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Dickens Christmas Fair 2007 November Missive #8
(sent December 6th, 2007)
Hi everyone,
First of all, many thanks to all the understudies who leapt into the
breach last weekend. Your gallantry is noted and appreciated.
On the other hand, of the fifteen calls our emergency
medical technician Webb got on Sunday, fourteen of them were for
participants. Some of these calls were for things that
were unavoidable, many were not. Please... if you are too sick to come
to the Fair, please stay home... do not become a medical call. And
here's the really important one:
If you take medications, especially if
they are for something really important like asthma, severe allergies
or heart issues... BRING THEM WITH YOU. Go to your medicine
cabinet right now and make a kit that you always bring with you to the
fair. Perhaps get extra items so you can set them aside for this
purpose. Let's think folks....
Food Allergies - If you bring
food to the fair to share with others, please take a page from the
Fezziwig's notebook and bring a little note card with the ingredients.
If you have severe food allergies, please always ask the ingredients
before accepting food or drink from others.
And Now
Back to Our Regularly Schedule Missive:
Customer Interaction/Respecting the Queen
Cow Palace Hours During The Week
KGO Podcast From the Fair
Courtesy is not just a Victorian Virtue!
Note From The Green Man Public House
2007 Dickens Fair Costume Contest!
Notes from the Costume Department
Got Hangers?
Another Costume Note
and last but definitely not least:
Fire Relief Benefit for David Springhorn This Saturday Night at Sal's!
Customer
Interaction/Respecting the Queen
I received a note this week from a former participant who while noting
the actors interacting with one other, was disappointed that more were
not interacting with the audience or reacting to the Queen as she, the
Prince Consort and their entourage passed. The customer was also
disappointed that more performers were not making comments to the
audience about things that were happening around them. This is an easy
was of involving audience members in things that are going on (like
ooh, there's that wicked Fagin), without always having to think of
something wonderfully witty to say.
(Side note: Our Queen will be unable to visit London this weekend,
although I am told some of her retinue may)
Cow Palace
Hours During The Week
The Cow Palace is only open for very limited hours during the week, it
is locked down from Monday evening until Friday morning. If you have
some sort of emergency that necessitates your gaining access, please
call the Dickens Fair office at (800)510-1558
KGO
Podcast From the Fair
(I'll bet you'll recognize some voices...)
Denise Lamott forwards the following:
http://www.kgoam810.com/article.asp?id=525065
It's little bit random, but a fun report nonetheless. KGO has
HUGE numbers. It’s the #1 radio station in the west and reaches
So Cal, Arizona, Oregon etc.
Courtesy is not just a Victorian Virtue!
(from Therese Porter)
The many and wondrous casts of the Fair have areas within the Green
Room to give their casts a place to rest, regroup, dress, &c.
If you are not a member of a specific cast it is rather on the rude
side (don't you think?) to insert yourself into another cast's area
without having obtained prior clearance from the Director of the
group. Many groups have posted signs to that effect that their
backstage areas are restricted to cast members only.
There are lots of places to socialise with your friends and conduct
fair business within the Green Room, and even the Fair at large (as
long as you keep it in character), but the middle of a changing room is
not ideal to those purposes. If you absolutely have to go into a
cast area not your own, please clear it with the appropriate
director.
Your cooperation is appreciated. Your mother would be proud.
Note From
The Green Man Public House
"The Green Man Public House wishes to commend all the performers on
their excellent and energetic work this past weekend: especially The
Pickwick Club and Brass Farthing, without whose visits our Parlour
would not be the same.
However, we also have Mr. Dickens reading in the Parlour 4 times
a day: at 12:30, 2, 4 and 5:30. These are smaller and more intimate
performances. Please remember that we are a stage, and observe the
usual courtesies when you perform near the Green Man at those times. It
would be greatly appreciated if you would not scream, howl, shout,
metamorphose into wild animals, explode or otherwise make astonishing
loud noises when Mr. Dickens is reading.
Thank you!
Kathleen Bartholomew
2007
Dickens Fair Costume Contest!
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
11:00am-1:00pm There will be sign ups for the Costume Contest at a
table in Pickwick Square look for the sign! You must sign up
before 1pm if you wish to participate in the contest . Costumes should
date to the 1840s-1860s and will be judged on Historical
Appropriateness, Quality of Workmanship and Completeness of
Outfit. To qualify for the costume contest, you must have sewn
the costume yourself (however, you may have someone else model your
work).
1:00pm Meet with the judges in Pickwick Square to view your
costume and talk about your work.
2:30pm Costumes will be shown and winners will be announced
on the Other Books Stage in Pickwick Square.
Notes from
the Costume Department
Hours this weekend:
Both Alexandria & I will be dressed and out front this next
weekend. No, I won't tell you what days - it's up to you to see if you
will recognize us in costume! Because of this there will be times that
the costume department will be closed. Robyn Agpalo Barnett
will be filling in for us during the day but we have yet to hash out a
final schedule.
Our tentative hours are
Sat & Sun 9:00 to 11 am
and then 5- 7:30 pm.
For those of you storing props and/or have costumes to be checked
out/in during the day, please email us at
dickenscostumes@gmailcom and remind us of your schedule. We will make
sure that you are not locked out.
Now a few items that we need to remind you about:
Visible zippers - ladies, for those of you have no time to convert to
another closure system please be creative with shawls and plackets to
hide zippers from view! As long as we can't see them, they're OK. (for
this year)
Changing in the bathrooms: - Please please please, nothing ruins the
illusion like this. Please use the Green Room or appropriate changing
areas. Also, please do not arrive with your modern totes after the fair
opens and come in through the front gate. A cooler and a roll-aboard
suitcase really clash TERRIBLY with a hoop skirt or your perfect plaid
waistcoat. Enter through the Green Room and drop off your stuff - or
better yet, get there a bit early for the best parking and a much less
fraught arrival.
Little top hats, little pirate hats, little hats with ships and other
Antoinette-ish details. These are super-cute and interesting - and
super-wrong for our period. Please save these gems for the Gorey Balls,
Costume Con, or other appropriate venues so we can take
appropriate pleasure in them. Remember - just because you can buy
it at fair doesn't make it acceptable.
Got
Hangers?
Have too many hangers in your closet?
The costume department would like to help you clean out your closet.
We would prefer pants hangers, heavy plastic or wood. The wire ones
seem to reproduce on their own quite nicely!
Another
Costume Note
Juliana Bradley reminds ladies with large hoop skirts to watch the
edges of booths and stages as rough edges and fasteners can catch and
tear fabric.
And the item you've all been waiting for:
Fire
Relief Benefit for David Springhorn This Saturday Night at Sal's!
A benefit, you ask? A fun time for all? Why, yes, we would be most
happy to oblige.
After a hard working day at the Dickens Fair, wouldn't you like the
chance to sit back, relax with a warming drink, a good friend, and
listen to some great music? Mad Sal's Dockside Ale House is pleased to
host an evening of fun and merriment - and since it's Sal's - the
naughty bits. We'll be showcasing some of our local talent, along with
the opportunity to purchase libations from the bar and food from our
own Patrick Morris.
Come listen to the sounds of The Stark Ravens, The Naughty Minstrels,
The Ladies Oratorical and Recreational Society, The Broadside Music
Hall, Brass Farthing, Paddy West and much, much more. Did we say
"burlesque"?? Did we say familiar songs performed the way they should
be if it's "Dickens After Dark??" Did we mention some of those fine
folks from Naughty French Postcards???
THIS JUST IN - HOT OFF THE PRESSES
Folks have been particularly generous, and we are enormously grateful.
We have even more entertainment lined up for you, including the
Coventry Carolers and (gasp) the lads themselves, The Miracle Sweeps of
London. And that's not all. No. Not by a long shot...
Our Beverage Department have outdone themselves:
Michael Faul, the owner of Rabbit's Foot Meadery has donated a keg of
his beer to help with the fundraising. The price for this fine beer
will be $4.00 a serving, with the entire amount going towards the
event. In addition, mixed drinks will be $5.00 a drink, with $2.00 of
each drink going to the event; Coffee, water,sodas and juice will be
$2.00 and $1.00 will go to the event. So, there should be something to
please everyone's palate, and it all goes towards a really good cause!
In addition to cash donations, Molly Burke has sent out a plea for the
following:
One of the most heartbreaking things about losing everything in a fire
is all the photos and mementos that are lost forever. Please ask our
good fair folks to go through their photo logs and old pictures and
make copies of those which have David Springhorn in them, or photos
that include him in shows he's been in, etc. They can bring them to
Molly or the Weasel at Mad Sal's anytime until the last day of
fair. This is one way we can give him back some cherished
memories and do a good thing. (And remember folks, if it's during the
operational hours of the fair, please wrap your pictures/mementos in
something that looks festive and Dickensian. We don't want to spoil the
magic of London by waving around lots of pictures of Dickens/Ren Faires
Past, now do we?)
And of course, it's all for a good cause, an effort to assist one of
our own. As you know, Mr. David Springhorn and his family were hit
particularly hard by the fires that ravaged Southern California this
fall. Your donations that evening will help them enjoy a brighter
Christmas than a FEMA tree and a few pieces of tinsel salvaged from the
shredder machines at the Pentagon. Come on down to the dockside - you
know you want to.
The particulars:
When: Saturday evening, December 8th, 2007
Time: 8 - 10 p.m.
Location: Mad Sal's Dockside Alehouse
Admission is free with your gate pass; donations gratefully accepted.
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