I knew him, Horatio. The rest of these dead guys, not so much.
Anyway, this weekend, I went to my first in-person SCA event since before the plague times. While I’ve attended a few business meetings, as well as local craft nights and dance practices, I haven’t got to a full-on EVENT event in a long time. Part of that was because we moved back to NC in the midst of the plague, and so there wasn’t so much a chance to re-connect to the folks who we knew or meet people who were new–at least not on anything more than the local level. Add to that trying to get a writing/publishing/media business of the ground plus kids school and activities and spouse being overseas a good part of the last few years, and that all added up to not being able to participate like I used to.
Fast forward to a few months ago when my good friend Lara (Baroness Sophia the Orange) mentioned that she was putting together some Hamlet scenes to perform at the Hamlet-themed Tournament of Ymir (the Baronial Event) … oh, and by the way, would I be interested in playing Laertes?
Would I? WOULD I? You bet your poisoned blade I would!
The idea was to put together selected scenes from the play–the ones that an audience would immediately pick up on, recognize the lines from, and then move about the site sharing the selected scenes with whatever audience we could find. I loved the idea of being itinerant, wandering players, trundling with our costumes and props and characters, setting up, playing our scenes, and then moving on.
We had a few rehearsals, and I started getting more excited, Then, I realized that I hadn’t renewed my SCA membership in a while, so I had to go take care of that (and foolishly forgot to take a screenshot of the message, because once I got on site, my phone wouldn’t load the email.) I ended up paying five bucks extra and signing a waiver, which wasn’t a showstopper because Sophie generously paid the site fee for the actors, many of whom were SCA newbs and had never attended an event before. (I also ended up paying a bunch of money over at the merchant row, so let’s be honest, it was five bucks well-spent, LOL.)
I also had to laugh because even though Sophie provided the poofy shirt and doublet for me to wear as Laertes, and technically I didn’t need any other garb, I STILL ended up at Joann’s the day before, purchasing the material to panic-sew a hooded short cloak the night before. Listen. It gets cold at Ymir and I was falling down and dying multiple times throughout the afternoon…
It was so much fun to get a chance to spend the day outside, away from screens (which, don’t get me wrong, I typically enjoy the time I spend with screens and the projects and people those screens connect me to, but there is something to be said for taking a break and getting fresh air and a re-set.)
This also reminded me how much I do enjoy the SCA. I love spending time with friends, I enjoy the opportunities the organization gives me to try creative things without the pressure of having to use them for anything except fun. I love the fact that my life is a creative life, where I can write and edit and publish and podcast. But sometimes, I just need to do something creative for the sake of creativity.
And that bit of dopamine spurred something all right, because I got home fired up to get moving on a bunch of projects, one of which was the beginning of a song for a future SCA event (a tavern-themed get together, which is going to be amazing), as well as a design for a trim based on our local Canton of Attilium heraldry.
In the meantime, I’ve got to get back to editing an anthology (multiple anthologies), writing the next book in the Rick Keller series, working on my next class (oh yeah–I’m taking a Fundamentals of Accounting class through the local community college), and cleaning up my office which looks like the apocalypse happened. That, plus, I’ve got Ret-Con coming up this weekend and still don’t have my stuff organized. With that, I should probably quit procrastinating via blogging and get back to work!
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