What do you think of plot?

[aerial angels]

This is overly simplistic, and there are faires like Maryland and Sterling where the audience has been educated to look for the story. But for most faires -

95% of the audience thinks the story is, "Hurray, the King is here!"

The other 5% doesn't know the King is here.

[L Dale Walter]

Dale, I don't think you qualify as the *general* and *casual* patron that Gem is referring to.
The patron who goes to faire once a year is so overwhelmed by everything that is going on around them that I do not believe that they know there is a story line or plot to the day.

Granted I am not your average patron, but KC did make their story pretty easy to follow, meaning if you -wanted- to follow it, you could.

They key, as I have discovered after 10 years of doing these kinds of shows, is hook them early.  As I have elaborated on how to do this in an earlier post, I will not go into it here.

Suffice to say, my team is ready for MiRF with 5000 handout cards with plot synopsis, times, and locations on them.  All of my good guys have show keyed favors by the thousands to give out to children.  All my cast works the lanes constantly to involve people in the storyline.

Plus, it's freakin' Robin Hood!  Who doesn't know and love that one?

L. Dale Walter
Director
Knights of Iron
www.knightsofiron.com

[L Dale Walter]

This is overly simplistic, and there are faires like Maryland and Sterling where the audience has been educated to look for the story. But for most faires -

95% of the audience thinks the story is, "Hurray, the King is here!"

The other 5% doesn't know the King is here.

Allison is right; the audience has to be educated that there IS a storyline.  We did this with the 4 years of Musketeer/Pirate shows so people came expecting to see a new story.

As we have had a 3 year absence, it will be interesting to see how quickly we can re-educate the patrons to the new storyline.  Stacking two of the most controversial people in Renfestdom on the cast was done intentionally, and, believe me, it is drawing attention!

Stage counts will tell, but if the promos and media day are an indicator, I would get an early seat at the 4:30 Chess Match!

LDW
(insert stuff here)

[Shadbolt8]

My 2 cents.

Patrons (I.E. the general populace who shows up every 2 to 5 years) are the self same people who go to movies, read books, attend stage plays, watch television, form fan clubs ad infinitum.

They do these things because generally, people like a good story which in general must have some form of plot and characters.

So now transfer the Patrons love of the above Plot and Characters and put that into an open air theater setting (Renaissance Faire). If the story is properly advertised I.E. hawking, constant working of the lanes by the characters in the show and the ever crucial hooking in the children then the show will quite simply have a following, more so if the story is dynamic, action oriented with a simple good versus evil style plot (Thank you Walt Disney!)

The Hero must be Heroic, the Villian must be nearly insurmountable and in the end the hero wins...oohs and ahhs all around.

I've watched "Plot" driven storylines at several renaissance fairs, frankly most approach it poorly and the entire affair devolves into a fairly un-entertaining mind numbing wander into actorbationville. When it is approached correctly, the concept knocks the cover off of the ball.

The KEY to this type of shows success is that the actors within the show MUST MUST understand that the show does not exist for them it is for the paying customer.

When this simple rule is observed, magic happens. When the rule is ignored the show fails.

All that said, the only way you would know or not if I'm right is to come out to MiRF and see if we entertain you with the Ledgend of Robin Hood.

[GirlChris]

This is all very interesting. I can't look at what other faires do in terms of story from the point of view of a patron. I go to a faire and I look for the plot/storyline, because (at least at the faires here in Ontario) I know a good chunk of the cast. So I don't really know what it's like coming in as just a regular patron.

[temper]

 I felt I did a disservice by not linking to these folks earlier (in a rush)
They make sure they have the perfect venue, they have recurring characters that grow, learn and sometimes die, even smallest characters have a history and ways to interact and they prep the public most of the year!
http://www.pastimesentertainment.com/pirate.html
(and scope out the other shows

[Capt Robertsgrave Thighbiter]

Pastimes does one hell of a good job developing story and plot. We performed at thier pirate faire the last 4 years, and they argh all about the plot.  They manage to carry over elements from the year before, and write new twists into what seems like one long continuous tale. Last year Capt Hook got married. This year he got divorced, in example.

IMHO, making up wholely fictional charecters , ie Sir Rampage vs Sheriff Wantage is a tough sell, and who the hell are they in the first place?   Make it Sir Robin and Sheriff Notingham, people already know who they argh - lets you develope story line rather then having to educate patrons on who you are.

All IMHO of course - we dont usualy get involved with the actors much, unless it is to steal something from the troupe.  Or to mutter " I didn't vote for him" when the King passes by.

[scittle]

i think that if a show is done right than it is very easy to follow the plot throughout the day, and it enriches the patron's experience at the faire. i greatly enjoyed seeing the robin hood show this past weekend and at many of the shows i saw the same patrons (mainly families) over and over again. oh, and the children! when they talked to the good guys they were talking to their heroes, you could see it in their faces. it was just like going to Disney world and meeting Cinderella. but if a show is not done right then patrons will stand and stare then walk away wondering what they saw. there is no emotional investment. 

i think there is another type of show at MiRF that is similar to the robin hood show. i am not really sure. i know the actors, fine people, but i have no idea what i was watching. there was yelling and people pretending to hurt eachother, but i don't know who i was suppose to be cheering for. all of a sudden there was an area roped off and there were people fighting. it felt like i was watching WWE medieval style.

[scittle]

i was just reading my last plot and it occurred to me... the only plot that i have seen at the 4 different faires i have been to involve the queen/king showing up, saying hi and opening the gates. except for the knights of iron shows. they make plot work and work well! i have seen their musketeer show, king Aurthur show and robin hood show and they do it right! if they could write a book about what works and what doesn't there would be more better plot driven faires. and i think that would make every faire better.

[Terry Griffith]

The size of the faire and the quantity of cast members should dictate the need and/or benefit of a running plot.  If the plot is carried out in the lanes throughout the day, it tends to draw in patrons.  At larger faires than can afford to dedicate a stage to developing the plot line, it may work but at smaller faires it just competes with the stage shows.  People who may enjoy a music act would have to miss it because they wouldn't want to miss the next installment of the story.  That's not good for the stage acts.

At the faire that I am currently working, the owner has seen fit to cut the cast to an absolute minimum.  A plot line wouldn't be possible beyond opening gate show. 

I have seen faires that use a scripted show and faires that use interactive improv in the lanes.  The patrons seem to respond to the latter and come away with a much better memory of the experience.  Of course, that depends greatly on the ability of the cast to pull it off.  My only complaint of scripted shows is that the cast doesn't usually interact with patrons in the lanes.  I'm sure there are faires that do both but it's a rare situation.

[Katie Bookwench]

Yes, for the tiny faires, a running plot that happened might detract from stage acts - though if the Entertainment department was on the ball, they could find a scheduling solution that would benefit everyone.

At MiRF, there are both improvisationally interactive and scripted interactive street events. Both are interactive, in the sense that the audience is invited to cheer or boo the action, or to take sides with characters in the scripted action - what they cannot do in a scripted scene is interject themselves into the already established scene and change the direction, or the outcome of the events-- but not everyone that attends the show will want to be the star - many people are content to watch from the sidelines.

The others in the cast are there to offer the improv activity, that is (we would hope) more tuned to give the audience member a chance to be the star, and drive the action with their response to the actor(s) of the village.

It's not really the quantity of the cast, but the quality, that would enable or disable the effectiveness of a running plot to the show.  Even a very small faire could develop a very open, general plot if they wished to, but I think a lot of thought by the Entertainment Director should go into the talents of the actors involved, and how intensive the show's overall plot should be. 

[scittle]

i agree with bookwench, when done right the size of the faire doesn't matter if the plot is executed well. i went to a very small faire once where plot worked well.  the scenes were scheduled at the same time as shows that pulled a different demographic and then in between the scenes anyone could interact with the characters.

[Morrigan]

I have seen faires that use a scripted show and faires that use interactive improv in the lanes.  The patrons seem to respond to the latter and come away with a much better memory of the experience.  Of course, that depends greatly on the ability of the cast to pull it off.  My only complaint of scripted shows is that the cast doesn't usually interact with patrons in the lanes.  I'm sure there are faires that do both but it's a rare situation.

TRF does....   

[Shadbolt8]

MiRF's scenario show does lane interaction pretty much all day except at scripted scenes and even then some patron interaction comes into play.

Good times.

[mistress lilly]

Thighbiter, it's up to the actors to define those rolls. Made up characters can be wildly popular, with the right actors playing them. The problem with playing mostly known characters is that they are known. People don't tend to take super well to deliniations from story archs in their favorite characters.
I know someone who was seriously ticked off that Pasttimes (and yes, they do a wonderful job!) had Hook marry anyone at all. He is simply too beloved to screw with. Same with Robin Hood and Arthur and....

As for my opinion on plot.
Nope.
I've heard so many questions come into my booth because people will catch a snippit and not know what's going on. Most people don't show up at the crack of the gate and stay until the last call.

Allyson mentioned Sterling training the audience to look for it, but they don't. They've been putting plot lines in their shows for 20+ years now and people who've been going that long still don't seem to catch on to anything beyond what the royal overlaying plot is. Spanish Ambassador visit to the Queen...  Normally there are many subplots that do work into shows but are not so strongly tied in that you *need* to see everything to know what's going on. Thanks to that, people don't really look for it.  Now, Sterling has undergone TREMENDOUS change in the past couple years with the new owner, and so Gary has put a bigger push back on the plotline but overall in the past decade, it seriously lagged and patrons didn't notice let alone care.

This is kind of a loaded question on here. We aren't mundane patrons.
Rennies notice the plot because we are there, performing, vending or attending and we notice the ear marks.

I forgot which faire it was, forgive me, but my absolute favorite "involvement" technique of plot introduction of any faire was a newspaper as a program.
It wasn't large, it wasn't elaborate. The map, the cast, the vendor list was all present and cleverly worked in but there was a "headline" story that you couldn't miss the title of..."Can the Queen Evade Spanish Invasion" (example)
Then there was a smaller article "Sherrif Rottenly, Long arm of the law or henchman?" there was an obit section complete with "Grave Digger looking to fill vacancies", there were announcements "Mayor's searching for suitable husband" and "Pirates to the East, Thieves to the West...is the shire in danger?"  Small articles giving plot elements were there but a really quick skim of titles and bylines gave patrons a great understanding of plot. I was blown away impressed.
I also expected to see a tonne of these crumpled in the streets, but they weren't. There were recycling bins, just in case people didn't keep them but many did, and even sought out "autographs" on them. I also saw them put to use as a bum-buffer on a wet bench, as umbrellas and as the ever popular mud shield at the mud show.