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.

How to get a Captain out of jail

This was prompted by a street bit that I did on Saturday where I asked patrons how to get Captain Frobisher out of jail without having to pay the bail money. I combined all of the ideas into one fantastic escape attempt! 

Anne's log Monday July the 23rd

Today we plan to break Captain Frobisher out of jail. We do not wish to pay bail since it would require the crew to forgo our own pay and most of the men haven't been paid yet. We have yet to find where the Captain keeps our pay, though Captain Hawkyns did leave a few clues. I have since asked many people who are versed in the art of escape and they have given me many ideas as how to sneak the Captain out of jail without actually paying the guards.

Firstly, the crew should try to bring gifts of strong beverages that will make the guards drunk and unable to understand fully what we are about. Then some guards will be served stew with herbs that will turn their stomachs sour and they shall have need to leave their posts to empty their stomachs or bowels, whichever ailment the herb shall cause. Then John and Stretch shall set a rat (or two) on fire and distract the remaining guards as I slip into the jail and find the Captain.
As soon as that has been done, the rest of the crew shall disguise themselves as farmers and with the aide of a borrowed herd of cows, send the cows into a frenzy charging towards the jail. The crew shall behave as if they lost control of their herd and will require the guards assistance in rounding up the beasts. While this distraction is going on, I shall unlock the Captain's cell (since I have acquired the key from the pickpocket Maggie Pie), and we shall run out the back entrance to a waiting straw filled wagon and I shall drive off with the Captain Frobisher hiding under the straw.

However, if worst comes to worst and our plans do not succeed we shall try the use of gunpowder to blow up the wall of the Captain's cell and hope that he does not perish in the process.

Fortunately, the crew's plan is put on hold as Captain Sir John Hawkyns has just sent me a message saying he is seeing to the release of Captain Frobisher this evening and I should ready the crew for the Captain's return.


Hope you all enjoyed the idea of the charging cows! It was my personal favorite.

Weekend 3- Pacing and Patroning Part 1

Well this weekend's word might be labeled as "Eventful." Certainly it was not my average weekend and I now know why the cast doesn't usually take any patron time. However, you should look for that in the second half of this post and not in the introductory paragraph.

Saturday- also known as "The Captain is looking for the anchor amidst other iron bars." Also known as- my Captain was not at Faire this weekend.

So while my Captain was out of town, I took to the street with little to no idea how my day was actually going to go. I was excited and nervous about the prospect of having so much "me time" on the street. I was also a little nervous about the humidity of the day. Heat doesn't sap me half as fast as humidity does. I can drink buckets of water, take all the breaks in the world, and I will still be sluggish at the end of the day thanks to Mr. Humidity.
I started my day out in the usual Saturday way of playing a few rounds of Towers (giant Janga) with the Captains and that got me into the swing of my character pretty fast.
Then feeling great about the rest of my morning I went about trying to work with the patrons and had one of those awful days where no one wanted to play and I failed a couple times. However, I had a brilliant hit and run bit where I was gnawing at a square of hardtack and asking people if they'd ever tried it before. I actually got a few people interested and had a few good conversations after twenty minutes of no one wanting to play. Plus, that hardtack tasted good. I don't know how hardtack can taste good, but this stuff did!
Then I got to go up front by the gate and entertain people that were coming in to Bristol! I also found a really good line "Do you know who I am?" People actually stop and respond. I'd introduce myself and as people who they were and if they knew where they were going. It worked really well! Huzzah for stupid random lines!
The afternoon went fairly well too, I did my mustache loop and got some good answers as to how to grow a beard. Then I went around and asked people the best way to bust a Captain out of jail without paying the bail money. I've just found my new favorite bit!
Look for the post on "How to get your Captain out of jail free!" post- coming soon to a blog near you!
The only non-sitting down break I took was to go shooting at the archery range with one of the KK cast members. He taught me the basics and then I just started shooting.

Archery is amazing. I've never held a weapon that felt so natural in my hand. I missed the target a few times, but I hit inside the second circle of the target much more than I missed. This was my first time shooting too! Cast gets to shoot for free- So I guess I'll be practicing a lot more! Who knows, I might even get good at archery!


So the afternoon went really really well until I go backstage, sit down, and my body starts cramping up and I can feel a headache coming on. In my head I'm thinking "I've been drinking a lot of water all day, been drinking Gatorade, eaten 3 pickles, made sure I've taken several decently long breaks, what in the world is wrong with me?"
I'll tell you what was wrong- I looped the whole circuit of the Faire between 5 and 8 times at a long stride, racing between patrons to find someone new to talk to once I was done with someone else. When I say the whole Faire, I really do mean the whole Faire.
My legs hated me, my core muscles hated me, and I really just wanted to take a nap. Instead I wimped out on going to closing gate and after drinking a few mugs of water and laying cold rags on my neck and head, I got dressed in civilian clothes.
Remember what I said earlier about humidity? It just saps me faster than anything. I honestly think that I would have been o.k. if it hadn't been so humid.
I caved and took two advil when I got home. I hate taking pain meds, but my legs killed. Then I fell into bed and was out cold for a good 8 hours.

Lesson learned- even though you're looking for people to play with, learn to freaking sit down on the street. Don't lap the Faire site 7 times in one day. Even if you have taken more breaks than usual and drank more than enough water. Humidity kills me. 

Part 2- The Patron Day, coming up!

Weekend Two- The arrival of a new Anne

This past weekend was really when I felt my character coming out and coming together. Before this weekend, Anne was a little wishy washy about who she wanted to be. After a (much needed) character change in back story during dress rehearsal, I really wasn't sure what to make of Anne. Instead of being a slightly more docile yet sneaky run away, she is now a much bolder and cheekier (and still slightly sneaky) personality. Instead of being Captain Frobisher's servant, she's now more of a protege. All in all, I can wreak a lot more havoc as this new Anne than I could with the old one. My Captain did warn me that this would happen. Once those gates open, everything changes.
Another thing that helps, I work with a lot of bold personalities. I'm just going to get lost if I don't make my own character bolder to compliment and work alongside of the other characters. 

This weekend was a mixed bag. On one hand everything on the Street was great! On the other hand...I was finishing up a 9 day marathon of physical activity that I am not accustomed to. Saturday was much harder than Sunday for reasons that I do not know. I think I got more sleep on Saturday night than I did on Friday.

Saturday went fairly well all in all. There were a couple more times where my captain let me "take the wheel." I also got my first try at playing "Towers" with the Captains. It's like a giant Janga game.  I borrowed a sword for whenever I removed a block, and the blades did feel really awkward in my hand. I am in serious want of lessons in swordplay and archery.
Unfortunately, while I felt much more secure in my character than I did opened weekend, I didn't have all of the energy reserves that I usually have going into a weekend. I did have a moment when I turned to Lefty and said "I'm fading in and out." This was around 2:30pm and he made me go backstage and rest for half an hour. I had really mixed feelings about that because I wanted to talk to more people, but I also know that if I don't rest and am not the top of my game, people aren't going to really want to talk to me. I didn't take as many risks as I did on Sunday and coasted through with a lot of "fake it till you make it" when I was feeling low on energy. Then when I was on my second, third, fourth, fifth, etc, winds I put as much effort into my work as possible.

My stupid performer mentality usually makes me push through anything. I won't pretend I wasn't a little annoyed with Lefty for making me go backstage (he offered to walk me back himself), but I probably wouldn't have made myself take a break. I do stupid things like that. I push through things when I should probably sit down. I sat down this time, and I'll remember to sit down next time. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

I got a lot more sleep Saturday night than I did Friday night, and I think it helped a lot during Sunday. I was also a bit more stressed out on Saturday, still recovering from the week at camp.

Sunday my knee was twinging a bit so I wore a knee brace as a preventative measure. While I might not be so great about the whole "take a break" thing yet, I am getting better at the pre-injury prevention. My knee doesn't bother me today, so I think I did the right thing.
On Sunday the BRF got a visit from the fuzzy orange muppet like puppet. I saw it twice and freaked out both times.
I also got a surprise visit from my Uncle and his girlfriend. I was really excited to see them since they live in a different state and I don't think I've seen them since Christmas. Over the weekend I got to see a lot of friends and family. It's a lot of fun because you're playing with people you know, but at the same time you aren't entirely yourself since you're playing another person.

Things I learned this week-
People like to give me advice about being manly. I actually got some great advice from a woman about walking like a man. It was hysterical.
Anne cannot lie to the Queen and will correct the Captain is he is lying to the Queen (I can't wait to see this play out).
Just take a 15 minute break. Seriously. Ice rags, salty snacks, and an extra drink of water will go a long way. And you won't get glares from your director after you tell him (at 1:30 in the afternoon) that this is your first real break. Oops. 

Favorite moments?
Writing false "State Secrets" and incriminating Drake.
Watching my mom sing along to the sea shanties.
Seeing my drama teacher from high school.
"Are we in a bad French Novel?"- the Captain
"Are you sexy, and do you know it?"- Lefty, giving "advise" 
Gertrude Normyl blowing her owl whistle with her eyes crosses and cheeks puffed out. I just about died from laughter.

Now to figure out who is most likely my father. Historically and Fictionally.