Know I haven’t written in a while but we’ve been enjoying fall in New England. Usually the troupe is so busy we can’t see straight but I felt we needed more down time in my favorite season and honestly, we hadn’t worked on our promotional materials in some time. This Fall we have new business cards, added a new performance package, have three new performance-ready acts and finally, after three years and countless personnel changes, it was time for a new demo DVD.

Some friend of ours in New Hampshire graciously allowed the troupe to come down and do some taping and picture taking. The view is gorgeous, the day was temperate and although the colors hadn’t reached peak, it was still gorgeous. Our friends own two golden retrievers that think people running around with big, shiny sticks is the best thing ever and we caught some of that on video.

Here is a view of the lake we used as a backdrop

We set Up

and the other members watched from the top of the hill

It’s funny to see the contrast in body language with “on tape” and “is it done yet?”

And we took a TON of photos in three different sets of costuming for members (Me, I had two costumes. Others we had to limit to “just three”) And I told members to chose their favorites. It was illuminating to hear what I thought was a great photo but they were “meh” about it. It was a challenge in some locations because of nearby houses and in some pics I’ll just photoshop modern items right out with a ‘clone’ tool

I included some one picture that sounded like a good idea but wasn’t like I pictured (Wright)

and another I thought was lovely but the subject thought she looked “goofy”

Either way, in upcoming weeks I’ll be posting new photos (even of me *eyeroll*) and we’ll be applying for new faires.

We have three upcoming events; A private college “medieval day,” The ISD renaissance Faire and the Mobile Renaissance Faire.

The troupe did a second weekend at SCRF and we broke a tip record which made me happy.  We did some variation on the fire routine (no pics yet) and burned a rabbit effigy. It went over better than we hoped.  It was very nice that danielgreenwolf came and drummed for us –especially as we are ah, not musical.

Daniel tightening the drumhead with Monica heating it because of humidity (more on this later)

It’s a continuous issue-we have three really good drummers available but because they ARE so good, they are generally already booked.  I’ve been trying to avoid the bullet for two years but I gave in and am learning to drum.  I don’t have the free time to join drum circles or hang out so Eric Peterson is showing me (for pay :)  how to drum.  I have a djembe (shown above) but it is an instrument that takes a lot of physical “oomph” to pull nice sound out of it. Eric had me try a synthetic tabla and it was a lot easier to “reach” and sit with.  My main problem is that once I picked up speed, my reach started creeping across the drum head because I’m used to working the bigger one.

Don’t get me wrong- I *STINK* and have no natural musical ability. People have tried to teach me but only Eric seems to have hit on a method that works.  We had the practice space to ourselves (we decided not to have rehearsal) so we could make plenty of noise :)

It was also nice to be out of the humidity. New England is beautiful but sometimes we get the worst of all weather conditions-this is a view of the reservoir at 2:00 pm, it was amazingly hazy. 

For the fire shows it adds an additional element of danger. When there is precipitation in the air it makes the props burn hotter and longer.  (Essentially we are steaming the air) The most impressive fire show happens under these conditions. But when it comes time for these to go out –it changes everything.  I had a set of fans burn so hot I ended up throwing them down and lost all the hair on the back of my hands. Valkyrie turned to me and asked

“So, do I still have eyelashes?”

The photographer snapped a picture of the flame *licking* up the front of her from the orb-it was quite breathtaking. But man, the safety people have to be on their toes!  But seeing some of the early pictures (we won’t see the refinished ones for two weeks) it looks like they are good enough for packets and demos.

I’ll try to remember that over the smell of burning hair…maybe that’s the real reason I want to learn to drum *laugh*

This past weekend we snuck down to KY Highland Renaissance Festival to surprise our friends Capt. Amos and Dieter.

We succeeded!  It was great to see them when we could take it easy and enjoy the faire. We saw an amazing horse acrobatics troupe, The Pickle Brothers, Doktor Kaboom, and more. We knew Jesse from Jack Salt and the Captain's Daughter,

I liked being able to kick back and have fun with our friends.

But you know we can't go to a faire and not perform *face* because we got roped into doing "the 15-minute Shakespeare" with the Kentucky Shakespeare person.

If you want to read more-see my livejournal entry.

Southern Connecticut Renaissance Faire

 We have been performing at this faire ever since it went by the moniker “Park City” doing a night time fire show.  Our first year they mistakenly thought our fire team was one guy with devilsticks but we had really expanded.  We were booked up against an act called “Pyro Jenny. We nicely mentioned that rather than having two fire acts competing perhaps we could combine.

“No Thanks.” We were told.

After that performance, she never came back to the faire and I’ve never heard of her performing again. (If you do, let me know)

Fire was not our main goal-it’s still swords. 

But for me, I’ve been fascinated by fire since being small and having the opportunity to use it as an adult has been very satisfying (Don’t mind the time the birthday candles caught my hair on fire.) In my brain, I’m mulling over new ways to use, control and perform with it. Many of the troupe members own their fire props personally.  The advantage of being in a troupe is that they have built-in spotters; we provide fuel, equipment and a place to practice. I thought we would have more competition in the fire market but a lot of fire users don’t like “working for the man” or see it more as a personal statement than a performance. I can respect that but for me, I need to see a practical side and my Yankee nature needs to justify it somehow.

 Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff is the more stressful part of the job. Many people who hire us don’t realize that they need permits to do fire performance-we’ll handle that for an extra fee. We need safety equipment which needs to be tested, cleaned and replaced every year-including first aid kits, wipe towels and fuel storage.

 Then there is hauling the stuff and marking out stages. I *never* cease to be amazed that people watching a fire show have NO REGARD for their personal safety. We have a person whose primary job is to keep an eye on the audience. We’ve had toddlers come running over, a woman who leaned on one of our torches and people who (let me pause a moment to calm down about this) have passed a garden fence, bypassed a sign, crossed a ditch and then been surprised when I *shoo them off our stage area.*  The most amazing bit was that I was holding a safety blanket during the fire sword fight (blades are 3 feet long, the men holding them are 6’4” tall, the flame tails are 1-2 feet) and when I told them to go back their comment was
“Wow, that’s a lot of fire, they come really close!”

I know you can’t beat people to death or strangle them with a fire resistant blanket but I sure did think about it. I will say this-we have the least problems in the US in areas where people regularly use firearms and cook outdoors.

That said, it’s amazingly beautiful when it comes together. I prefer to have live drumming over canned music when possible because a good drummer can adapt to the dancer/performer and when they work in concert they can mesmerize an audience.

So if you happen to be near Bridgeport, CT during the last three weekends of July, stop in at the Friday or Saturday night Fire Show with Phoenix Swords. If you stay after the show and say “Hey, I’m so-and-so from renspace, is Temper here?” I’d be happy to show you our stuff .  And please, for the love of Murphy, clap when I swallow eight inches of fire, okay? :)

The second weekend of July we'll be starting the "fire season" of Phoenix Swords when we light up the night time at SCRF.

In the meantime we are trying to decide whether or not to take a space that will double our rent but be 1) completely open for sword work 2) available 24/7

It's looking likely since even *storage* would cost us that much and our business has effectively swallowed our home office and a space bedroom. (poll arms and tents, not small items)

I'm also happy my friend Pat (blysswench) has joined renspace. :)

Now, a picture

Have a great weekend everyone