"Shameless copy/pasting!" Or, "Why i do the crazy stuff I do."
Note: I originally posted this almost a week ago, but my computer and Semagic ate it.
Cross-posted from the Facebook group Cast and Patrons of the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival:
The purpose of OKRF, as I've heard it said a number of times, is to change lives. This could be interpreted by cast members to mean "We're here to change the lives of our patrons," but I disagree. The vast majority of us, I think, came to festival for the first time as patrons ourselves. Our lives have all been drastically, irrevocably changed by faire. You leave the season a different person than you went in.
No, really. To some, that's obvious. To others, maybe less so. And true, some people are impacted more than others, but consider this- if you've been with OKRF for years and years, from how many bosses have you had to demand days off? How much of the person you are now is the direct result of who you've been and what you've had to do or become for this festival?
It may be subtle, or it may be grand, but we're all changed, every year.
I really couldn't say 'how much' or even specifically what the changes are, mostly. An interesting example of something obvious is my choices in clothing:
For the years before I joined 'cofre cast', I wore, almost exclusively, blues, blacks, and greens; usually dark or dull shades.
In my second year, I was cast in the newly populated Children's Realm, and our Area manager, Karen Renee, designed and constructed most of our costuming. She made me a red shirt and a pair of brown pants, colors I would never have chosen for myself.
I believe that set the tone for Twitch (as he was later named by Sophie and the Castile group) and helped me assume a more socially agressive nature. Where Joe was quiet and unassuming (No, really! You want proof, watch what I do at cast parties.) Twitch was gregarious and outgoing, getting more and more 'out there' with each season.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) Twitch's fashion sense has slowly overtaken my own. I'm known to wear bright red much of the time, these days. That may not look like a big change at first, but it's a subtle representation of a much bigger shift in personality festival has wroght in me.
i know, I know. Taken on it's own, the change I'm talking about (OMG! He wears different colors than before! WTF!) Seems trivial, but the changes in my personal demeanor and how I choose to carry myself represented by it are profound, even if I'm really the only one aware of it.
If the above sounds silly or trivial, then this topic probably isn't for you. Or it is, and I'm just bad at telling stories.
It's not insignificant that one of the only things I post about on this journal is OKRF. It pisses me off sometimes, or just about kills me (self-inflicted, but still) but only because I see the magic, i feel it, and with everything I am, I love it. I don't know why, or even how, but the organism that is OKRF speaks to me and.... I dunno.I'm waxing philisophical and sentimental all at once here, but i think you get the point.
I despise living in Muskogee, but it seems like a part of it will always be home.
Those of you who may read this and think of me forever after as some sort of wingnut or fruit-bat... I invite you to crash at my place and come with me to OKRF once. If you're not caught up and swept away even one time in that day, then you have no soul. I mean it. I've been to other festivals, I've been to other, similar gatherings, and plenty not-so-similar. Nothing compares to just letting your guard down and becoming a part of Castleton.
Cross-posted from the Facebook group Cast and Patrons of the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival:
The purpose of OKRF, as I've heard it said a number of times, is to change lives. This could be interpreted by cast members to mean "We're here to change the lives of our patrons," but I disagree. The vast majority of us, I think, came to festival for the first time as patrons ourselves. Our lives have all been drastically, irrevocably changed by faire. You leave the season a different person than you went in.
No, really. To some, that's obvious. To others, maybe less so. And true, some people are impacted more than others, but consider this- if you've been with OKRF for years and years, from how many bosses have you had to demand days off? How much of the person you are now is the direct result of who you've been and what you've had to do or become for this festival?
It may be subtle, or it may be grand, but we're all changed, every year.
I really couldn't say 'how much' or even specifically what the changes are, mostly. An interesting example of something obvious is my choices in clothing:
For the years before I joined 'cofre cast', I wore, almost exclusively, blues, blacks, and greens; usually dark or dull shades.
In my second year, I was cast in the newly populated Children's Realm, and our Area manager, Karen Renee, designed and constructed most of our costuming. She made me a red shirt and a pair of brown pants, colors I would never have chosen for myself.
I believe that set the tone for Twitch (as he was later named by Sophie and the Castile group) and helped me assume a more socially agressive nature. Where Joe was quiet and unassuming (No, really! You want proof, watch what I do at cast parties.) Twitch was gregarious and outgoing, getting more and more 'out there' with each season.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) Twitch's fashion sense has slowly overtaken my own. I'm known to wear bright red much of the time, these days. That may not look like a big change at first, but it's a subtle representation of a much bigger shift in personality festival has wroght in me.
i know, I know. Taken on it's own, the change I'm talking about (OMG! He wears different colors than before! WTF!) Seems trivial, but the changes in my personal demeanor and how I choose to carry myself represented by it are profound, even if I'm really the only one aware of it.
If the above sounds silly or trivial, then this topic probably isn't for you. Or it is, and I'm just bad at telling stories.
It's not insignificant that one of the only things I post about on this journal is OKRF. It pisses me off sometimes, or just about kills me (self-inflicted, but still) but only because I see the magic, i feel it, and with everything I am, I love it. I don't know why, or even how, but the organism that is OKRF speaks to me and.... I dunno.I'm waxing philisophical and sentimental all at once here, but i think you get the point.
I despise living in Muskogee, but it seems like a part of it will always be home.
Those of you who may read this and think of me forever after as some sort of wingnut or fruit-bat... I invite you to crash at my place and come with me to OKRF once. If you're not caught up and swept away even one time in that day, then you have no soul. I mean it. I've been to other festivals, I've been to other, similar gatherings, and plenty not-so-similar. Nothing compares to just letting your guard down and becoming a part of Castleton.