What now?

The last weekend has come and gone. 

Saturday I turned into an "Annesicle" because it rained, I got soaked, and then my core got cold. It still was a lot of fun! I also graduated BAPA and laughed more in one night than I have in a long time.
Sunday was my "bad" day. On the street I was okay, but off-street things just weren't going right for me. I had some great times getting to out Anne and finally get my father (there will be a coming fiction post). I also got to be a girl for an hour and I loved the interactions and reactions I got from patrons and cast members.

Then came Monday. The last day. I could not have asked for a better last day to my first year.
I saw the most beautiful sunrise that morning. There was morning mist burning away as the orange sun rose up slowly. I almost started crying right then and there, but I knew I had a whole day to get through and by golly I wasn't going to break just yet.
All I wanted was some time with the characters and people I've come to love as my family, and that's exactly what I got to do all day long.
The funny thing was that I came up with something new on the last day- Anne translates for the Captain while he is saving his voice so he can sing. 
Each time I did something for the "last time" I felt a sense of finality and peace mixed with each other. Everything was like saying goodbye to an old friend. I broke during the afternoon sea shanties when singing Frobisher Bay and Leave her Johnny. I knew that Leave her Johnny would probably mess with me, but Frobisher Bay was a complete surprise.
What really broke me was closing gate. During "Let Union Be" I looked over at Pony and saw her crying. We ended up finishing the song with our arms around each other and almost weeping. Then, as if I wasn't already a hot mess, Lord L came out and recited the ending monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's one of my favorite monologues and I was sobbing through the whole thing.
I collected myself only long enough to fall apart again as I marched through a backstage lined with all of my friends singing "Health to the Company." I joined the line and tried to sing, but I had no voice. I just couldn't sing. I got so many hugs, hands claps, and nods from people. I couldn't have asked for a better ending.

Now here comes my version of mush. I don't really do mush, so you all get my "Kait" brand of mush. I was able to write a few notes to some people, but not nearly enough. Those notes held about as much mush as I can muster up. I wouldn't have been able to say those worlds to anyone's face.
I never thought I could fall in love with so many people so fast. I really do love you all like my family. You've given me so much, I don't know how to repay you other than to say a deeply meant "Thank You" and a very strong hug with all of my feelings poured into it, hopefully you'll understand how much you mean to me.

Now onto the practical side of things.
What do I do with this blog? 
It will not be shut down. There shall (maybe) be the occasional Anne post. I am turning this blog into my writer's/historical/rennie fun blog. I will still be keeping up with my personal blog (it might not be as interesting, but I want to be faithful in my journalism of this part of my life).

What will I go onto next? 
Well- there's always making my ren faire costumes. I'm working on making an Anne-like costume as well as creating a girl costume. This means I'll have to learn how to sew properly.
I have school and work too keep me occupied, as well as dance classes that start next week.
I have a bunch of new friends that I need to keep in contact with, because I don't want to wait 8-9 months to talk to them again.
I'm planning on auditioning for a few things this year. Overshadowed productions is holding auditions for Little Women on Sept. 17th and I've gotten involved with my college's theater club.

What about next year's Faire? 
As far as I am planning- Anne shall be back! Mayhap she'll have a few tweaks here and there. This year I was just able to start understanding how Street Works. I've already got a few ideas that I want to flesh out and play around with. What havoc will Anne create for the Captain? You'll have to come back next year!

 I look at where I was, and where I am now, and I am very different. I hope it's for the better, because I like myself more today than how I was three months ago. I am going to have some withdrawal over the next few weeks, bit if I've learned anything over this past year it's been that I can pick myself up and carry on. Some days it's not fun, but this year I don't feel so alone as I did last year.

Thank you.

BAPA week 4

I am a bad, bad, bad little author.

I'm so sorry for keeping this post from everyone! In truth, this weekend was very busy and VERY tiring and I've only just found the time to actually post these things today. I've been running around for two days making stuff for the faire (a pouch and belt mug holder thingy), and somehow the internet was just not on my priorities.

Now to tell all that happened on Saturday!

First of all, we met in a different place than normal and I almost got the stages mixed up. Newbie moment! Note to self- the GLOBE STAGE is not the one with the seven deadly sins painted on the back, that's the Lord Mayor's stage (I think, not 100% sure).

Week 4 of BAPA saw me in group 4 with all the other Uppper Dialect people, along with our Italians from the Comedia Del'Atre troupe. They are FANTASTIC and please play with them when you come up and see us. They make me laugh all day long.

We had our movement class first and went over introductions with a specific movement that people would recognize. I strike a semi-manly pose and look around knowingly. Apparently I did that look around thing without trying and the teacher loved it, so I'm keeping it!
Movement class was fun this week because we learned about how different points of our bodies can be "headlights" that direct attention and we learned how to use them. We can focus all of our attention on one particular person, or direct our headlights to shine attention on everyone (relatively speaking).

After movement came dialect where we translated our various breakfasts into Elizabethan English. I had eaten sausage on an English muffin, so that wasn't hard to translate, but some people came up with the BEST STUFF. Imagine translating Lucky Charms Cereal into Elizabethan English. I was almost crying from laughter at some of the elaborations people came up with.

At lunch the Dirty Duck Inn was having a sale on some lightly used objects and I bought a mug for $10!!!!!!!!!! Btw- that's a very very VERY reasonable price for a mug that I know I'll be able to drink out of. I've had trouble finding anything that's durable enough that doesn't have lead content. Now I don't need to worry about that anymore!

After lunch came Street (aka- Improv). We did a LOT of status/dominance work. It was a lot of fun. I think for almost all of the games we did each person would get a card from a deck of cards and would hold up the card to their forehead and guess how "high up" they were bases on other people's reactions. If you were a King, everyone loved you. If you were a 2, well, better luck next time.

Characterization was a big character interview session. Different characters came up and were asked questions about themselves and it was interesting to see how other people's characters were coming through.

My two elective classes were pretty good. I had Character Class Interactions, which essentially was a lot more of the status/dominance thing, but I feel like I've hammered that concept into myself and my character and I've got a decent grasp on it.
Sea Shanties was a little disappointing because I knew most of the songs, but it was fun to sing them with everyone! I really do love sea shanties. I got my carpool to sing them on the way home on Sunday. :)

That is most of what happened on Saturday. Well, anything worth noting anyway. Thanks for waiting for the post!

Rehearsal Week 3

Today I had to get up slightly earlier (har har) and pick up two friends to get to rehearsal, one of which needed to be on site at 9am. Hence we left promptly at 7:40 and arrived at 8:50. Pretty good time for picking up two people!

After that I just kind of mellowed around and got ready for stuff to start (at 10AM), so I had an hour to kill. I brought my doublet- so excited about that- and my hat, so I slipped into those and buckled my very awesome belt.

As a side note- I really want to find a small eating knife that I can carry around on my belt. The more I think about my character, the more I think she would have a very small weapon to defend herself if things came to that. Plus, as a sailor, she would have a cutting utensil for ropes and such.

Side note over. As more people came to Street things started to liven up and I found that one of my fellow cast mates is going to sell me a cup for a dollar. I've been having some trouble finding a suitable drinking vessel and I'm very glad that I no longer have to worry about that. Now I just need to figure out how I want to attach it to my costume (once I get it of course).

Now, there is a bit of an "inside joke" that I am going to have to explain in order to further tell about my day. While doing some Ship's Boy (not Cabin Boy, that name came along later) research I came across some information about a time when a crew was driven to starvation at such a point that they killed and ate the cabin boy. Upon further research I discovered that lots had been drawn and it just happened that the cabin boy got the short end. However, I liked this story and though that it would be a fantastic prop/joke to carry around a contract signed by my captain saying that I cannot be eaten if I am able to prove that I am nobility, of the clergy (Ok, that's not applicable), or a woman. Guess which one is the easiest to prove?
The captain thought that this is a great idea and I have drawn up the document and it is signed, although we shall get to the signing part later.

So in the morning we did our usual warming up stretches and tongue twisters and other great stuff. Then we did the "My name is ___ and I want a..."
Today my character said "I'm Anne Drew, Ship's Boy to Captain Martin Frobisher, and I'd like not to be cannibalized."

Hence the running gag of the day began.

The next game was one of those games where I kind of really like the game, but have no clue what to do. Everyone had to walk around in a circle except for one person who was in the middle. The middle person would play their character and try to get everyone to stop circling and notice them.
Today my Director actually told me to go into the circle, which I knew would happen, and half hoped that it would not happen. Not because I didn't want to be in the middle, I just had no idea of what I would do.
So I rubbed dirt on my face and tried to make it look like a 5 o'clock shadow, tried to talk in a deep and manly voice, and tied knots. I was probably in the circle for less than 30 seconds. It felt like forever but I was glad for the stretch of acting and character. So much of my character is based around what I do with other people that it's good for me to have to learn to make my character stand alone.

The next thing my memory has decided on is when we played "Hot Seat," the game where you answer questions about yourself as your character. So. Much. Fun. I discover things about my character and totally lie about other things.
So the captain went up for hot seat and actually had me come up and read part of my contract. Apparently I was reading it like I didn't want to be reading the document (whoops on my part, I was actually super excited), so I didn't get to finish it, that's okay though. It was funny and he signed the paper so now IT'S LEGITIMATE!
 I also went up for Hot Seat as just my character and as part of the crew. Apparently we're all contractually obligated to not say anything negative about Frobisher. Also, one of my crewmates kept calling Anne-Drew a girl and it was hilarious.

Then we sang the songs we're supposed to know. Personally I don't think I'll ever be able to get them out of my head at this point I've sung them so much.
Then came lunch which was a marvelous potluck at St. George that my stomach did not want to participate in. For some reason, all day I have not wanted to swallow any of my food. Ergo I have been forcing food down my gullet in order to make it through the day. 

After lunch we went and sang with BBF. It was okay. I know the songs and how to sing in my dialect. But it wasn't my favorite part of the day.

For most of the afternoon we played "group drive by" where different groups had brief interactions with each other. So one group would be "it" and the other groups would take turns interacting to try out stuff and just do interaction work.
Being Anne-Drew is fun because the Captain keeps putting A-D in really hilarious situations, like introducing the new crew member to the floozies. I'm trying to be really go with the flow about what people throw at me and handle it in character as best I can. For example, A-D does not want to interact with the floozies because well, they're going to find out that she's a girl (it's not like they can't tell already- everyone BUT Frobisher knows). So much fun stuff got thrown out today and I loved working with my fellow sailors.
The fun part came when we started acting like patrons and interacted with the people. I'm pretty sure the sailors scared all of the "patrons."

So then rehearsal kind of ended and we all went to get our pictures taken for our ID passes. Then I sang a few shanties with the shanty group and then headed off to an Alexander technique thing that I had no knowledge about what so ever.
To condense it into a small answer- Alexander Technique is kind of like alinement/massage therapy/body awareness. The director of the fantastic Comedia troupe worked with me and I have to say that I would love to learn more about this. Look up Alexander Technique because I can't really explain it other than to say that it is really awesome and relaxing.

Then I went back and just hung out with people until my carpool people were ready to go. I really do value the time I have had to hang out with people in my cast outside of doing exercises. There have been a couple people that I'm starting to really think of as friends. I found one very kindred spirit yesterday, and I'm comfortable with being myself. I'll argue and be a brat, but I also love helping people, and I love learning things. I think my brain is just doubling in capacity every time I go back up to BRF because I learn SO MUCH!

Well, that's about it for today. It's a mere summary, but it's going to have to do. I love how I'm starting to get a grip on my character and can see her start to come out in different ways, sometime she surprises me. It's like writing a book, you can set up all these "rules" for your characters and then suddenly you find that your character has this awesome thing about them that you didn't know!

A note- Out of respect for my fellow BRF people, I am going to try and use their character names/occupation (such as Director) instead of real names. This is after thinking about how I run my other blog and I think giving people appropriate nicknames protects them and myself from bad situations.
Also- I'm trying not to use to many cliche words like "Awesome" and "Amazing." Please know that if I do use them it's because I truly mean something amazed me or was awe inspiring.

Rehearsal week 2

Also Known As- I GET MY COSTUME!!!

And learn a lot about my character and where I stand in the social vs dominance areas.

To give a more blow by blow approach....

Got to site around 9:15 when I needed to be at rehearsal by 10. To be honest I like being early. People are there and I can get to know my castmates better because everyone pretty much scoots right after we end.

Today was hot. Really hot. Like I was wearing sunblock and my shoulders still got pink hot. Arg. But once again, today was pretty awesome.

To be honest, I didn't do much improvisation today. I should have volunteered more, but my head held me back a lot and I need to learn to just go for things and raise my hand. People will not judge me for making mistakes and the only thing that will happen is that I will learn what works and what doesn't. I think I might have participated in like two scenes today.
However, we did do a lot of stuff that does pertain to the improvisation we will be doing all day during Faire Days.

And the first thing I got that helps my character is....MY COSTUME!!!!
My costume is AWESOME! But I'm pretty sure I'd think any costume where I get to wear sweet looking Ren clothing is awesome.
I got to go with Captain Frobisher to the wonderful costume closet and have the head costumer start picking out things.
First came my pants, which the head costumer handed down to me and was a little skeptical about if they would fit or not. They did fit and they are AMAZING! Blue with burgundy and yellow striping on one leg. Apparently they belonged to Grace O'Malley one year, and I am very proud to be wearing them as another sailing lass.
Then the hat. I get the weirdest most fun hat ever. It's called the "question mark hat." You kind of just need to see it to understand it. It's brown with red trim and it has a tail like thing with a tassel on the end. It's awesome and I wore it all day. I love it. It also has bells on it that jingle when I shake my head. It makes me happy.
Then came finding the doublet. That was a bit of a trick. I think I tried on four or five of them. The one that the Captain was leaning towards was pretty cool looking, burgundy velvet like material. We would have had to take it in to have it fit me because most of the doublets are meant for men.
Most of them.
One doublet that I tried on was a from a character that Captain Frobie played some years back. It has a lot of stuff just sewn onto it and one thing was a hoop earring that is removable. Ansel said I could have it and I plucked it off and it is now on my awesome belt! 
We ended up finding this awesome black/grey/white one with ribbon ties that was meant for a woman playing a man. Well guess what? Another perfect fit. I swear this thing was made to fit me. Or many people of my size, but it happens that the amazing the head costumer picked it out and handed it down. It has a lot of ribbons knotting it together and there were some that were stuck. At first I couldn't get them out, but I managed by the end of the day to pry them apart. I have never met a knot I can't eventually untie.
I also get a very cool looking chemise (or shirt). But the whole experience was pretty darn magical for me.

So after I get my costume the rest of the Street Cast is playing a game that I have no idea what's going on and I just wait for the soon to come water break. We talked more about interaction and the very few but scary people that make us go get security. These things happen very rarely but they do happen....VERY RARELY.
The nice thing is that all of the guys in the cast are us girls' brothers. If someone is messing with us, we go get one of them and they will keep us safe until we can get to security and backstage. We all look out for each other.

Then I had lunch with the Captain of St. George (Queen's court) and I am now invited to hang out with them in the noble's glade. This is going to be very interesting because I am not noble and I am a girl wearing boys clothing. Seriously, everyone EXCEPT my captain can tell that I am a girl. This makes everything very interesting.

After lunch the whole cast went over the farewell songs and where to stand and such. It was fun because there was a sprinkler and I got to sit down. By this time of day I've walked a lot and my dogs are tired. My feet actually fared a lot better this week and I'm less tired than I was last week. Of course, we haven't hit Faire days yet.

We did this really cool thing with Street cast were all of us lined up according to our status. I was about four of five people from the highest person (that being Captain Frobisher). However, when we made a line according to dominance, I was third from last. Even though my station as a "cabin boy" is higher than almost everyone I give most people higher dominance.
Actually, I didn't know where to go so my director pushed me towards the end and said "You're all the way down that way." He was very helpful and I mean that with complete sincerity because I had no freaking idea where to go.
The reason for this is that I am a woman trying to hide my position aboard a ship of men.

This was pretty much the last thing we did before a few of us stayed behind to sing sea shanties.
I love sea shanties. First of all, the people I am singing with have amazing voices. I am awed to be singing with such talented people, and performing with them. I am going to learn so much this summer I think my head might explode!
I'll probably post more about shanties in my first full character post about Anne and what I have found out about her.

And now I bid you all good night and may God give you all good rest. I know I certainly need some for tomorrow.