main body of material contained herein describes a Renaissance festival using
the Michigan Renaissance Festival as a singular representative. My eleven years working at
this festival will bring a personal knowledge of the techniques required for a performance
of this type as well as an intimate understanding of what comprises the Michigan
Renaissance Festival. Having worked in many of the positions available at the MRF, my
knowledge of these elements includes what constitutes the MRF in terms of the various
roles, responsibilities and rules. This investigation will include a description of the
merchants (from the specific crafters to the vendors), the support staff, and an examination

of the different levels of entertainment featured at the festival.

9
A great deal of this knowledge comes from ideas put forth by Robert J. Stemberg

and David R. Caruso and defined as direct learning, mediated learning, and tacit learning.2
For example, I spent my first five years learning from the workshops offered by the MRF
as well as being apprenticed to several acting “masters” with different specialties such as
music or improvisational ability. The rest of my knowledge comes from tacit learning -- a
knowledge that is not openly expressed or stated.3 Most of my tacit knowledge comes
from practical trial and error as well as immersion and observation. While these
experiences may be considered highly personal, my perception of the MRF and its
workings, with its immediacy and personal nature, will also serve to validate and verify
actual events and happenings.

For the purposes of writing this study, my role as an observer in the festival was
known to a few select people; however, most of the employees were unaware of the study.
As the study was only concerned with describing the MRF, it was unnecessary to inform
all of the employees. The nature of the MRF leaves it under constant scrutiny by the
patrons who act as a large roving audience from moment to moment during the course of a
day. The employees are used to being under constant observation.

Resources from the Michigan Renaissance Festival include advertising brochures,
video, production files, and educational material from the workshops offered there. All of
these, in conjunction with photographs taken at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, will
help in describing its environment. A number of documents on the early years of the MRF
are unavailable. Over the years files have been purged primarily because no one thought
that there would be an interest in the history of the MRF. A majority of employees also left
the MRF this past year, making it impossible to contact them, as well as creating difficulties
in accessing their files. Interviews with Clark Orwick and the actors involved in Missed-A-
Piece-Theatre will enhance the description of the Michigan Renaissance Festival from a
performer's viewpoint“ The current entertainment director of the MRF was also

interviewed to provide insight on what is involved in producing a Renaissance festival.

10
The entertainment director also attended MRF during its first year, and she has been

employed as an actress there since its third year. For the purposes of interviewing, I
predominantly used an open-ended interview with some flexibility built into the format so
that I could further explore the answers to some questions while permitting other questions
if an answer peaked further interest in another area. While this amount of data may seem
minimal, “The validity, meaningfulness, and insights generated from qualitative inquiry
have more to do with the information-richness of the cases selected and the
observational/analytical capabilities of the researcher than with sample size.”5

While the data available is small and a majority of the information comes from the
personal experience of the researcher, the use of combined methodology along with known
research material should produce an understandable description of the Michigan
Renaissance Festival. The triangulation of methodological practices and triangulation of
data will assist in giving descriptions of the environment at the Michigan Renaissance
Festival. This study may encourage personnel from the MRF and other festivals to keep
better historical records. The description may encourage further study of a Renaissance

festival beyond a general description of a specific festival.

11

NOTES

' The Michigan Renaissance Festival Academy was established in 1986. In the tradition of
guild apprentices, the MRF created a school of acting with a concentration in the area of
improvisation. Using an effective combination of workshops and one-on-one mentoring, it
fosters the development of solid performance techniques and acting skills in performers of
various levels.

2 Caruso, David R. and Robert J. Stemburg, “Practical Modes of Knowing.” Learning and

Teaching the Ways of Knowing, Part 2, Eisner, Elliot, ed. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1985) 142-150.

3 Caruso, David R. and Robert J. Stemburg 146.

4 The interviews with Clark Orwick and the players of Missed-A-Piece Theatre provide a
contrast between the perceptions of national performers and local performers. Continuity
between the two lies in the fact that Orwick writes and initially directed Missed-A-Piece
Theatre. They also provide insight on the new way of performing the most readily
recognized aspect of the Renaissance -- Shakespeare.

5 Patton, Michael Quinn, Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, 2nd ed, (Newbury
Park, London: Sage Publications, 1990) 185.

CHAPTER TWO
WHAT IS THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL?

History

The Michigan Renaissance Festival opened for the first time in 1980. Since then it
has moved its location once and has been owned by two people, David Pearson, his
brother and James Peterson, during its seventeen years of operation. Much of the
information concerning the early history of the MRF no longer exists. Not thinking of any
possible historical interest, personnel purged the computer records and hardcopy files.
Although the information does exist piecemeal, contacting the owners involved has been
difficult. While they do not object to a study, they do not wish to fully participate. Much
of the early history has been obtained by speaking with production staff members who
have been contiguously hired since 1980.

The MRF began as an idea by the owner of the Texas Renaissance Festival, but he
decided that he did not want to live in Michigan' , so he sold it to James Peterson2 and
David Pearson’s brother. They gathered a staff which he sent to several existing festivals
in order to better sample the possibilities. They began building the site at Columbiere
Center, an extention of the University of Detroit, in Clarkston, Michigan. After six years at
this location, the Michigan Renaissance Festival moved to its current site off Dixie
Highway in Groveland Township.

This festival started purely as a business venture to make money, and it quickly
became a point of contention between the two owners three years ago.3 For reasons, not
made clear, David Pearson’s brother dropped out of the management, and it operated as a

private corporation under the supervision of David Pearson, as Site Manager, with the
12

13
understanding that James Peterson was a partner in the venture.4 For reasons not made

privy to the production staff, the two partners had a falling out, and the court awarded
ownership to James Peterson. He continues to run both the Minnesota Renaissance
Festival and the Michigan Renaissance Festival. David Pearson has since moved and
started the Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival near Butler, Pennsylvania.

The continental United States currently contains sixty-eight festivals that use a
Renaissance theme as compiled by the SCRIBE Network.5 SCRIBE is a clearing house of
information on a variety of different festivals (not just with a Renaissance theme), and they
publish this data and related topics both as a magazine and an electronic data base.
Typically a festival bases its theme, or given circumstances surrounding the festival, on this
historical period. These themes provide a foundation for building designs and costuming
as well as scripted and improvised material presented both on the street and stage. An
important part of any Renaissance festival, these stages help to separate the Renaissance
festival from a theme oriented art fair. They, along with the actors, provide the theatrical
atmosphere necessary for the audience immersion typical of the Renaissance festival’s

unique performance environment.

Era Guidelines

The Michigan Renaissance Festival uses the date 1600 as a guideline. This
guideline serves as a reference point for designers, performers and artisans. In creating the
buildings, costumes, and crafts, a specific time gives a framework for building an
environment for the audience, or patrons. As mentioned, this date does not serve as a
restriction to creativity or what can and cannot be represented. The MRF develops and
uses any historical material from 1450-1600, but anything after 1600 qualifies as an
anachronism. This date does not serve to give specifics on architecture or costuming. It is
a general date which creates a starting point for people not steeped in Renaissance history,

and it does not seek to force the creation of a meticulously accurate picture of a Renaissance

14
village. When asked if MRF wanted to give the patrons an honest flavor of the

Renaissance, entertainment director, Misha Dionne, replied, “I want them to have an honest
flavor of the fantasy Renaissance as we present it. I don’t want them to see sewers running
in the street.”6

Several examples of how this date operates as a guideline can be cited from
different areas of the Renaissance festival. One of the most important is costuming. Actors
are responsible for their own attire with the understanding that the entertainment director
must give approval. During workshops, the festival production staff provides the actors
with a list of acceptable fabrics, colors and patterns for use in the costumes based on their
character. For example, the nobility may use corduroy but not polyester. However, a
polyester microfiber is acceptable because it looks and feels like silk. While an atmosphere
reflecting 1600 is the desired end, staff and actors firmly keep in mind that the material
necessary to create completely authentic costumes may not be available or comfortable to
wear.

Another example of how this guideline works can be seen in several shops at the
MRF. Some of the items for sale are quite expensive —- armor or a sword for example.
People of the twentieth-century don’t carry $300 around in their pocket so the MRF has
installed two options. The patron can go to one of two ATM machines on the site or can
use their credit card. Shops can request installation of a phone line to check credit during
the day. Obviously, ATMs and phone lines are anachronisms, but the comfort and
enjoyment of the patron takes precedence over historical accuracy.

These guidelines influence the creating of characters for the actors. Most of the
characters are purely fictional with only peripheral associations with people who actually
existed in the Renaissance. For example, during the 1996 festival, an actor played the
character Bob DaVinci, Leonardo’s younger brother. Two members of the Michigan State
University Theatre Department, Katja Luczki and Nicolle Iverson, and I played the Borgia

Sisters, Isabella, Gabriella and Lucrezia. Of the three only Lucrezia carries immediate

15
recognition, although we did actually find a reference to Isabella during our research. Both

these examples cite personas who either actually lived during the Renaissance or were
fictionally related to people who did. All peasant and merchant characters as well as most
of the royal court are purely fictional. Directors stress the ability to evoke the era and
provide recognition for audiences over absolute historical accuracy.

To a lesser extent, the festival requires artisans to keep within the date guideline.
The crafts they sell must not be mass produced by purely mechanical methods. Most of the
items fall within those parameters while still maintaining a usefulness in a household of the
twentieth-century. Handmade paper goods and pottery sit next to blacksmiths who create
swords, armor, or heart-shaped dinner bells from wrought iron. Even when not strictly
derived from the Renaissance, the crafts contribute to the overall village market atmosphere

of the Michigan Renaissance Festival.

Themes at Michigan Renaissance Festival

This festival theme contributes to the scenario used in scripted and improvised
entertainment, and it provides the framework for the actor in the performance environment.
The theme varies from festival to festival in both content and degree of importance to the
overall feel of the festival. In some instances it may vary from year to year or may change
only when necessity dictates. In many cases, the festivals open only on weekends and
each weekend might have its own theme operating within the framework of the larger
context. During the early years of the MRF, no thematic framework was in place.7 The
MRF introduced a theme for the first time in 1986.

For the general theme, the Michigan Renaissance Festival uses a royal visit at
harvest time. Since the festival runs from late August until the end of September, the
harvest celebration motif works very well with the changing of season in Michigan. As a

festival only open on weekends, each weekend contains its own individual theme (such as

16
Romance Weekend), and this may change from year to year depending on the popular

response of the patrons.

The general theme of the Michigan Renaissance Festival has changed from time to
time. The first few festivals were small, lasting only a few weekends, and did not have a
unifying theme as such. The village received a name once it moved to its permanent site in
1986. Christened the village of Hollygrove, the name combines the township name with
that of the nearby city of Holly. After the move, the production staff added a larger
cohesive theme to the festival as well as the special weekends.

The main focus of the festival revolves around the king and queen of the realm
coming to celebrate the harvest in their favorite village, Hollygrove. Participants never
refer to the kingdom as anything other than “The Realm.” Committing to a specific
geographic location would lock both the history and the type of characters encountered at
Michigan Renaissance Festival in a specific country in 1600. A vague kingdom has been
popular thus far and allows the festival to offer the audience a wider variety of views and
experiences from the Renaissance. The purpose behind the MRF does not include a
completely authentic reproduction of a specific place and time during the Renaissance.8
Slightly fictionalizing the place for the action makes greater creativity and flexibility in
terms of character and weekend themes possible.

The general theme of the Michigan Renaissance Festival for the past ten years has
been based on a story about the relationship between the monarchs and how the village of
Hollygrove came to be. On a hunting trip over three hundred years ago, King Edward I
and his party stopped to rest in a grove of fir trees sprinkled with holly bushes. They
resumed their hunt rested and refreshed vowing to return to the charming spot each year at
summer’s end. As the years went by, more travelers and hunters came to enjoy rest in the
“Grove of Holly” and soon an inn was built surrounded by a stone wall. While the original

inn no longer stands, fragments of the wall remain around the site of the Children’s Dell.

17

King Edward 1, his family and retainers kept their word and return to Hollygrove
each summer. This much anticipated event Opened to visitors from the “outside world”
seventeen years ago. However, to stir things up, the royal cousins of King Edward I and
Queen Kathryne pay a call from their far off kingdom of Vulgaria to attempt a coup, plot
misdeeds and lend an air of good natured nastiness.9

During the 1996 festival the actors playing Edward I and Kathryn decided to retire
and the crown went to the king’s brother, George, who took for his wife the queen’s
sister, Gwendolyn. The festival celebrated the wedding of the new monarchs on Romance
Weekend as well as their coronation as the new rulers. The theme must remain this flexible
to allow for the coming and going of new actors in a number of roles but especially for

those in high profile positions.

Weekend Themes

Weekend themes change and continue to vary from year to year. Some weekends
became favorites among the patrons and remain in the yearly schedule. At the daily
morning meeting, the entertainment director notifies the actors of the special events of the
weekend so that they can inform patrons and add the theme of the weekend to their
improvisations. The most popular themes are Childhood Quest, Renaissance Romance,
and Highland Fling.

The Childhood Quest weekend features specific events for children that include a
Lego castle building contest, knighting ceremonies and a birthday party for the Children’s
Dell mascot, Fizzle the Dragon.10 The Children’s Dell is a location in the village where
children can play and create craft projects to take home. The Dell contains its own stage for
the performance of commedia dell’ arte and puppet shows.

Renaissance Romance focuses on the romantic atmosphere created at the festival.
The king and queen renew their wedding vows on this weekend and fifty-two couples

come to the festival for a mass wedding on the jousting field.ll One popular game played

 

Figure 1
Caber Toss Championship

19

by both performers and patrons is called “Romancing the Renaissance Stone” where men
and women can pick up a rock with a number and a red ribbon at the Front Gate. Each
rock pairs with a matching number and wearing the ribbon denotes the players. When
people match the rocks, they can turn them in for a free beverage. This dating game makes
people who do not necessarily have a date feel that they can participate in the romance of
the weekend.

On Highland Fling weekend, Michigan Renaissance Festival plays host to the
North American Caber Toss Championship (Fig. 1).'2 The Red Thistle Pipe and Drum
Band gives concerts and leads the daily parades as part of the events. A group of
traditional Scottish dancers comes with the band and gives dance exhibitions during various
times of the day.

These basic elements and conditions of the MRF performance environment help the
actors, designers and artisans to rouse the imagination of the audience. It provides a
springboard for their creativity instead of making the artists feel restricted by forcing them
to remain faithful to history. This kind of freedom allows them to create an interesting
environment. A general theme helps both them and the patron by providing a framework
for greater interactivity embodied within the scripted and improvised material presented
during the course of a day. The individual weekend themes contribute toward an even

greater amount of interactivity for the audience.

The Set of the Michigan Renaissance Festival

Part of any Renaissance festival experience is the creation of the environment. This
includes many aspects -- the two most important being: the general environment and the
entertainment. The general environment encompasses the village setting. The shops and
other standing structures such as stages and gates contribute to the creation of a
Renaissance atmosphere. Costuming also plays an important role in the general

environment because, while not all employees are actors, all the employees contribute to the

20

“set”. Entertainment adds life to the environment through both stage, or scheduled,
performances and the street performances of other actors.

The village as a whole constitutes a theatrical setting, as mentioned earlier. The
stage in this instance includes the shops and other structures on the grounds nestled on part
of the 215 square acres owned by the MRF (Fig. 2). Shops create the perimeter of the
MRF (Fig. 3) with smaller groupings of shops toward the center. Responsibility for the
design and construction of the shop falls to the individual artisans, referred to as crafters,
pending approval by festival management and the head of the grounds crew. While wood
remains the building material of choice, some people have added stone facing to the shops
as well as elaborate windows and occasionally a central hearth for demonstrations and
warmth. The date of 1600 acts as a guideline for the architectural design while the amount
of money paid for the space will help to decide the size of the shop and the area given to the
display of goods. While temporary craft booths are owned by the MRF, the majority are
the property of the crafter who also pays for the construction and upkeep of the structure.

At the Michigan Renaissance Festival, Ormworks represents the average shop
(Fig. 4a). The exterior uses a Tudor design with the addition of the ramp for handicapped
accessibility. It is located in a small grouping of shops in the interior of the village between
the Green Grove stage and the Children’s Dell. Often crafters in a related medium (at
Ormworks a printer and painter) share a shop. The interior of the shop displays the various
goods (Fig. 4b). The stairway to the left leads to an upper floor where the crafters often
keep extra stock as well as sleeping accommodations for the weekend -- a practice not
uncommon among people who keep shops at the festival.

The series of different stages constitute the second most frequent structure at the
Michigan Renaissance Festival. The Crown typifies a larger stage. The performance area
measures fifteen feet by twenty feet four feet high. The back of the stage supports a simple
backdrop structure with windows at center and doors at stage right and stage left. Other

stages tend to have slightly smaller playing areas and have only a single story structure at

21

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26
the back. The Griffon’s unusual design models itself after a ship deck and rigging

providing multiple playing areas on a single stage (Fig. 5, background).

Other standing structures include the front and back gates, food vending booths, the
Market Square and its wall (Fig. 6), as well as pavilions and the Castle, a feast hall. Each
of these serves to add detail to the grounds of the village and provide points of interest and
rest for the patrons. They also tend to be multipurpose, acting as both stages and

landmarks.

Characters and Costumes

While the shops provide a setting for the Renaissance atmosphere, the life of the
setting comes from the costumed employees. MRF requires all personnel to provide their
own costumes with two exceptions. Production management heads, such as the
entertainment director (Fig. 7, left) typically do not wear a costume, and the king and queen
often have their costumes provided by the MRF (Fig. 8, king and queen). All other
employees must be costumed in an approved and appropriate manner. Typically, the
person will bring the design sketch or costume to their immediate supervisor who, using
festival guidelines, will then approve or disapprove the selection.

Workshops, given prior to the opening of the Michigan Renaissance Festival, help
people learn to design and make their own costume. These workshops are given by senior
actors and select guest speakers in various theatre disciplines from area universities. Part
of the workshop discusses the type of character they will portray and based on that
character information the actor will draft costume designs. Most characters fall under the
heading of upper lower class or merchant class (Fig. 9, 10, 1 1). In the rosy utopia of
Hollygrove, the peasants never really become too dirty or smelly and thus the appellation of
upper lower class. Most people working at MRF for the first time choose to develop a
lower class peasant character. The fabrics cost less, and the designs are easier to sew. A

generic peasant costume gives the actor leeway in discovering a character without having to

27

 

Figure 5
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Area Manager with Falconer at Joust Field

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make a new costume if they find that the character they have developed does not work well
for them.

The merchant class encompasses both actors and crafters, though not all crafters opt
for a more complex costume. Some content themselves with peasant garb for comfort.
The merchant class wavers between some of the richer fabric with a less fashionable
Renaissance cut. This gives them the look of attempting to emulate the nobility yet falling
slightly short of the illusion. Only members of the royal court including the king and queen
(Fig. 8), their relatives and retainers, and visiting nobles from other courts (Fig. l2, 13)
represent the upper class and nobility. In addition to the actual clothing, actors are
provided with assistance in finding detailing for the costume that will aid in recognition of
the character as well as serve as a means for improvisational interaction; for example, a
tailor character should have fabric samples and sewing equipment.

While following the guideline date of 1600, the production staff of the Michigan
RenaisSance Festival always keeps the practical in mind concerning costumes. The use of
richer fabrics for the upper and merchant classes balances with the knowledge that some of
the fabrics may be unavailable, hard to find, or very expensive. The staff encourages
reasonable substitutes. The need to wash these costumes easily remains a concern as well.
For the sake of comfort and health, it is important to remember the weather in Michigan
during the months of August and September. The temperature can range from a one-
hundred ten degree heat index in August to a wind-chill of thirty-eight degrees in
September. Only women on the court actually wear corseting and both sexes keep to
layered costume pieces that can be laced on or removed as the weather dictates.

Since the festival encourages patrons to dress in costume as well, a number of
shops devoted to hats, tights, shirts and other articles of clothing. A patron could
completely costume himself at the MRF, and many people do either dress up with
purchases or come in their own costumes. These range from very elaborate suits of chain

mail to simple doublets and gowns made from curtains or bed sheets. The production staff

35

 

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has created a way to distinguish patrons from actual employees because so many patrons
do choose to wear costumes. The MRF issues a commemorative pin with the Michigan
Renaissance Festival and the year printed on it to employees. These pins must be worn on
their costume at all times. Many festivals have similar policies serving as a security and

identification for both the employees and the patrons.

Forms of Entertainment

Both the date and the theme of a Renaissance festival serve to guide the production
aspects. These do not seek to restrict the artists, but they help enhance the creative process
by providing a starting point for ideas. The Michigan Renaissance Festival is not meant to
serve as a model of authenticity for the Renaissance period it portrays. Instead, the festival
utilizes the date and theme to encourage the largest variety of representation for its
audiences and achieving a specific atmosphere of the Renaissance through its application to
the setting, costumes, characters and types of entertainment.

Viewed from a technical standpoint and the nature of a Renaissance festival itself,
the entire area of the village is a stage and performance environment. Spontaneous
interactions between the characters and the patrons constitute performances although they in
no way follow an assigned schedule. In this sense, the patrons never cease to be audience
members as they stroll the grounds and peruse the shops at their leisure. Even if they do
not attend a scheduled stage performance, they still participate as an audience by walking
through the village of Hollygrove. Later chapters will further cover the nature of these
interactions.

An average Renaissance festival should possess at least one traditional stage for the
purposes of scheduled entertainment. The traditional stage consists of some kind of raised
platform in front of an area reserved for audience seating. According to information from
SCRIBE, the average number of stages for a festival is three with the largest festival, the

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between two and seven stages. A distinction can be made between a traditional stage and
other performance areas. Other performance areas include pubs, feast halls, and street
space set aside for scheduled performances. All of these areas constitute a staged
performance area. Other types of performances can occur anywhere a character interacts
with a patron.

There are eight traditional stages consisting of raised platforms usually between
three and four feet high at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. The playing area varies from
stage to stage with some as small as five feet by ten feet with others as large as fifteen feet
by twenty feet. Designers back the playing area in one of three ways: a variant of the inner
above and inner below, one or two small doors set in a wall, or nothing at all. As in
performance spaces of the Renaissance, “There was no catagoric division between the
space of the audience and space of the players, neither was the stage ‘localized’. . .”"’
The action on the stages frequently crosses into the audience and back again, and audience
members are free to respond vocally to the actors on the stage.

Taking this cross-over between audience and actor a step further, the other types of
scheduled performance spaces can be examined. Peter Brook best describes it as rough
theatre, . . the theatre that’s not in a theatre, the theatre on carts, on wagons, on trestles,
audiences standing drinking, sitting round tables, audiences joining in, answering
back . . .”"’ These other spaces at Michigan Renaissance Festival, while scheduled for
performances, tend to be less formal in both content and audience than the traditional
stages. In addition to the eight traditional stages, there are two pub spaces, a feast hall, and
eleven reserved street spaces. These spaces include the areas in and around the two
Guinness pubs typically used by musicians (Fig. 14). The audience usually stands or sits
on small benches around a central space on the floor for the musicians. The MRF also
boasts a feast hall named simply The Castle. A cleared floor space can be set up in-the-
round or arranged as a thrust depending upon the placement of the tables and benches. The

jousting field also qualifies as a performance space for both the knights participating and

39

 

 

 

Figure 14
Musician at the Little Guinness Pub

40

 

Figure 15
Members of the Academy Perform a Maypole Dance

41

certain guest artists. Finally, there are the scheduled street performances. Landmarks, such
as The Oak or The Knight’s Path, denote these spaces, and they can be as large or as small
as needed depending on both the needs of the performers and the number of audience
members.

These performance areas present a variety of entertainment including musicians,
dancers (Fig. 15) and pirates (Fig. 5) while the most prominent types of performances tend
to be vaudevillian in nature. These include the jugglers, tightrope walkers, sword and
flame swallowers, and their variants. The entertainers refer to what they do as neo-
vaudeville. The actors do not seek to present historically accurate entertainment beyond the
use of an accent and the costuming. Although some of the acts, such as juggling, would
have been seen during the Renaissance, the style in which they are presented borrows more
from the vaudevillian stage tradition of the early twentieth-century. Actors also present
burlesques of Shakespeare’s plays, and members of the Academy, an actor training
program, present commedia dell’ arte. The antics of the royal court and the full contact
jousting provide the largest audience draw for the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Guest
performers, who come for one or two weekends, and the special entertainment that are a
part of the theme for the weekend, augment the conventional performances mentioned here.

The structure of the grounds and the different types of buildings provide a setting
for the brilliantly colored costumes of both the actors and those patrons who wish to
participate more fully in the festival experience. Within this setting, there are two distinct
forms of entertainment being performed: the scheduled performances that occur on both
traditional stages and those areas set aside for performance space, and a series of informal
unscheduled interactions involving patrons and what Renaissance festivals call street

characters. Both contribute to audience interaction on different levels.

42

NOTES

' Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 1.

2 James Peterson was unavailable for interviewing.

3 While I did not have the opportunity to interview the owner and former owner directly, I
have had many encounters with both. They have always made business the bottom line
and many of the decisions concerning the running of the MRF are purely concerned with
financial gain or loss. This would often be discussed at production meeting though usually
in an informal manner.

4 No one seems to know the name of David Pearson’s brother, and David Pearson to date
has been unavailable for comment. This portion of the MRF history is the most hazy and
the existing documentation is considered proprietary information.

5 “SCRIBE Faire List.” SCRIBE Network: hhtp://www.cirr.com/SCRIBE (9 Dec. 1996).
6 Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 3.

7 Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 l.

8 Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 3.

9 Michigan Renaissance Festival, The Histog of Hollygrove, Workshop Document, 1996.

'0 Michigan Renaissance Festival, Relive the Days of Knights, Program, Seventeeth
Annual, 1996 1-2.

" Michigan Renaissance Festival, Relive the Days of Knights, Program, Seventeeth
Annual, 1996 1-2.

'2 Michigan Renaissance Festival, Relive the Days of Knights, Program, Seventeeth
Annual, 1996 1-2.

'3 Hattaway, Michael, Elizabethan Popular Theatre: Plays in Performance, (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982) 18.

'4 Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, (New York: Atheneum-Macmillan Publishing, 1968)
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CHAPTER THREE
THE MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Areas of Production

The Michigan Renaissance Festival has three main areas of production: foods and
crafts, entertainment, and support staff.I These areas organize themselves into different
groups within the main organization (Fig. 16). Each has its own area of responsibility and
a staff of supervisors. The different groups are to a large extent autonomous and at their

highest levels answer to the general manager who communicates directly with the owner of

the MRF.

Foods and Crafts

The first group, foods and crafts, handles the concerns of selling food and the
interests of the individual crafters. Food vendors and crafters have separate supervisors
and are on the same level as other department heads (Fig. 16). The MRF owns its own
food contract which means that they contract food services to themselves. All monies from
food sales goes directly to the owners of the MRF with one exception. Vendors of
alcoholic beverages are run by other organizations, usually a public group such as band
boosters or community drama clubs. They buy the alcohol from the MRF and sell it at a
profit for their group’s treasury.

The food services supervisor delegates responsibility to five area food managers
who each oversee a row of food booths. These five areas are staffed with employees who
cook and sell the food. Runners, one for each area, use a truck to restock the food booths

from the main storage. Only those employees who work at the counter must wear
43

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costumes. While food area employees are encouraged to participate in workshops, many
do not come and as a result not all the food employees create characters or use a dialect
during the course of the day. Some do, but that is the exception rather than the rule.
Individual crafters follow a different process. Only the craft coordinator works
with the crafters. Assistance may be provided by area managersz, who form part of safety
and services. Crafters begin the process early in the year by sending in pictures and
descriptions of their wares, costumes, and booths (Fig. 17). These are juried by a panel of
festival staff members who decide which crafters will be allowed to sell merchandise there.
The crafters design and erect their own shops in accordance with the space available and
festival guidelines, or they can buy a pre-exisiting shop. Each year the crafter leases the
land upon which the shop sits. This rate is determined by the front footage of the shop. A
minimum of $350 per year is required, but cost can range upwards to $1500. As with the
food vendors, crafters are encouraged to attend the workshops prior to the opening of the
festival. Some come, but many do not. Not all decide to participate in the general
Renaissance atmosphere creating a character and dialect. All crafters must wear costumes,
as must any additional employees. The festival management leaves the hiring of additional
booth personnel to individual crafters. Crafters must also provide a banner to be carried in
the afternoon parade; failure to do so results in a fine between $50 and $100. Nearly a
third of the crafters at the MRF travel to other festivals in the country and are based in a
state other than Michigan. The other two-thirds come from different parts of the state. The
shops and their wares provide part of the draw for audiences. The beautiful handmade
crafts and some hard to find items are the main attraction for some patrons. The shops give
a picturesque setting and the attempt to create an immersive environment would fall short
without them. To some, however, the failure of many crafters to stay purely within the
bounds of the Renaissance theme detracts from the overall feel. Twenieth-century craft
items, lack of character and accent, and the plain use of credit card phone lines detract from

the illusion.

46

 

 

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An odd exception to both the food vendors and the crafters is games. Game managers and
their employees, have two divisions: independently owned and festival owned. The largest
games area at the festival includes a log game, archery, axe throwing and vegetable
throwing; all are owned by one individual who tours from festival to festival. Other games
such as the jail, Jacob’s ladder, and the merry-go-round are owned by separate individuals
who hire their own employees. The festival owns several games, and the entertainment
director hires the people to fill these positions while the assistant entertainment director

supervises the game owners.

Entertainment

The Michigan Renaissance Festival requires a large and diverse staff to Operate
smoothly (Fig. 18). There is an entertainment director who employs other directors and
managers to aid in supervising the entertainment aspects of the festival. The royal court
and street characters, academy, front gate, and body puppet troupe all have their own
directors hired by the entertainment director. Also working with the entertainment director,
although a small autonomous staff group, is the public relations staff. They help provide
press releases, supervise special events, and work closely with the the staff running the
feasthall.

A breakdown of responsibility illustrates the size and complexity of the production.
An assistant entertainment director oversees games, the Children’s Dell and assists the
Academy directors. A costumer oversees the stock costumes owned by MRF and assists
with the workshops in costuming. The street characters, royal court, and the Academy
have separate directors’. The Academy usually has two directors, one for apprentices and
another for joumeymen, who work closly in conjunction with one another. The front gate
falls under the responsibilities of entertainment and has a manager who reports to the
entertainment director. The body puppet director takes responsibility for rehearsing and

scheduling the body puppets. All of the directors report directly to the entertainment

48

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director and help to schedule, oversee and troubleshoot any problems. The number of
actors on site makes these positions necessary to the smooth management required for the
run of the MRF. Stage acts and musicians all fall under the direct supervision of the
entertainment director who uses stage managers to help with the schedule. The only
entertainment group not under the responsibility of the entertainment director is the Knight
and Horse Program. The general manager hires and oversees this group directly.

To assist the entertainment director, the festival management created a production !
staff which meets on a monthly basis during the year and more often as the dates for the
festival approach. All directors, coordinators, public relations personnel, area managers,

and stage managers are encouraged to attend and often do, though seldom all at once.

 

Other members of the production staff include employees who have-been with the festival
for several years. This staff brainstorrns new themes and special event ideas and
troubleshoots problem areas. Those production staff members who work directly with
entertainment set up audition criteria and times, and they also help the entertainment director
in certain hiring decisions.

Also part of the entertainment support staff are the stage managers. The stage
shows require very little in the way of technical support. The Michigan Renaissance
Festival uses no lights and only one basic sound system for the joust. All the stage acts
provide their own equipment, props, and costumes. No one uses any set pieces with the
exceptions of the thrones used when the king and queen hold court. To keep schedules
running smoothly, festival management hires a separate stage manager for each stage and
one stage manager whose sole responsibility is to assist the royal court. These stage
managers ensure that acts do not run over their time slot, assist the various acts when the
actors have a special request, and set up for any special events scheduled on the weekends.

Separate from the stage managers are the area managers. The festival safety and
service personnel hire and supervise five area managers to help with general concerns.

They patrol a specified area of the festival and help to coordinate entertainment and crafts.

50

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51
Area managers serve as liasons with the various departments within the festival. This

occurs only during the actual run of the festival. They provide communication, water,
information and some basic security during the day. Each area manager is assigned a
specific territory to cover on the festival grounds. This assigned territory never changes to
provide a continuity and trust with the manager. It also gives the area manager the time to

become aquainted with the specific needs of the people in his or her area.

Support Staff

A site manager, who stays at the site just prior to the opening of festival and stays
after the run to tie up any remaining concerns before closing, is responsible for two groups:
grounds crew and safety and services (Fig. 19).

MRF employs an extensive grounds crew to build new structures, fix old
buildings, repair road and pathways, and install landscaping. The head of the grounds
crew designs and builds any extra structures at the festival site, but he is not responsible for
any technical needs at the festival beyond building and upkeep requirements. Audience
seating also falls under “buildings”. Any other needs become the concern of area and stage
managers who are free to consult with the grounds crew. Crews begin working on the site
in late May, and they often continue working on large projects throughout the run of the
festival.

The final area of support staff is safety and services. This includes the area
managers, patron concerns, first aid, security personnel, and the parking contractor. The
last three groups are all independently contracted through county agencies. The area
managers also work closely with both entertainment and crafts to help provide
communications and assistance during the day. The first aid comes from Groveland county
EMTs and the security is provided by off-duty police personnel. The parking staff is hired

from an outside company to assist with the traffic volume pouring into the festival in the

 

52

course of an average weekend. All contracts are for the length of the run and must be

renewed for the following year.

Entertainment Areas

The entertainment employees, while not the largest group, have the most complex
job descriptions and responsibilities. Several distinct groups fall under the heading of
entertainment, each with supervising personnel who report to the entertainment director.
One group, the people working at the Front Gate, remain the responsibility of entertainment
although they do not hold an entertainment contract. The employees act as greeters, staff
the information centers, and assist with programs and broadsheets. The two different types
of entertainment groups are stage performers and street performers. Street performers can
be further described based on the nature of their jobs and responsibilities.

As previously mentioned, stage performances at Renaissance festivals have been
termed neo—vaudeville by some, and the term describes the form very well. The average
audience member at the Michigan Renaissance Festival views a number of classic
vaudeville style shows tailored for a Renaissance feel. Thom Sellectomy, a sword
swallower, exemplifies this idea. Between audience patter he swallows sharp objects,
balloons and occasionally fire. After his show, on the same stage, the Zucchini Brothers
execute a number of acrobatic and juggling stunts. Jonathan the Jester’s Joke-on-a-Rope
performs his tightrope show down the lane in a street space set aside for his equipment.

The most popular performance is The Ded Bob Sho, a modified ventriloquist act,
presented by Clark Orwick. Orwick plays Smuj, a servant, to Ded Bob, a skeleton puppet
with a great deal of attitude and a smart mouth filled with wit and song. The show consists
of dead jokes, songs and the antics of audience members chosen to be Ded Bob Zombies.
Clark Orwick also authors another popular show, Missed-A-Piece Theatre. The actors of
Missed-A-Piece portray second rate Renaissance actors who burlesque Shakespeare’s

plays. Their repertoire, written by Clark Orwick, includes such titles as “The Rotten Luck

 

53

 

Figure 20
Don Juan and Miguel Perform at the Swan

54
and Really Bad Tinting of Romeo and Juliet,” “How Macbeth Killed All His Friends,” and

“The Messy, Horrible, Bloody Death and Mass-Stabbing of Julius Caesar.”

Scheduled street performances tend to be musical in nature. These include itinerant
minstrel characters, small musical groups, and madrigal singers who perform in or just off
the streets of the village. In conjunction with these performers, there are people who
occasionally perform traditional dances to the music or singing (Fig. 14). While they do
not draw the largest audiences, the sound itself lends to the general atmosphere of the F
festival in the same way the motion picture soundtrack adds to a film’s emotional intensity.

Another type of entertainment found at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, and

certainly popular, is what I term combat-based scenarios. These include the scheduled In

 

duels, occurring both on a traditional stage and in the street, as well as the full contact ""
jousting. Don Juan and Miguel perform fight exhibitions with a comic base on a traditional

stage (Fig. 20). The Lord Sheriff and his men, however, perform a semi-spontaneous duel

in the street near the Market Square. The professional knights who perform at the joust

travel to other festivals and have an extensive apprentice program. Of all the symbols of

the Renaissance, this performance stirs the blood of the audience the most and epitomizes

the romantic nature of the Renaissance. They present a classic challenge of honor in which

the royal court also plays a part.

Three forms of entertainment do not readily fall into the categories of stage
performances or street performances, but occupy an area that operates between the two.
The first is the Parade that occurs twice daily, but is not a performance by definition and
covers the entire village. “Carnivals typically had a public procession of the aristocracy.”4
The Parade mandates the involvement of every actor on the site. People carry poles with
ribbons, crafters contribute banners declaring their wares, and music and noise making are
encouraged (Fig. 21). During the course of the Parade, characters step out of line to
interact with the patrons in short bursts. The event culminates in the procession of the

royal court at the end of the Parade line. Once the Parade covers the entire circuit of the

55

 

Figure 21
Afternoon Parade

56

 

Figure 22
Body Puppet Performance at Joust Field

57
village, it ends at the site where the king and queen will hold court for the day. This

changes in both place and content depending on the theme and events of the weekend. The
object of the Parade is to provide patrons with the opportunity to see all the actors involved
in the festival as well as give a photo opportunity.

The royal court constitutes the second group operating as both stage performance
and street performance. Everyone on the court is scheduled for specific events either as an
individual character or as groups. Such scheduled duties include both the opening and F
closing scenarios for the festival, knighting ceremonies, court, and the joust. Other

appearances depend on special events such as feasts, wine tastings, and dances. The actors

 

must exhibit a high level of improvisational ability and costuming. Of all performers at the ,
festival the royal court is the most heavily scheduled for the day. As the most visible E
characters at festival, an acting position on court is viewed as the most prestigious.
The last group of entertainers occupying this gray area are the body puppeteers.
“Giants were among the most popular pageant figures in Renaissance England . . .”5 The
body puppets are huge puppets that envelop the actor. These figures strap to the back of
the operator creating a puppet approximately eight to nine feet high (Fig. 22). These
puppets constitute a costume on their own. The head uses celastic, foam injection, and
Fiberglas for the initial form. They are then painted as the different characters. The
headsattach to a basic backpack frame, and the material for the puppet’s costume drapes
over the frame. These actors perform a show for children involving the puppets, and they
also interact with patrons on the street as the puppet character. Because the operation of the
puppet requires a great deal of strength, creativity, and physical stamina, the actors in the
troupe use them on a rotational basis. When not in a puppet, the actors are required to have
a separate street character persona who interacts with the patrons.
When stage performers are not actively on stage, they remain in character and
interact on the street with the other street characters. Street characters are the villagers and

the members of the royal court. They interact with the patrons in improvised “bits”. These

58

bits compare with the lazzi from commedia dell’ arte. Each actor develops a series of
routines or characteristic actions specific to his or her character. All interaction with other
street characters and the patrons are completely improvised based on their knowledge of
their character, other actors’ characters, and their ability to gauge a patron as an audience
member. “The Rough Theatre has apparently no style, no conventions, no limitations -- in

practice, it has all three.”6

All educational workshops given at the MRF gear themselves
toward the style, conventions and limitations inherent to a Renaissance festival. The most
important subject involves how to interact with the patrons. The audience is the single
most important aspect of any Renaissance festival and all efforts go into immersing them in
the performance environment.

While some workshops are open to all participants, several more intensive actor
oriented workshops are reserved for the training of actors new to Michigan Renaissance
Festival. This group of actors-in-training, called the Academy, operates on a three-year
program geared toward finding positions for the actors. The first year students are called
apprentices. During this first year, they receive the rudiments of building a character,
costuming and improvisation. Apprentices also gain knowledge of the professional theatre
from guest lecturers. Second year candidates are called joumeymen. Only the joumeymen
have the privilege of performing, on the Little Globe stage in the Children’s Dell, a show
they write themselves. Their workshops are more intensive and begin to add a higher level
of audience interactivity. Both groups are mentored by more experienced performers, who
are compensated for their teaching. In addition, the apprentices are peer tutored by the
joumeymen. During the third year, the Academy directors in conjunction with the
entertainment director and street character director detemrine the best placement for
graduating joumeymen. Students are strictly scheduled for activities during the day giving
them as wide an experience as possible with the different aspects of entertainment. They

are evaluated several times throughout the workshop process and the run of the MRF.

These verbal and written evaluations done by the directors of the Academy serve as

59

 

Figure 23
Audience Gathered at the Greengrove Stage

 

60

guidelines for later progress and help determine candidates for two scholarships given by

the MRF.

Audience Participation

The final purpose behind all the aspects of the Michigan Renaissance Festival
experience is to engage the audience (Fig. 23). The average audience member interacts
with the environment on several levels, the most obvious being the entertainers. During the
actual Renaissance, as their theatre developed it largely improvised and created, “. . .a new
social contract between itself and its audience, a new set of conditions for the suspension of
disbelief that became over time the preconditions of most modern drama.”7 Renaissance
festival performers take the audience to the next step which involves interactivity that
breaks a traditional boundry between performer and audience and their relation to the
performance material in ways that make the experience seem more real.8

This means that the audience now contains the potential to be more receptive - not
just to the theatrical events, but also to Shakespeare and the history of the Renaissance.
While the presentation of history in this venue maintains a clean and rose-colored view of
1600, it helps audiences to begin discovering the history on their own and in their own
way. It also helps theatre seem less intimidating to a section of the population who may not
attend a traditional theatre event. While different from the repertory company, the festival
presents Shakepeare in a light-hearted, understandable way.

Michigan Renaissance Festival entertainmenters function on a level with more
advantage than the traditional theatre, in that they are compelled to perform at a higher
standard to keep audiences. On the superficial side, audiences do not feel confined to their
seat. If they get bored, then they leave to find a sight of greater interest. It may seem to
put the performer at a disadvange, but it forces them to perform well and present new
material. Interactivity is one of the techniques that keeps the audience coming back for

more. “In traditional theatre the audience assumes a reactive role, responding to the

 

61

performance in a passive fashion. Interactive theatre expands the experience of the
audience by offering them a proactive role, in which they are invited to join as a

collaborator in the creation of the performance.”9

Each interactive experience is new,
spontaneous, and different from individual to individual. Performers in this venue need
extensive training in traditional acting techniques, improvisation, and techniques which
focus on the audience used only in interactive instances.

The thrust of this discipline emphasizes not how best to suspend the audience’s
disbelief, but how to get them to invest their belief.

An interactive performance does not rely on the “suspension of disbelief”

It calls for an “investment of belief.” The experience seems real to an

audience because they are making an active investment of their minds,

bodies, and spirits. When the audience become players, they are moved,

because they are not just observing the performance; they are living it as
well.lo
The environment, created through the theme and the training of the actors, conspires to get
the audience to trust enough to give themselves over to the experience.

The MRF experience involves a number of factors. The theme and date help to
design and create the village of Hollygrove. This village contains a number of structures
that include the artisans’ shops, food booths, stages, and pubs which create a total stage
among which the audience can roam freely. This village-wide stage is dressed with
costumed characters who not only perform on a traditional stages, but also interact with the

patron on a one-on-one basis. These elements combine to form a unique immersive

performance environment for the audience.

 

 

62

NOTES

‘ Other areas include public relations, advertising, accounting, et cetera. While important,
these areas play a very small role in the actual production during the festival run. This
study is primarily concerned with the description of the performance environment.

2 Area managers serve as liasons with the various departments within the festival. This
occurs only during the actual run of the festival. They provide communication, water,
information and some basic security during the day. Each area manager is assigned a
specific territory to cover on the festival grounds. This assigned territory never changes to
provide a continuity and trust with the manager. It also gives the area manager the time to
become aquainted with the specific needs of the people in his or her area.

3 Due to the low number of street characters in the past year, the positions of street
character director and royal court director are currently held by a single person.

" Bristol, Michael D., _C_3_amival and Theagr: Plebian Culture and the Stpucture pf Authority
in Renaissance England, (New York: Methuen, 1985) 59.

5 Bristol, Michael D. 66.

6 Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, (New York: Atheneum-Macmillan Publishing, 1968)
71.

7 Agnew, Jean-Christophe, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theatre in Anglo-American
Thopght, 1550-1750, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) 11.

8 Wirth, Jeff, Interactive Acting, (Fall Creek, OR: Fall Creek Press, 1994) 2.
9 Wirth, Jeff 1.
'0 Wirth, Jeff 2.

v r—Xll. '

 

fin!

 

CHAPTER FOUR
HOW ACTORS SEE THE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENT

A great deal of the distinction between a Renaissance festival and a theme-oriented
art show lies in whether or not there is entertainment. Michigan Renaissance Festival hires
a variety of actors to perform on stages and as street characters. Some of these performers

come from local venues while others tour to Renaissance festivals on a national level. Most

 

 

of the stage acts use a set script, developed over time, based on vaudeville techniques.
Street characters, while having spent a great deal of effort in developing a character, do not
use a set script making them more difficult to study as a group. An examination of the
Michigan Renaissance Festival from a stage perforrner’s perspective will aid in giving a

richer description of a Renaissance festival.

Comments from a National Performer

One of the most popular shows at the Michigan Renaissance Festival burlesques

 

Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare presents a readily understood topic for performance and
everyone associates him with Renaissance England. The MRF draws audiences back to his
plays by presenting them in an environment where actors render them understandable and
less intimidating. It does this through putting the art back in historical context. “Each
living art object, taken out of its native habitat so we can conveniently gaze at it, is like an
animal in a zoo. Something about it has died in the removal.”' By taking it out of the
traditional theatre, the play detaches itself from the dry intellectualism with which
Shakespeare has become associated while burlesquing the action illustrates the language for

the audience.

63

64
Clark Orwick created the Shakespeare burlesques for the Michigan Renaissance

Festival and also performs “The Ded Bob Sho”. He began his work with Shakespeare
while in Atlanta where he became a member of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. Orwick
got the idea to do Shakespeare this way after performing with a group under the direction
of Jeff Watson, the director of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. The Atlanta Renaissance
Festival approached Watson with the idea of doing a burlesque.
He [Watson] liked the whole concept of this kind of derelict group of actors
doing what they thought was legitimate theatre. Basically what they were
doing was bad actors doing what they thought was good acting, but they
were so bad they were funny. Sort of like the group out of Midsummer
Night’s Dream. The next year, he told the director that he could probably
put together a better group locally. So that was 1986. A group of five of us

did the flramus and Thisby and he had written a parody of Hamlet. 1 had

 

never had so much fun -- just the whole ambiance and the dynamics of
performing outside and getting up in people’s faces. So the next year he
was really busy so I tried my hand at writing a parody of M. We
performed it, and the audience loved it. I just started doing it from there one
every year.2

Watson based the parody of Hamlet on the “Bad Quarto”; a copy of an original production

 

of Hamlet at the Globe perhaps directed by Shakespeare. An actor playing a character in

 

the play wrote what he could remember of the text.

Orwick has gone on to write parodies of Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet,
and Julius Caesar. While he himself does not claim to be a Shakespearean scholar, he has
developed definite views on the presentation of Shakespeare’s plays. When asked what he
believed Shakespeare would think, he replied,

I think he’d like it. I think there’s so much humor in his shows that alot of

these uptight, tight-assed English, Victorian left-overs -- I think it really

65
killed alot of the bawdiness and humor that was absolutely there in

Shakespeare. Jeff Watson, the director of the Atlanta Shakespeare
company, was the one who really kind of brought that home to me. When
we were doing our shows, it was really important that we got the audience
-- the fourth wall kind of disappeared. The audience was a part of the
show. I think alot of so called Shakespeare scholars just take themselves
and Shakespeare way too seriously. He was a popular playwright. He
wrote for the masses. People came and ate turkey legs and threw food at the
actors when they didn’t like them. It was like going to see wrestling
nowadays.3
Others share this particular view concerning the playing of Shakespeare and Elizabethan
drama. “If we iron Shakespeare into any one typography of theatre we lose the real
meaning of the play . . .”" With a tongue in cheek approach, the polished inviolability of
Shakespeare’s text makes way for the story -- the important aspect of any play. It also
immediately makes the connections between the Renaissance and our own era. “The
traditional readiness and ability of the audience to be drawn into the play . . . is as
noteworthy as the willingness of the author and actor to speak directly to the audience and

”5 The texts are not so much

to acknowledge basic agreement with its tastes and ideas.
altered as edited, leaving room for the audience to see themselves reflected in the script.
For this approach to Shakespeare, the Renaissance festival presents an ideal space
and atmosphere. According to Orwick, “It’s more visceral.”6 This visceral feeling stems
from the special relationship fostered between the actor and the audience. The fourth wall
comes and goes as needed, but the actor remains ever aware of the audience as a complicit
partner in play. History concurs with the Michigan Renaissance Festivals actors. “In
Shakespeare’s youth the popular actor, especially the comedian with his extemporal wit,

performed not so much for an audience as with a community of spectators who provided

him with inspiration and, as it were, acted as a chorus.”7

66
Many of Orwick’s burlesques provide ample participation for the spectator as

chorus member. In “The Rotten Luck and Really Bad Timing of Romeo and Juliet”, he
divides the audience into Capulets and Montagues exhorted by the actors on stage to shout
lines back and forth on cue. During “The Messy, Horrible Bloody Death and Mass
Stabbing of Julius Caesar”, actors address audience members as the citizens of Rome and
give them their lines on a series of burlap bags. In every play, the actors choose one
audience member to perform as a character on stage. The actors encourage absurdity.
“Laughter is, additionally, an antidote to fear and intimidation.”8 This makes Shakespeare
particularly reachable for the audience, but the technique is used by all the actors at the

MRF.

Comments from Local Performers

Two actors from Missed-A-Piece Theatre, the stage act performing Orwick’s plays,
share views similar to his. Paul Snyder, a four year veteran of the MRF, spoke of the
actor’s relationship with the audience as being more beneficial to the presentation of theatre
in this environment.

. . . they are a part of what we do -- without them there’s no point. You
might as well go to the theater and do something. Here we encourage them
to get involved more. They haven’t worked all day, gone home and
changed into a suit and then come out to be entertained. They’re here to
have a good time. . . . It’s much more earthy and raw in a sense than high
brow -- out here it [repertory style theatre] won’t work.9

Actors at the MRF hold a problem in common with actors of the Renaissance. “The
players most probably improvised and, moreover, adapted their routines to cope with

interjections from boisterous members of their audience or hold the attention of spectators

distracted by other spectacles in the fair . . .”'° Snyder, commenting on whether this type

67
of venue was better or worse for the performer, seconds this as a problem, but he also

mentions the benefits.
It’s one thing in a darkened theatre, quiet, hush. I mean here on the one
hand we have to fight other crowds -- there’s so much to look at, so much
else going on -- that you have to battle. That’s the negative side. On the
positive, you get alot of experience where you can try something, and you
know it didn’t work and you can go down three or four rows [of seats].
We’re doing five shows a day so you can try lots and lots of things. For
the festival in general, guess what? You go ten feet away; you’ve got a
completely new audience. You can try the same things, or you can try
something else.”

James Kou, another actor with Missed-A-Piece Theatre, shares Snyder’s views.
You deal with hecklers directly, you know. You have to deal with alot of
stuff that happens on stage. It’s really kind of sad in Missed-A-Piece
because [of] the way that we’re portrayed as “bad” actors -- so we can make
lots of mistakes. As long as you make the mistake and make it funny, you
can . . .that’s the thing, you can make the mistake that’s OK, but you have
to make it funny. You can’t just fumble it. That’s good training for them.12

Most stage acts and street characters feel the same way about the benefits of the venue at the

Michigan Renaissance Festival. The enormous flexibility of the venue remains a favorite

aspect for the improvisational actor.

Actors from national and local levels enjoy this flexibility because it allows them to
further perfect their art. The audience itself plays a larger role in this artistic growth and is
rewarded with more respect and immediacy of theatrical experience. While there are many
types of stage shows available at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, the Shakespeare
burlesques remain one of the more popular. The symbol of Shakespeare and his work

permeates the image of the Renaissance for the public. By using his work and times to

68

reflect and foil our own, we make not just his works, but the theatre as a whole, more

approachable for the general public.

Comments from the Entertainment Director
The entertainment director at the MRF must keep in mind the presentation of the

entire production and its goals. Misha Dionne has been with the MRF for fourteen years in

a number of capacities ranging from actor and singer to her current position as

entertainment director. Her views shed light on a number of questions raised in describing

the MRF.

The importance of the audience has been previously stressed. When asked why she

thought audiences enjoyed coming to the MRF, Dionne replied,
I think that there’s a variety of reasons that the audiences enjoy it.
Obviously there are those people that we call “live the dreamers” who want
to just enjoy the fantasy angle of it and pretend like they’re a knight or a
lady or whatever and get their little costume on and wander around the
festival . . . Then there are the people that just come for the basic
Renaissance Disneyland. It’s the amusement park kind of a thing where
they just come to buy the food and ride the rides and see the shows and
they’re just there strictly as an observer. There are the people who bring
their families and are looking to see whatever entertainment they can come
up with in the Children’s Dell for their kids, and while they’re at it they’ll
have a good time themselves. It’s really unique because usually just the
kids have fun or the adults have fun whereas in our case everyone can have
fun. Then there are those pursuing a romantic interest and let’s face it with
twenty thousand people you’ve got a good shot of finding somebody
somewhere if you work at it. Then there’s the patron who comes out just to

drink our beers, and they’re valuable too.I3

69

With such a broad range of reasons to attend, actors need to be able to discern between
patron levels of participation. Building these audience needs into an act is a must for any
entertainer whether they perform a stage show or simply play a street character.

Keeping these audience needs in mind, Dionne shared some goals for the MRF as a
whole. Mentioned in an eariler chapter was the desire for the MRF to present a fantasy
Renaissance. This very romantic viewpoint derives from, . . taking the best of the best
and what they have been led [to expect] by movies. Let’s face it, that’s where alot of their
viewpoint of the Renaissance comes from; what they’ve seen in the movies -- like Disney
or Sean Connery or whoever has presented to them and gotten this real romantic point of
view.”"’

From this romanic standpoint, the MRF hopes that it delivers all the good points of
the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. To this end actors are
encouraged to interact directly with patrons and help to bring them into the experience to
feel this more fully. At the end of a MRF day, Dionne hopes that the patrons of the
twentieth-century walk away with the traditional feeling of having experienced a utopia.

So that everyone comes out with a really positive feeling; that’s our goal. I
mean that’s not always going to happen, but . . . in a perfect world, in a
utopia, yes this is what we strive for. I think it’s really important for the
people of our time to get this because too much today involves negative
humor. . . Kids are scared. Let’s provide them with a safe environment
where they can go have a good time, [and] learn some good morals that
they’re not seeing. Even Disney these days has people getting kicked and
hurt and has a real negative connotation and it’s my goal to try and help

these kids and people in general to go back to a positive feeling that’s not

being stressed enough in our world anymore.

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NOTES

' Boorstin, Daniel J ., The Image: A Guide to Pseudo~Events in America, (New York:
Vintage Books—Random House, 1992) 101-102.

2 Orwick, Clark, Personal Interview, 22 September 1996 1.
3 Orwick, Clark, Personal Interview, 22 September 1996 3.

" Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, (New York: Atheneum-Macmillan Publishing, 1968)
89.

5 Weimann, Robert, Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater, (Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978) 214.

6 Orwick, Clark, Personal Interview, 22 September 1996 4.
7 Weimann, Robert 213.

8 Bristol, Michael D., Carnival and Theater: Plebian Culture and the Structure of Authority
in Renaissance England, (New York: Methuen, 1985) 133.

9 Snyder, Paul, Personal Interview, 14 September 1996 2.

‘0 Hattaway, Michael, Elizabethan Popular Theatre: Plays in Performance, (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982) 21.

" Snyder, Paul, Personal Interview, 14 September 1996 2.
'2 Kou, James, Personal Interview, 14 September 1996 1-2.
'3 Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 2.

'4 Dionne, Michaella, Interview, 21 February 1997 3.

CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

This study on the Michigan Renaissance Festival has sought only to describe its
structure as a theatrical environment. This study has by no means exhausted the potential
for research in this area. The MRF is one of many Renaissance festivals in the United
States, and, while it serves as an example of the venue, each festival is itself a unique
environment with similarities and differences to other festivals.

The preceding chapters have illustrated a few of the aspects of the MRF. The
complexities of the organization and the feelings of audience and actor alike reveal a venue
which becomes more popular year after year as a form of entertainment. Further studies lie
beneath the surface of a simple description, and questions crowd around the nature of this
phenomenon. '

First, how does a Renaissance festival educate actors? The MRF has an academy
for young actors which provides them with training. Other actor education programs exist
at other festivals. It would be interesting to examine the curricula of these programs and
how they relate to the creation of artists for this type of performance environment. A few
festivals, such as the Bristol Renaissance Faire, have teamed up with universities and
professional theatres to help create and provide challenging programs for actors.

Second, how do some of these festivals relate to a living history? Given the
dramatic nature of the venue, there is a question of how true to history a Renaissance
festival attempts to be. Given this, the certain aspects of history chosen for presentation
must reflect upon the hopes, desires and social mores of a society. This would inform on

how we as a culture present and see ourselves in relation to our past. However, in

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examining the Renaissance and attempting to recreate a living history, a festival may cease

to present itself as dramatic and creative entertainment vehicle.

Third, in examining the types of basic theatrical entertainment at the MRF, it
became apparent that most, if not all, of the stage acts presented a kind of vaudeville style.
When approached with this, a number of actors termed their performance genre “neo—
vaudeville”. What is neo—vaudeville as it relates to the entertainment style presented at a
Renaissance festival and how does this impact the traditional stage? The term is valid, but
how it relates to past vaudeville style and the rebirth of vaudeville on some stages remains a
question. How closely linked they are also remains to be seen.

Fourth, how do the various Renaissance festivals present Shakespeare? This paper
scratched the surface of this question in interviewing actors involved with presenting
Shakespeare at the MRF. Again, each festival being different, one must examine
similarities and differences. Clark Orwick terms his treatment of Shakespeare as
“commedia del’ Shakespeare”. This could be a coming trend in the presentation of classical
theatre in much the same vein as commedia erudita and its intellectual spoofs of Terence
and Plautus during the early Renaissance.

The potential for study in this area of theatre is immense. This initial study has
produced a description which can be utilized for further comparative studies between
Renaissance festivals. It also serves as the beginning guidelines to perhaps define a
Renaissance festival. Understanding the magnitude of a comprehensive definition for

Renaissance festivals as an entity requires further study into this theatrical environment.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Michigan Renaissance Festival
Interview Questions

Subject: Paul Snyder

Occupation: Actor

Position at Michigan Renaissance Festival: Member, Missed-A-Piece Theatre
Interviewer: Jennifer Moore

Date: September 14, 1996

How long have you been an actor?

Have you played in any Shakespearean productions before?

What were they?

Have you been in any productions upon which Missed-A-Piece scripts are based?
How long have you been at MRF?

Have you played at other Festivals in the country?

Having played Shakespeare straight, do you find it more or less enjoyable to do it this
way?

Do you think the audience enjoys it more?

Why unfortunately?

How is this type of venue different from the repertory theatre?

Is it better or worse for the performer?

Has playing Shakespeare in this manner expanded you as a performer?

How do you think this has challenged you to grow?

Does this type of venue require different performance techniques?

Does that minimalism make you stretch further as an actor to provide for your audience?
Do you as actors relate to your audience differently in this environment?

Do you think Shakespeare would have been pleased with this type of presentation?

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How does the audience relate to you?

Do you think that current actor training prepares you for this type of production?
Do you think it should prepare actors for this?

Has this given you a different way to approach Shakespeare for straight productions?
How would you describe this type of environment?

What term would you use to describe what you do on stage here?

Do you think it is in itself a different type of theatre?

Subject: James Kou

Occupation: Actor

Position at Michigan Renaissance Festival: Member, Missed-A—Piece Theatre
Interviewer: Jennifer Moore

Date: September 14, 1996

How long have you been an actor?

Have you played in any Shakespearean productions before?

Have you been in any productions upon which Missed-A-Piece scripts are based?
How long have you been at MRF?

Have you played at other Festivals in the country?

Having at least seen Shakespeare played straight, do you find it more or less enjoyable to
do it this way?

Do you think the audience enjoys it more?

How is this type of venue different from the repertory theatre?

Is it better or worse for the performer?

Has playing Shakespeare in this manner expanded you as a performer?
How has working at the MRF affected you as a performer?

Does this type of venue require different performance techniques?

Can you elaborate on that?

Do you as actors relate to your audience differently in this environment?
How does the audience relate to you?

Do you think that current actor training prepares you for this type of production?

75
Do you think it should prepare actors for this?

Has this given you a different way to approach Shakespeare for straight productions?

How would you describe this type of environment?

Is that the term you would use to describe what you do on stage here?

Do you think it is in itself a different type of theatre?

Subject: Clark Orwick

Occupation: Actor/playwright

Position at Michigan Renaissance Festival: Creator/Actor, The Ded Bob Sho; Writer,
Missed-A-Piece Theatre

Interviewer: Jennifer Moore

Date: September 22, 1996

How long have you been an actor?

What gave you the idea to start writing Shakespeare for this particular environment?

What is it that you look for when you are adjusting these Shakespearean scripts? What do
you try to do when you re-write them for this type of environment?

Having come from the experience of playing Shakespeare straight and then writing this
type of Shakespeare, do you find it more or less enjoyable to do it this way?

Do you think the audience enjoys it more?

How is this type of venue different from the repertory theatre?

Has playing Shakespeare in this manner expanded you as a performer?

Does this type of venue require different performance techniques?

If you were to describe what you do with Shakespeare, how would you put it?

Do you think you could do this with all of Shakespeare’s shows?

What do you think Shakespeare would say?

So, do you think that this type of performance environment is better suited to the
performance of Shakespeare as it was “meant to be” than sitting in a darkened theatre and
watching it?

Do you think that your treatment of Shakespeare is closer to commedia dell’ arte, commedia
erudita or vaudeville/burlesque?

If you had to coin a term to describe what this art form is what would it be?
Do you think it is in itself a different type of theatre?

What drew you to it?

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Subject: Misha Dionne

Occupation: Actor/Singer/Director

Position at Michigan Renaissance Festival: Entertainment Director
Interviewer: Jennifer Moore

Date: February 21, 1997

How long have you been with MRF?

When you started there was there a theme or a date? Now, our date is about 1600 and the
theme is the king out hunting . . .

So it wasn’t very stressed?

Do you think that having a theme and a date now helps the different areas of festival get
their stuff together?

Do you happen to know how the Michigan Renaissance Festival started?

What was it like way back then?

Do you think that audiences enjoy this type of venue for performances more now?
Why do you think audiences enjoy coming to Michigan Renaissance Festival?

Do you think that coming and seeing some of the stage acts out there -- because of the
environment we created out there -- do you think this opens the general public to the theatre
more than they would just going into like the Fox Theatre or something?

What do you think the largest genre for the acts are?

What do you think the largest act genre would be?

How many acres does Renaissance festival own?

How many acres is the actual site -- the village?

So the main thrust is, in fact, for the performer to involve the audience in some way?

So when it comes down to audience involvement and also having a theme and a date, is the
purpose here to try and create an immersive Renaissance environment for the patron?

So you really want them to have an honest flavor of the Renaissance?
So it is a very romantic viewpoint?

So the main focus is to try to find kind of the myth of the Renaissance and present it to the
audience?

Do you feel that festival is reflecting certain values that you are choosing from the
Renaissance? What values are you looking for?

And that’s what you want people to see in themselves when they walk out the door?

77

So do you think that in the great tradition of festivals both during the middle ages and the
Renaissance that you are presenting them with a kind of golden age utopia?

Why do you think that this is important for people of the late twentieth-century to get?

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