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Renaissance Talent For the 21st Century
by Kimberly Raspa

It arrives every year, like a birthday or an anniversary, except the celebration lasts for nine weeks and includes hundreds of other people. Performers migrate from all over the world and set up camp for The Maryland Renaissance Festival, a journey to the 16th century that brings Shakespearean themes and royalty to life with historic figures, eclectic musical performances, and historically-based theater acts, laid within a 25-acre, wooded haven called Revel Grove in Crownsville.

Hundreds of performers send in their resumes every year: jugglers, sword-swallowers, actors, musicians, comedians, and magicians, just to name a few. So whom do they have to impress to be a part of the festival? That's easy: the festival's behind-the-scenes artistic director of 19 years, Carolyn Spedden.

"I evaluate every year what we're doing, if we need to make any changes, what we're lacking, what we need to bring in, that sort of thing," Spedden said. "People send in their submissions all year and then I make decisions on that and then it's pretty much cast."

Spedden began her journey with the Renaissance Festival as an actor in 1984, the last year it was based in Colombia, Maryland. A recent college graduate and budding actress, she entered the renaissance world with a theater degree, started writing plays, formed a comedy group called Shakespeare's Skum and a group for high schoolers called, The Young Actors' Ensemble Acting Conservatory. Naturally she gravitated toward directing and administrative duties associated with the festival. "I've been artistic director for at least 15 years; I've been writing here and various other places for 18, 19 years," she said.

Spedden has penned quite a collection of scripts for the festival's theater performances. She's created at least five original scripts for the royal court, sometimes even directing them. Each year she sets the time period for the festival, following the events of Henry VIII's life. Last year's theme, "The Year of Three Queens," highlighted three of Henry's wives (in just five months, one died, one was beheaded and one was newly married). This year, Spedden chose the year 1537, emphasizing Henry VIII's relationship with his first daughter, Princess Mary.

"I prefer doing my own projects," she said. "If I write it, I'm usually either directing or acting in it or doing something for it. I do bring in other people as well; you don't always want one voice doing it. That's part of the fun of the job, creating the storyline to figure out what year in history you're going to do."

Every year, the hiring process falls into Spedden's care.

"I do make people jump through a fair amount of hoops for the admission process," Spedden said. "This year I had four dozen musical acts come in and 50 submissions for stage acts."

Veteran performers, like sword swallower Johnny Fox and musical group Consort Anon, will have 25 years on their résumés this fall. Arnold resident Mary Ann Jung, well known as character Queen Anne Boleyn, will enter her 26th year, and Michele Schultz, a street act and stage performer, will round up a decade of entertaining.

"I absolutely adore it," Schultz said. She plays Columbina, a character from 1400's Italian theater with her marionette sidekick Stupina. "I love making people laugh, I love watching their faces light up. It's watching adults' eyes get as big as the kids'-and the kids' eyes get very large."

"The actors really have the hardest job of anybody here," Spedden said. "They're involved in a seven-week rehearsal process, so from July onward, some will be here several times to six times a week depending on their schedule up until when the show opens. The standards for actors are much more intense. We work on the language skills so they can feel a little more comfortable with the 16th century-isms: the "thees" and the "thous" and how it's used properly. We encourage and have basic guidelines for the musicians, but they're not held quite to the same standard."

Jung, apart from performing, also serves as a board member and assists in determining audition results. The standard process for an audition-er requires a monologue and an improvised response to a specific scenario the board creates.

"Improv is the scariest. You can't prepare for an improv audition," Jung said. "What we admire is that you try. If you just go with it-that shows gumption. We'll still admire it if we think it's weird. We can forgive a lot of things and help develop you."

Schultz believes the role of a performer requires much more than solely talent. "[It's] the ability to think on your feet, be creative, comfort with period language, openness to direction, the ability to create on your own and be responsible and having a professional attitude," she said. "I tell young actors, if you can make it at the Renaissance Festival, you can make it anywhere," Jung said. "If you can work for nine hours in all kinds of weather and still be friendly and entertain people, that's a dream."

The Maryland festival developed between two friends, Jules Smith, Sr. and Jim Rouse. Smith's involvement with the Minnesota Renaissance Festival prompted him to brainstorm a potential festival in Maryland. Rouse indefinitely offered his 12-acres of land to Smith, adjacent to event venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and the festival ran from 1977-1984. Smith and his son, Jules Smith, Jr. (presently the festival's general manager), researched prospective areas to move the festival and found the Crownsville plot, privately owned by a local family. They leased the land and went straight to work, developing the 25-acres within 33 days for the festival's grand opening. Was it the right move? 83,000 people attended that day in 1985. Since then, it has become the prime outdoor event in the region; the second largest festival in the country attracting guests up to 225,000.

Surprisingly, the festival attracts a strong portion of international performers from Germany, Sweden and Australia via the website and word of mouth.

"I think one of the reasons they like performing here is because of the caliber of the performers. It's a very positive performing experience for them, so that's very exciting, and I'm grateful I can be choosy with who I bring in," Spedden said. She equates her choosiness to Simon Cowell, one of the popular (or not so popular) judges on American Idol.

"I probably am most sympathetic to Simon," Spedden admitted. "I don't think he's mean at all. I think he's just being honest. It would benefit every performer if they sat on the other side and had to go through the whole audition process. It's one of those unfair points in life-for example, for an actor, you know within fifteen minutes of them opening their mouths if they're really good or if they just have that charisma." So is there that one specific quality that catapults a performer into the "yes" pile?

"I think you're always looking for someone dynamic," Spedden said. "It's always good to see unique skills but I think more it's the unique performer. You may say, oh, we have a lot of jugglers, but if someone comes along who's an incredible performer, it won't seem like you're seeing the same juggling trick. They have a way to really transform it.

"Sometimes you get a musician who technically may be brilliant, but they don't have the showmanship required to perform successfully out here. A lot of times with classical musicians, you'll notice they're kind of into their music, but they're not really into the showmanship. Here, they have to be."

Spedden shoulders the burden of deciding which performers stay and which performers go.

"It's always a difficult balancing act," She said, "You want to bring back people's favorites, but people always say, 'What's new?' One thing we try to do is present a little something for everybody. Some people want more family stuff, some people want more pub, wench-y body stuff-you try to have enough of that where everybody's happy. Some years, great musicians will come my way and I'll hire more musicians; other times, I'll focus on more street acts. Every year it's trying to get that balance."

New to the festival for 2005 are a group of performance artists called The Aerial Angels.

"They do aerial silk and hoop work," Spedden described. "It's one long silk that comes down like a piece of fabric and they wind themselves up and do aerial work through hoops."

Spedden has booked over 30 stage acts and 50 soloists and musical groups to perform at the fall festival. It's apparent the auditioning process is incredibly professional and organized-a continuous progression toward innovative performances as well as performers. Spedden, Jung and Schultz take great pride in the festival, as they should. The involvement of every performer, vendor, and staff member encompasses a great sense of community, an ongoing friendship that rekindles each year between the performers and the audience.

"People who are long time patrons visit once a year and start to feel like they know the performers. I think the closest thing is the relationship people have sometimes with TV characters. Just as people felt they knew the cast of Friends, people here feel they know these people and seek them out every year," Spedden said.

And after being a part of an organization for more than a decade, it's inevitable that performers acquire strong friendships with each other. "It's one of the few places that allows the type of theater I perform to be accepted," Schultz said. "Most of my friends are in that world. It's my social circle." She described her experience driving to the grounds every year for the first day. "I literally start crying because I think 'I'm home.' It's home to a lot of us. It's a place where people understand you and where people want to play. This world's too serious."

For Spedden, it's a detailed, yearlong preparation that lasts a mere nineteen days. Every audition, every yes and no, every rehearsal and class builds up to that moment when a small part of Maryland transforms into a world of history, character, celebration, and reunion.

"We tell the performers, this is a party and you're the host. They care that people are having a good time and everyone's happy," Spedden said. "I think the audience picks up on that and they know that we want you to have a good time here. It does feel like you're revisiting an old friend, and that makes it a much more immediate and intimate experience."

The Maryland Renaissance Festival runs Saturdays, Sundays, and selected holidays August 27-October 23. 10-7 p.m., rain or shine. Call 1-800-296-7304 for more information or visit thier website.

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