of persona concepts and ways upon which to expand them.

[RatherUnwieldly]

Allo all, I'm working in my first festival (CRF) this fall as a street performer, and have been attempting to get a jump on figuring out a persona. Opening weekend is but a month away and while I do have a concept, it is peppered with bits of other ideas and whatnot. Essentially I am having a hard time tacking down exactly what it is I would like to shoot for with my character. I suppose I should go ahead and just toss it all out there, no?

My original concept is formulated around the idea that I would interact with patrons through a simple game, testing their ability to repeat tongue twisters. I had come up with the persona of a roper's daughter named Sylvie Knott, (as our festival is located in a harbor town and ships need rope!) a practical, hearty girl with a streak of mischief in her, a flair for the dramatic if you will. She has come to Fairhaven with her family, but has become bored waiting for them to finish their business, so she begins to chat up the locals and visitors. I would use twisters such as Betty Botter, Peter Piper, etc etc and tie them into stories about the local citizens ("I see you like pastries! Ever hear about Betty Botter, the baker's wife?" for example..) and at the end challenge them to repeat a line of the extended twisty poem (or in the case of a non twisty story, a twister with some relation to it, such as 'red letter, yellow leather' to a story about a loose tanner's daughter) three to five times fast, upon success I would present them with a token. (Of course I wouldn't without favor if they aren't able =] )

It's all a bit of a stretch I know, and its still in the preliminary stages, but I rather like it and think it could be well fleshed out. Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated, we newbs need all the help we can get!

[Lady_Claira]

WOW! That is almost the exact same situation I am in right now. It's my first year of faire and I'm in the street cast as well with a month left to prepare and only the start of my character.

I like the roper's daughter part. That works really well I think. But I can't say how the riddle part would work because well, I, like you... haven't started my first festival yet and I'm not really certain how patrons would react to it.

I know personally that I'd probably be determined to figure out how to say the riddles. But for others, I don't know. I think it might very possibly work if you can start it right and you have some idea of when they're getting too frustrated or don't want to be involved and have a reasonable way to end the conversation when they do. You know?

[Xantrawler]

Have you given a thought to just speaking in tongue twisters? This would mean having a batch of your own ready for any questions or comments from the patrons. A character that spoke only in tongue twisters sounds fun, but I admit a lot of hard work to prepare for. Good luck on your first festival as a street performer.

[McGuinness]

We had a character similar to that concept a few years ago at PaRF - Heather Tucker, the Feather Plucker. Practice up on them A LOT if it is what you are going to based your character around, because inevitably you will have that one day that you are tired or sick or whatever that even simple sentences won't come out right. If you like the concept though - and it is a different one that you really don't see often at all - make it work for you! If you dont want to have to talk in tongue twisters all day, you could always have a "trigger" - you start talking in tongue twisters when you get nervous or see the color purple or something random.

Have you tried one of the many character development worksheets that are around? Check through the old threads in here or search online for one (a lot of the acting character sheets are very similar to role-playing game ones if you run short). Another awesome character development exercise is Hot Seat - the character-in-question sits down press conference style in front of other characters (or friends and family would work too) and lets them ask any questions they would like. Questions that are not "yes or no" or one word answers help, or adding "...and why or why not?" to the end of any of those questions will help. It helps you learn how to think on your feet and answer things that you might not have been asked otherwise.