Medieval Festival – Fort Tryon Park

September 27, 2009 by Carrie Edel Isaacman 

Just in time for the upcoming Medieval Festival which takes place on October 4th from 11:30am to 6pm at Fort Tryon Park. This is a day long event and you will be able to indulge in your days of Renaissance Faire. In fact most of the Faire participants are from Tuxedo Renn Faire.

There are many stands, vendors, great food and traditional jousting. People do come in costume if you like, but if you are just there to watch, that is all good also.

One of the principal organizers is Eileen Merle-Rao as the Performance Director of the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park.  Also, she has been a patient fighting non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the past 11 years out of her 16 as Performance Director and feels that working on the Festival keeps her going all year!  Coming to see the Medieval Festival in its first year, Eileen then joined as one of the singers in its second year and has been involved with every Festival since then.

I was introduced to Eileen a few years ago and she had allowed me to be part of her cast of characters.  This year I am involved in a mini-show of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath, adapted by playwright Alexandra Devin, a co-member of  WorkShop Theater Company. We will both play the Wives of Bath.  Ian Heitzman plays Handsome Johnny and our Older Husbands.  Actor/ Director Elena Araoz has collaborated with us and helped to shape the piece.

What I find so great about working with Alexandra and Ian is thier training in Stage Combat. They have trained under the likes of Combat Inc., Fights4.   I mention training in stage combat because of the fact that Renn Faire is known for stage combat, such as jousting, and our theatrical piece has a bit of fighting.

A word about women in stage combat, Alexandra says, “There are quite a lot of women who are in the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), it is really the field that has fewer opportunities for women, at least in roles demanding weapons. We tend to get more unarmed roles. Cross-gender casting always gives nice opportunities for more fighting on stage for women.”

I am interested in all kinds of teaching and learning, even if it’s a form that I don’t have a lot of experience in, like stage combat. I really have enjoyed hearing Alexandra and Ian talk about the form, teaching it and learning from it. 

The location of the show will be the Unicorn Forum stage, just across from the New Leaf Café. The times of the show will be announced closer to the date of the Festival.

Hope to see you all at the show!

Carrie Edel Isaacman is a regular guest blogger, look for her posts to come out on the 27th of the month. She was an Adjunct Lecturer at Bronx Community College and substitute teacher in the NYC Public Schools. She is in her second year of the masters program in Educational Theater at City College and is a Linklater Trainee. 

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