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LittleVillageMag.com Iowa Dispatch
Faire Play My life among the traveling knights, pirates, fairies and mermaids. BY ELISABETH CHRETIEN
S
pring has come around again! That can mean different things to different people; for me, spring signals the return of Renaissance faire season. I have been a member of Pass Four Productions since 2014. We are a troupe of actors who perform short, one-act comedy skits with choreographed stage combat at Ren faires across Iowa and the Midwest. Or, as I prefer to put it: I get to hit my friends with swords for applause and tips. Most people might visit a Renaissance faire once or twice in their life. It’s an enjoyable day of eating turkey legs, watching the joust, listening to some uncommon music and watching a lot of delightfully silly folks in costumes turn a field into a medieval (or fantasy medieval) festival for a few hours. I still remember my first Renaissance Faire. It was in Omaha, Nebraska, in the mid-’90s, when I was a preteen. I clearly recall looking around at all the adults in costumes—adults! in costumes!— and immediately falling in love with the silliness and the spectacle. I thought, “I can’t believe there are people who actually do this!” For some, those first encounters turn into a lifelong hobby. They spend money on costumes and visit multiple faires in the region every year. They are what is known as “play-trons,” people who come to Renaissance faires in costume and play a part, though they are not officially part of the faire cast or crew. These individuals play a vital role in bringing the magic of the faire to life. And then there are those of us who take it one step further: the official hired performers and vendors at Renaissance faires. Some performers are hired directly by these festivals to be part of an ensemble cast that tells an interactive story throughout the entire weekend. Others form troupes of actors, musicians, acrobats, dancers or any other act you can imagine and are hired to put on shows on stages at certain times. That is what I have been doing since 2014, though I also passed through the play-tron stage. Along the way, I have sought to create for others that same magic that first enchanted me. These days, depending on the faire, I step out on stage
Pass Four Productions, a comedy stage combat troupe, takes a nap backstage between shows at the Iowa Renaissance Festival, Amana, IA, 2019. Elisabeth Chretien
(often just a roped-off patch of grass) three or four times a day with Pass Four, to perform 20-to-25minute plays about pirates or Vikings or fairies or Robin Hood or whatever. They all culminate—
We’re a community on wheels, coming together in one city for a weekend, going back to our regular lives on Monday morning,
and then reuniting in a different city a few weeks later.
Emma McClatchey 5
and often begin—with us drawing our swords and engaging in carefully choreographed combat that we have spent months rehearsing. For me, Renaissance faires are a natural progression in my performance career. I’ve been on
stage since the age of 4 as a dancer, actor and musician. My work with Pass Four is the logical combination of that lifelong hobby and my magical moment of Renaissance faire discovery as a child. What I didn’t fully expect when I started was the sense of family and camaraderie found among Renaissance faire performers. I think this develops because most performers don’t just perform at one faire a year. No, we migrate. Some make this kind of work their career, traveling across the country all year with the weather to perform at faires across the nation. Others are weekend warriors like me, holding down day jobs during the week and then morphing into a pirate onstage during the weekend. We’re a community on wheels, coming together in one city for a weekend, going back to our regular lives on Monday morning and then reuniting in a different city a few weeks later. At our troupe’s “home faire,” the Iowa Renaissance Festival in Amana, we have shared a stage with an improv troupe from Grinnell for many years, and they have become close friends even outside the festival gates. We’re always overjoyed to reconnect with a troupe of musicians— also now friends—from Des Moines. I have a long-standing friendship with a belly dancer from Lincoln, Nebraska, and a newer friendship with a mermaid from Omaha. We’re also a community forged by the tough realities of performing outdoors in all kinds of weather. I’ve huddled under cloaks with friends during late-spring and early-fall snow; shared water and shade during scorching mid-summer heat; and taken shelter with strangers during powerful thunderstorms. I’ve loosened the corset of a LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV306 May 2022 41
