When does the Character come out?

[Brother Robert of Essex]

I'm very new to this all so I'm asking questions all over the place lol

I read some of these posts, and it sounds like everyone has very detailed and elaborate stories in some cases, about the character they are portraying. At first I thought the dressing ( garbing? ) and the accent was the main parts, but now that I am seeing all these detailed biographies of the characters - I am wondering where exactly you use this information?

  The faire looks like a busy, noisy place - how and where do you unveil the details of your character? Or are these just things you keep in your own mind and nobody else knows it?

  Most people I saw at the faire were shopping, eating or watching shows - I never saw anyone engaged in conversations about their backgrounds etc. So just wondering!

[PurpleDragon]

Many people find it easier for themselves to become immersed in their character if they have a history for that character.  The story of my own main character is far too long for me to post here as it exceeds the maximum characters allowed, and I am always working on the story in hopes to eventually have it published. 

For many of us who have a background in theatre, we like to get "into" character, and that covers anything from the garb we wear to the way we speak, and in some cases, the language we speak. It's a personal preference thing.  Do what YOU feel comfortable doing and hopefully it will help you mesh with other patrons, or playtrons as the case may be.

[Baron Doune]

I never really put mine away, well other to wash him up every now and then.  Sticky bits and all.

And as I learn more about him (my character) and the era I/he lives in he/I continues to evolve.

It's a learning thing.

[nliedel]

The more I play with her, the easier it is for Serena to come out. She's a part of me now and easily retrivable. It amazes me how she's changed from my initial vision. Just growing and becoming her own person. I'm an emotional actress, which means I need a history for her. I can't bring things in from my past and have them work. She has an extensive past, which I can re-tell. Now I'm learning which people want to play and who does not.

[groomporter]

  The faire looks like a busy, noisy place - how and where do you unveil the details of your character? Or are these just things you keep in your own mind and nobody else knows it?

I'm guessing you are a patron as opposed to a participant?
In that case there's no need for a character or backstory unless you want to try to do a little play-acting with other people at the fair.

For cast members, sometimes it does stay just in your head. For some performers it's just something there as an exercise that helps them stay "in character" while they are "on stage" and interacting on the streets of the fair, it might be something to keep in mind to color, or influence your interactions with patrons and other participants. (Would that be part of what they call "method" acting?)

Sometimes a character is just all about what you do as a trade like when I was playing a pardoner, or seller of indulgences. I was obviously a priest or monk so most things turned around interactions with a clerical figure, or my efforts to sell you an indulgence that would get you out of purgatory. When I was a pikeman with Col. Gaffney's Regt. most of my interactions were about being a soldier, my weapons, or my odd clothing (a great kilt) and details of my personal character rarely came up.

That being said... my wife and I had a wonderful lunch at MNRF one year sitting near another couple who asked where we were from "...Scotland" "Oh...? Where in Scotland?" "Near Glenorchy..." and it went on for almost five minutes, or so, and they believed us until we got to the point where I said I had to leave because I was accused of stealing cattle from a neighboring clan, and they finally caught on that we were play-acting.

[DonaCatalina]

We know quite a few people who are cast at various Faires and we interact with them frequently. Knowing a bit about their 'character' and having a detailed knowledge of your own character are a big asset when you want to have a conversation and help them stay in character in front of the public.

i.e. The Marquesa de Rende grew up around the Duke de Cadiz, so when she sees his son, the Conde de Cadiz at a Faire, she always asks after the Duke's health. She might also see Capitan de Villalobo during the fair. Their conversations would be about sailing weather, bribing English Port officials and passage back to Spain.

But it is not neccesary that you develope your character to this extent, but under certain circumstances it certainly adds to the fun.

[Brother Robert of Essex]

  The faire looks like a busy, noisy place - how and where do you unveil the details of your character? Or are these just things you keep in your own mind and nobody else knows it?

until we got to the point where I said I had to leave because I was accused of stealing cattle from a neighboring clan, and they finally caught on that we were play-acting.

ROFL

That's great..lol

Yes I guess that's what I am, a patron. I'm not part of any cast or anything like that -  I'm guessing most people here are actually part of the cast/crew etc.  So I am probably way out of my element.

What people say makes sense - I guess if you are a professional actor/actress then having a worked out history and all the details arms you for answering casual questions and gives you something to talk about. That explains a lot. I could see how this might help you "get into character" more too..

It might all be too advanced for me lol

Clearly I'm going to have to drill down on the time period revolving around the faire, right now I only have a passing knowledge about the politics, people and places in that era.

I'll be ok until people start asking me specific questions like.. how many shillings a Cow is worth, or to name a some local towns or villages, etc

[analise]

Actually, most people here you might call "playtrons". They aren't cast/crew. But they aren't your average person who just shows up once or twice a season. They go in garb, they might develop a "character" (for the record, I don't have a character I "play" at Faire. It doesn't seem to be as ingrained at MDRF), they tend to get to know the cast and those who work at the faire, but this might just be because they're there all the time, every year.

There are a lot of people here, too, who are actual Faire cast/crew/boothies (they work in or own the craft booths you see)/performers (different from cast in that they tend to go to several/many faires a season, might only stay for a couple of weekends and not the full run and essentially, that's their job. A lot of cast I see at Faire might be actors, but also have a "day job" they do when Faire isn't going on. But that's just my perception of things).

[Will Gamwell]

Yes I guess that's what I am, a patron. I'm not part of any cast or anything like that -  I'm guessing most people here are actually part of the cast/crew etc.  So I am probably way out of my element.

I do believe on this board (at least from my interaction thus far) that the number of "Playtrons" or "Paytrons" out-weigh the number of people who actually work for a festival.  If not it is pretty close to even.  Yet what you have here is a mixing of people who love the same thing.  All of which have great advice on various topics.

What people say makes sense - I guess if you are a professional actor/actress then having a worked out history and all the details arms you for answering casual questions and gives you something to talk about. That explains a lot. I could see how this might help you "get into character" more too..

It might all be too advanced for me lol

Moving from my last comment above to this subject, there are many different types of characters at Faires.  Our Faire (MRF) is a mixture of historical and fantasy.  Mostly the idea is to entertain the customers and give them an experience they won't soon forget.  I know a lot of knowledgable people who could just about recite history to a "T".  Then again there are others that couldn't tell you anything about history.  

My advice, play with you character and see what best fits him and you.  Perhaps your character will be more funny & entertaining.   Or more knowledge & interesting....or a convoluted mix of just about everything.

I know here in Minnesota there is a local theater that does Improv Classes that can help teach you to be "on your toes" when interacting with people.  Perhaps you could search around and see if there is something similar near you.

Sean

[nliedel]

I agree with Rafe. I'm a cast member, but this is my first year. Only the Queen, that I know of, and William Sargent, her Sargent at Arms, post here on a regular basis. There are probably more, but I am again new and may be missing it. I'm the odd duck, not the patron, or Playtron.

[Katie Bookwench]

I've learned that it is more a hinderance than an advantage for a Performer's character to have an elaborate backstory.

As a Cast member, a performer needs to YES, AND... to any situation, rather than NO, BUT....

If you've got this backstory that your character is pure and virginal (for instance, I'll just use my persona)and innocent, when someone starts a gig about how they heard my character was 'carrying on' with another character the previous night, in order to keep that improv going, it us much easier to to let my 'backstory' to fall by the wayside for that moment if I am to keep that scene going.

Yes, that might compromise my character's 'image' for that scene, but if you consider that that 'scene' might not ever be repeated (improv is often a 'one shot/live in moment' sort of thing) again, and the audience will only remember it until they are distracted by something else, there's really no harm. I can go back to being a virginal old maid as soon as it's over, and I have another audience.

My character is a Librarian -- I will come across one patron who has the idea that Librarians are demure, shy people, and then I will come across people who think that Librarians are vixens who let their hair down after the Library closes and go WILD.

I can easily play to both patrons -- but ONLY if I'm not married to my backstory.

If you're a patron, and you want to interact in your character, that's great-- interactions are on YOUR terms, and you can pick and chose who you reveal your backstory to. Enjoy the luxury that is yours.

Performers really don't have time to pontificate the story of their life and experience to everyone -- they're supposed to be there to draw people in and to PLAY-- I mean....which would YOU rather do:

A - Have a fun and innuendo filled conversation about the naughty books you've read from the Restricted Section of the Library, or how you rival Casanova and can write a book about it for my collection....

or

B - Listen to how I grew up in the apprenticeship of a bookmaker and learned to read as the servant to a Baroness' children?

I know which one I'd rather do... 



A performer should be more in tune to what the Patron thinks about their character than any Mary Sue/Gary Stu sort of concoction they've come with in their head. It's the Patron that counts. It's about THEM, not about the actor.

....Which is one of the reasons I'm having so much fun in Semi-Retirement! I'm a Playtron-- it can be all about ME if I want it to!

[DT_Masters]

For me, it's a number of things.

First of all, I write fiction, so I am forever developing characters. Two things I strive to do is not to have the characters a reflection of each other and not to have them a reflection of me. Hence, that has rather developed in me an ability to build a model of this or that character that I can apply a situation to and come up with how they might react...........of course, a lot of that is how I would want to be that character, "live" the life that is not mine.

Secondly, I tend to be quite imagative. I've lived a life of not seeing myself as a character in this or that show but writing in my own character.

Third, way back in the days of MetaGaming and similar, I would use those games to play, develop characters for my stories. It could only go so far given the nature of the games, but it was useful. It is still something I do today, I don't play me, but rather, one of my characters.

Fourth, I tend to be a heck of a mimic. Either for short term such as seconds or longer. I've done LARP twice and the second time I did it, I was a SF engineer type who, while down for repairs on the planet, gets bitten and sees himself as infected ....... and did the LARP from that standpoint.

Fifth, I've picked up acting which has taught me a few tricks and also, of writing dossiers on my characters to better understand them, better to see how they see the world.

So that comes down to Jonathan Kidd, time traveling anthropologist of CMDF who is probably about to go native (if I can the garb together in time). At Renfests, it just clicks on. It doesn't click on entirely, mind you; I'm still me there......but he's awfully fun to play. A field scientist who is getting more and more irritated with "the Council" and more and more involved with the people that not only he sees each year, but every day from the photos he takes.

I have to break, of course, between three different personalties, so to speak. Hardly anyone knows "Kidd" because that is more of a private fantasy. Most people know "Masters" because of the net....but it is a net name and my reality world doesn't go to kindly with aliases in reality. Security and all that, so I have to go immediately from net to real name.

And what will "Kidd" be this time around? Working for CMDF or an adventurer who was once a rich landholder who got tired of all that? Probably both.......though more leaning to the latter.

Heaven help me if the Council finds out!

[LadyMorna]

I have been developing a backstory because I like to write, and because I acted for many years in community theatre, and I like to "know" a character I'm portraying, even if details of her life never come out in interactions with others.  Having a backstory just makes it more fun for me.  What it comes down to is "what makes going to Faire more fun for me?"  For many people, it's more fun to just dress up and improvise, and not worry about a backstory.  Being a former actress and a bookworm, though, I enjoy doing the research and creative writing as much as I enjoy being at Faire!

Lady Morna (a noble nerd!)