Pennsic XXXVII: Bocce at Æthelmearc Royal
*Note: this post starts off about Pennsic but leads into an event for The Confused Greenies
It was the middle Saturday, my first full day at Pennsic. I had just participated in a workshop on Japanese kyōgen theatre (more on that later) and was walking with a new friend (who is starting his own commedia troupe in Æthelmearc). I was heading back to my camp when I saw a posting outside Æthelmearc Royal about "Storytellers Open Mic Night" and a "Torchlight Bocce Tournament" - starting in 15 minutes! The guards at the gate encouraged me to stop in (especially after I managed to answer one of their riddles that they say no one else had answered!).
The storytelling didn't start for quite some time and though it was still before sunset, people were already playing bocce. I've never played the game before and didn't even know much about it (and couldn't have pointed at people playing and told you that was bocce). It's a simple game to learn - especially as we weren't playing exactly by official rules. We just had a grassy and sometimes bumpy lawn and sometimes with obstacles such as tent wires and benches. I learned later that's it's often played by two (or two teams) and the person who pitches is the person who is furthest from the goal ball (the pallino I guess) and keeps going until he or she has a ball no longer furthest away. We just each had two balls and played as many as pairs were available. We each pitched one ball and then after everyone went pitched our second. We didn't keep score but the winner got to pitch next. We weren't very good or very cutthroat but we had fun.
When it got dark, they used a lit torch to show where the pallino landed. Some people brought bocce balls that could light up - not glow-in-the-dark but actually have light bulbs or LED's in them. I was at the storytellers' circle by this point but saw them still playing.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I had never played before but I found it to be a lot of fun, especially as we didn't play by the rules, heh. Two weeks later I went to the Feast of Assumption in Little Italy and lord_peng1 showed me that one of the places there has two official bocce fields and I watched people playing it for points and with the rules. I also realized it's considered an Italian game.
This got me thinking. Maybe The Confused Greenies could host a bocce tournament? It would be much simpler than planning, rehearsing, and performing a full play and it would be fun and help get our name out. It would be a little bit theatrical - for example, maybe Pantalone decides to host a bocce tournament to find someone to marry his son or daughter? Capitano would brag about his skills and make excuses for failures, Arlecchino would just be foolish in his pitches, and Dottore could expunge upon supposedly arcane (but obviously fake) rules. We'd let those in attendance play for real but we could do a little commedia shtick around them.
One of our members did worry that college aged people won't be attracted to a game of bocce. I don't know. Maybe if we market it well enough. I just look at it as fairly simple and allows us to do something else besides just plays, start investing ourselves into the community.
We also have to decide if we want to do it during daylight or do a torchlight / night-glow tournament. I picked up a set of bocce balls but I'm looking to price those that light-up. Torchlight would... involve fire which could be tense. Of course we'd just need one torch. We might be able to get away with fake flame - I have a wax candle that actually uses a mini-light bulb and turns off if you wave a hand over it as if fanning it out! Though we'd probably be on a field on campus that plenty of ambient light from street lights / stadium lights anyway.
What do you guys think?
It was the middle Saturday, my first full day at Pennsic. I had just participated in a workshop on Japanese kyōgen theatre (more on that later) and was walking with a new friend (who is starting his own commedia troupe in Æthelmearc). I was heading back to my camp when I saw a posting outside Æthelmearc Royal about "Storytellers Open Mic Night" and a "Torchlight Bocce Tournament" - starting in 15 minutes! The guards at the gate encouraged me to stop in (especially after I managed to answer one of their riddles that they say no one else had answered!).
The storytelling didn't start for quite some time and though it was still before sunset, people were already playing bocce. I've never played the game before and didn't even know much about it (and couldn't have pointed at people playing and told you that was bocce). It's a simple game to learn - especially as we weren't playing exactly by official rules. We just had a grassy and sometimes bumpy lawn and sometimes with obstacles such as tent wires and benches. I learned later that's it's often played by two (or two teams) and the person who pitches is the person who is furthest from the goal ball (the pallino I guess) and keeps going until he or she has a ball no longer furthest away. We just each had two balls and played as many as pairs were available. We each pitched one ball and then after everyone went pitched our second. We didn't keep score but the winner got to pitch next. We weren't very good or very cutthroat but we had fun.
When it got dark, they used a lit torch to show where the pallino landed. Some people brought bocce balls that could light up - not glow-in-the-dark but actually have light bulbs or LED's in them. I was at the storytellers' circle by this point but saw them still playing.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I had never played before but I found it to be a lot of fun, especially as we didn't play by the rules, heh. Two weeks later I went to the Feast of Assumption in Little Italy and lord_peng1 showed me that one of the places there has two official bocce fields and I watched people playing it for points and with the rules. I also realized it's considered an Italian game.
This got me thinking. Maybe The Confused Greenies could host a bocce tournament? It would be much simpler than planning, rehearsing, and performing a full play and it would be fun and help get our name out. It would be a little bit theatrical - for example, maybe Pantalone decides to host a bocce tournament to find someone to marry his son or daughter? Capitano would brag about his skills and make excuses for failures, Arlecchino would just be foolish in his pitches, and Dottore could expunge upon supposedly arcane (but obviously fake) rules. We'd let those in attendance play for real but we could do a little commedia shtick around them.
One of our members did worry that college aged people won't be attracted to a game of bocce. I don't know. Maybe if we market it well enough. I just look at it as fairly simple and allows us to do something else besides just plays, start investing ourselves into the community.
We also have to decide if we want to do it during daylight or do a torchlight / night-glow tournament. I picked up a set of bocce balls but I'm looking to price those that light-up. Torchlight would... involve fire which could be tense. Of course we'd just need one torch. We might be able to get away with fake flame - I have a wax candle that actually uses a mini-light bulb and turns off if you wave a hand over it as if fanning it out! Though we'd probably be on a field on campus that plenty of ambient light from street lights / stadium lights anyway.
What do you guys think?