CAPTIMES, October 10,1996
Renaissance Faire touches the human spirit
Jody L. Jawb s
Editor
Across the rolling hills of
Mount Hope, Pa., is an enchanted
land, where a beautiful queen rules
brave knights, comic jesters and a
magical faerie garden. It is a place
where childhood and adult dreams are
made and fulfilled. The Pennsylvania
Renaissance Faire.
On a weekend morning,
visitors arrive at the Mount Hope
Estate and Winery in droves, just as
they would a shopping mall or movie
theatet.
A pebble-stone path guides
small clusters of four and five
through the formal gardens and by the
mansion's copper fountain. The
sounds of Celtic music, a hammered
dulcimer, mandolin and guitar, waft
invitingly over the high fence, which
blocks off the Faire grounds from the
rest of the winery's property.
The entrance to the Tudor
village is framed by a 12-foot stone
wall. On the very top is a handful of
smiling peasants, dressed in flowing
skirts and Robin Hood hats, waving
and calling greetings to the new faces
below dressed in their modem 21st
century attire.
The redwood gates serve as
a time portal as visitors step through
them. Left behind are cars, paved
roads and steel structures, for all one
can see is a shire of tents and wooden
structures with roofs of thatched hay.
Fragrant incense intertwining with the
fresh autumn air and the aromas of
cooking turkey legs and peasant bread
welcome noses. The ears are aston
ished to hear Olde English chatter.
Visitors find that, in one step, they
have been transported back in time to
the year 15%, when Queen Elizabeth
Regina Glotianna ruled England.
The enchanted feeling cre
ated by this shire is not solely the
effect of the authentic structures and
stages which serve as a backdrop for
the 18 professional and more than 40
volunteer actors. Nor is it only the
effect of the more than 400 hours of
training those actors received to
acquire their 16th-century manner
isms and dialects. No, the magical
spell woven here not only affects the
senses, but the human heart and spir
it as well.
The Faire's style of interact
five theater erases the barriers
between stage and audience. Patrons
and the cast walk side by side through
the village. Despite the numerous
staged and impromptu performances
that take place on the grounds
throughout the day, the actors still
find time to introduce themselves, (as
their fictional characters of course), to
fairegoers with a "How farest thou?"
The Renaissance Faire's
unique style of performance tends to
bring out what is best in the human
spirit, and the inhabitants of the
Tudor shire seem to possess the
magic to heal what the modem day
has broken of that spirit. Eye contact
is made between strangers. Hands
are shaken and the new "gentles"
even find themselves hugged by the
cast. The entertainment from the
staged events pull the audience deep
er into the Faire's spell through the
power of laughter. The Commedia
dell' Arte troupe offer their unique
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Open to all students from Pennsylvania colleges and universities.
12:30 - 4:00 PM
1:00 - 4:00 PM
1:15 - 3:15 PM
1:15 - 1:45 PM
2:00 - 2:30 PM
2:45 - 3:15 PM
4:00 PM
Free Admission
Free Resume Critique - Available from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
For more information and to register:
Contact your college's Internship/Co-op Office, Career Center
Elizabethtown College Harrisburg Area Community College Lebanon Valley College
Messiah College Millersville University Penn State Downtown Center
Penn State Harrisburg
Shippensbura University
Wilson College
adaptations to Shakespeare's works
turning the bard's tragic plays, such
as "King Lear," into comedy. The
troupe encourages audience participa
tion and even seeks out unsuspecting
fairegoers to take starring roles in the
performance.
Humor surrounds even the
dangerous stunts, such as those per
formed by swordswallower, Lord
Xavier. Xavier boasts that he is only
one of four individuals in the country
who swallow a variety of steel
weapons without the aid of illusion.
After Xavier pushes an ice
pick up his nose and swallows a 16-
inch sword, he informs his audience
that he will next swallow a sword 26
inches long. The stunt man explains
how it took three-and-a-half years of
training for him to do the trick
"It's extremely dangerous
and I could die now!" he exclaims.
The spectators chuckle, but
as Xavier does in fact begin to swal
low the sword, they shrink back and
hide their eyes while the stunt man's
tear up from the difficulty of the per
formance.
To everyone's relief, he
finally pulls the sword back out
through his mouth. Saliva drips off
the tip of the steel blade as Xavier
says, "Look at that! I'm a quart
low!" The audience explodes into
laughter and applause.
He continues the show,
patiently explaining each stunt and
even inviting the fairegoers to come
right up to the stage to take pictures.
That patience does not only
exist in the explanation of the perfor-
Wednesday, October 16, 1996
Capital Union Building
Penn State Harrisburg
Nancy Karlik, Director
Penn State Downtown Center at (717) 783-0433
NEWS
mances, but can also be found on
Guildsman's Way, a working street of
artisans. Visitors to the Tudor shire
can purchase the wares of goldsmiths,
blacksmiths, and potters.
Alan and Anni Brodrick are
the Faire's glass artisans. Their open
air shop is designed so that their art
as well as their work can be dis-
played. People gather in awe around
the warm furnace as the Brodrick's
command the delicate, heated glass to
conform to their wishes.
sounds his trumpet at 4 p.m.,
announcing the queen's processional
to the human chess match, visitors
have already spent a day filled with
laughter, patience and acceptance, and
feel as though they have become
members of the community of this
enchanted land.
Crowds faithfully follow
the queen and gather around the
1,000 square feet of red-and-yellow
chess board where living royalty and
commoners take their positions as
pawns. Fairegoers find themselves
taking sides on the "friendly" game
between Queen Elizabeth and King
Phillip of Spain. The wager placed
on the outcome of the match is the
queen's hand in marriage to King
Phillip.
mish between the two countries, and
the queen announces that the matter
will be settled by a joust on Bosworth
field.
The crowning point of the
day's events is when Sir James the
White champions the cause of
1:00 - 4:00 PM
Middletown, PA
Program Schedule
Registration
Internship/Co-op Fair
Concurrent Informational Workshops:
Session I:
Session II
Session III: International Internships
Internship/Co-op Fair Closes
or call
Sponsoring Institutions
When the royal herald
The match ends with a skir-
State & Government Internships
Behavioral Interviewing
Queen Elizabeth waves to visitors at the Pennsylvania
Renaissance Faire.
Elizabeth against King Phillip's knight on
the jousting field. As the chivalrous tradi
tions of testing the field and suiting up in
armor are witnessed by the viewers, the
traditions are explained to them as well.
James raises his lance to the
spectators and exclaims, "I fight for you!"
The crowd screams its support
as the knight's lance strikes the enemy's
shield and continues until blood spills and
James claims his ultimate victory over the
Spaniard.
And the crowd, that earlier in
the day was timid in its participation,
jumps to its feet and roar "Huzzah!"
Almost on cue, the sun begins
to fall behind the hills, casting human
shadows on the field as the joust ends. A
cool breeze stirs the air and the queen
invites the "commoners" to gather togeth
er for the Faire's finale, a celebration in
song dedicated to the defeat of Phillip and
Elizabeth's continued marriage to
England
Just as the visitors are greeted
at the gates when they arrived in the
morning, they are affectionately escorted
back to that portal in time and bade a
fond farewell.
The villagers of the shire sing
their good-bye, "Good night and joy be
with you," as fairegoers exit the gates
smiling at others who earlier that day they
regarded as strangers, but now leave the
Mount Hope Estate feeling as though they
are parting from friends.
The Pennsylvania Renaissance
Faire runs for 11 weekends from August
to October, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Other
events that the Mount Hope Winery hosts
include: "Edgar Allan Poe Evermore,"
"A Charles Dickens Christmas Past," and
"The Roaring 205." For more information
regarding the Faire, phone (717) 665-
7021.