Jun 21 2009
Work *With*, not *Against*
A stage show at Faire has to contend with a lot of distractions during the show - especially if your stage is right in the middle of everything. The biggest interruptions tend to be from parades.
Ah, parades. When some group or other moves en masse from one part of Faire to another - sometimes to do their own show, sometimes as the “local color” for the event, and sometimes… well… sometimes Her Majesty just wants to go “Walkies”… and The Queen Does Not Go Walkies Alone.
Having a large group of people move noisily through or just behind your audience area can be death for a pass-the-hat show. It interrupts the “flow” of the event, and if it happens at the wrong time… it can kill your “hat line”, causing the entire crowd to turn their backs to you to see what all that ruckus is about.
This isn’t a complaint, this is a simple fact of how these events work. And there’s some times that you, as a performer, can do to help minimize the damage, or even turn the interruptions to your advantage.
- Get to know your timetables - if the event actually schedules their parades and progresses, get a copy of that schedule and compare it to your show times. This will give you some idea as to when the interruptions are likely to occur, and help you plan
- Get to know the paraders - If this is the first time you’re performing at an event, you’re kind of on your own with that. However, if you can, get in touch with the folks who lead these parades. If they know you as a person as opposed to Some Guy on Stage, they’re more likely to be willing to work with you.
- When you can, turn it into a bit - If you know they’re coming, you can work it into the show. I have a loose arrangement with the criers wherein, if they’re taking a parade past my stage, I can call out a number and they’ll ring their bells in unison that many times. Now imagine how your crowd might take you asking them for a number, then making the criers ring that many times. Suddenly, the parade’s not an interruption, it’s part of the show.
- When you can’t. evaluate and be flexible - Let’s be honest here, Her Majesty the Queen may not care about your show, and she may not stop to watch. If that’s the case, being a good citizen of the Shire and leading *your* crowd in a few lusty cheers of “God Save the Queen” won’t hurt your standing with the management.
- Don’t take it personally - Honestly, there is no secret cabal plotting to ruin your show. The nature of RenFaire is that there are things happenning all around all the time. No one is working to “wreck” your show. As much as we’d all like everything else to stop dead while we’re performing, it’s not going to happen. Whenever possible, work with the interruptions and make them something other than interruptions. Make them part of your show.
