Winner for novella of the week.

Michele's got a lot to say. If you notice her switching between third and first person, don't worry. She originally wrote the beginning for the newsgroup alt.fairs.renaissance, and then I asked her some questions at the end. So she's perfectly and completely (well mostly) sane:

Once upon a time, there was a BFA acting student at Rutgers named Michele who met a voice major named Kathryn. Kathryn told Michele many wondrous tales about her travels into a wonderful land known as Revel Grove where she was a gate wench when the shire was in Columbia. Time passed and Michele traveled to Maryland for the first time ever and met all of Kathryn's friends at Evecon (a science fiction convention ...Michele's only one...ever). Michele greatly enjoyed meeting all of these people and there was much rejoicing . (yayee!)

Then Kathryn took Michele to a SCAdian event. Michele enjoyed wearing the costumes and playing a character, but something was not quite right. That summer Kathryn continued Michele's education (she had already learned about the cloven fruit bit at that SCA event) by bringing her to the PA Renaissance Festival. Michele was there ostensibly to work for Cynthia at the Purple Unicorn, but instead found herself transported. She was in garb (and during a festival day, has never been out of it since) even owning her skirts and scarves as she was studying period dance and movement in her acting class and had needed rehearsal clothing. She easily fell into speaking in accent and speech as she had always loved Shakespeare’s works and language. "Working" there was so much FUN.

She was walking to see a show (I believe it was the Flaming Idiots) when a garbed gentleman shouted something at her from across the way. She couldn't hear him and asked him to repeat himself. He rolled his eyes and quoth, "My Lady, I said thou lookest most beauteous this day." She blushed furiously, apologized for making him repeat the phrase, and thanked him...then scurried to her show. (I did too blush!) Remember she was innocent. (Yes, I was...I was only 20 then, not nearly so experienced in flirtation--or anything else for that matter. So leave it alone. All right, fine! I was at least naive.)

Suddenly she was getting attention she never expected. Costumed men she never met before were kissing her hand in more different ways than she could have thought possible. Sir Walter Raleigh even bit her knuckle while she was chatting with him and the local palm reader.(Imagine my suprise when I saw him at the VA faire AS DIRK PERFECT! and wouldn't you know it, he bit my knuckle again!)

Michele decided this was the life for her, but with school and touring and all the rest of her mundane life, it took her 2 years to get back to another faire. This time in MD. Again for a weekend she worked for the Purple Unicorn and she fell easily into the world of Tudor frolic. The next year she brought her boyfriend who became as infatuated with the land and her friends as she, and as she cried on the bus ride home he said, "Why don't we move here?" And so they did, and there was much rejoicing. (yayee!) After they moved Michele auditioned for the festival but as she could only offer them no rehearsals and only 4 weekends of performance. So they could not accept her, but they asked her to audition when she could offer them more time. So back to the being a boothie. But that was to be a great year of changes for Michele. She moved booth's...next door to K. Dopita's sculpture booth where in just 3 hours of meeting him, she improvised with her boss so well that a stranger asked how long they had been married! They were a killer sales team, but Michele had dreams for more and after breaking up with the first boyfriend and then another guy, she realized that what she wanted to do was start her own Commedia dell' Arte company. But her skills were limited, so she trundled off to the Dellarte School of Physical Theater in Blue Lake, CA (so far north you could call it Oregon and not be too far off) to hone her talents. On the drive back home with her new found skills, she told her then boyfriend (yes, another one) that the faire took precedence over getting a regular job (he didn’t mind, he was an actor there as well), meaning, no working weekends so she could do faire. So off she went to audition the same day she returned to town, and lo and behold, there she was...Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk. And cast in the Moliere play too! WOW! The year was extraordinary and she was able to speak as if the tongue had always been hers to share (I meant the language you silly...really now!). It all seemed so natural. So at the end of that year she began to create masks under her company TaskMaskers and a Commedia show for the next year with Dr. Croaker (Steve--NOT a boyfriend). She sent a video to the Entertainment Director and suddenly not only was she doing her show, but she was asked to be Italian all day. So invented was Columbina Andreini, named after Isabella Andreini the first female owner of a Commedia dell' Arte troupe. And THAT is how Theatro di Pecorino Romano was born. Now long gone is the English accent and the genteel nature of the royal court. Michele is back playing her part in what feels like second nature, and loving every minute of it...She has since taught briefly at the Colorado faire and played at Colorado and VA's faires. And that (we hope) is only the beginning.

Sure, I hit your site enough times in any given week waiting for updates to make me officially addicted. As to why MD is special...well, there is a sense of family about the place for me. Whether it is in the mornings years ago sitting on the court stage by Victor's bread booth having breakfast, stretching out on the Gatehouse stage with the Tai chi and running contingents, making lacing lines in the women's dressing room in the morning, late at night on a weeknight hanging out with the boothies having a pumpkin carving event, or during the festival day, visiting the booths I like to haunt and improving with everyone (actors, vendors, rennies, and mundanes alike), there is a sense of belonging and kinship --a feeling of joy and camaraderie. I never miss a pub sing unless there is an emergency. When I had to miss final day last year because of a death in my family, it was one of the hardest things I've had to do, because I really felt that I was leaving my family behind. I have seen my faire family more than my real one in the past 3 years. I am not sure if that is right, but they do make me happy. Each year when I walk onto the site for the first time, I breathe a sigh of relief. I am back--home.