Reveling in the Renaissance

Yesterday, I headed on up to the Upper Manhattan (Inwood) to Fort Tryon Park where the Cloisters museum is located to attend the mini Renaissance Faire that they've had for the past twenty years.

It was a fun day, although very hot and crowded. There were the usual assortment of vendors, including the Society for Creative Anachronism who had a booth. I wandered around for awhile, looking at the costumes which were gorgeous but incredibly expensive at $120 just for the dress, not even the blouse or bustier.

I purchased some bath salts and almost had my fortune told. Watched the joust and the living chess game which were mini versions of the same at the New York Renaissance Faire where I worked after college. In fact, the actor who played the Sheriff of Nottingham, choreographed the Living Chess game.

I'm always curious at the Faires that include Robin Hood among the characters since technically Robin didn't live during the Renaissance but during the reign of Richard the Lionheart (allegedly since some historicans believe Robin is a myth like King Arthur. I, however, believe that both men existed, but then I'm a romantic at heart). I'm guessing that the legend of Robin Hood gained in popularity during the Renaissance. I think that's when the first play version of his legend was written and performed.

Working at the Renaissance Faire (or Ren World as I liked to call it) in Sterling was my first paying acting gig apart from some extra work and I was very excited to get it. This was my second or third time auditioning for them when I finally got cast. It was the longest and strangest summer of my life and I'm dying to write a YA about the experience.

There were tons of people in costume at this Renaissance Faire which somehow didn't seem as odd as it did when I worked at the Renaissance Faire in Sterling. At the time, I had no idea how into this stuff people got. There was this one couple that came every weekend dressed like Elizabethan Courtiers in really expensive costumes. They must have been so hot in those things. My friend Gary dubbed them "Prince and Princess Get a Life."

One of the weirdest moments was discovering that one of the nuns from my old school was working at the Faire as a madrigal singer. She wasn't a nun anymore, she'd left the order and gotten married, but I felt really odd seeing her and calling her by her name. She'd been the music teacher when I was in grade school. Imagine Maria from the Sound of Music but more militant and you get Sister Regina. We used to call her the Nazi Julie Andrews nun. She used to walk on her tippy-toes which I thought was weird.

Anyhow, she and her new husband were working as Madrigal Singers at the Faire, and I found it really hard to see her as anything other than Sister Regina, no matter how hard I tried. I was dying to ask her totally impertinent questions about her life as an ex-nun. Like how did she manage to meet and marry someone so soon after leaving the order (Seriously, here I am 42 and I still haven't managed that). Also, if the nuns were brides of christ, does that mean that she and Jesus got a divorce when she left the order? Also, do they give you money to buy clothes when you leave, or do you have to wear the outfit that you wore when you first joined? Which could be really weird if you joined in like 1968 and it's now 1986.

Also, what made her leave the order? Did she just get tired of sleeping in a room smaller than most New York closets, and having to wear black all the time? The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (that would do me in)? Or living with a bunch of women? Being a nun must be like living in a sorority for God but without the fun frat parties. Plus they all had to have gotten their periods all at the same time which would explain why once a month they were also bitchy. You haven't lived until you've seen two nuns snapping at each other!

Of course, I didn't ask her any of these questions. Just because she wasn't a nun anymore, didn't mean she didn't scare the crap out of me.

Have as anyone else gone to a Renaissance Faire or worked at one? Or been taught by nuns? What do you remember about them?

EKM