The dew was still on the grass in a parking area next to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival grounds in Bonner Springs, Kan., early Saturday morning.
Performers started to gather, on this opening day, putting finishing touches on elaborate Tudor-era costumes and practicing 16th century speech and accents. They huddled in groups, catching up on the latest news, before checking in at the gate.
Dressed in henna-colored pirate garb, Krista Gray (Captain Cinn O’Lawt) sat in the back of a pickup truck tightening the leather garter on one of her thigh-high boots. Nearby, her 14-year-old daughter Brianna Gray (Sybil Eden Everbrook) was being laced into her corset. Since Brianna was a baby, mother and daughter have worked together at festivals and the two spoke fervently about the bonds between festival performers.
"The people I work with are like my other family," Brianna says.
"I think it is a bond performers share in general, but there’s a big difference between a stage performer and what we do,” Krista says. “Stage performers have to do the suspended disbelief like we do, but there is that fourth wall. They have the protection and the safety net to some degree of the stage, where we don’t.”
Brianna was soon dressed and had a royal meeting to attend, so she and her mother walked through the grass to start the day.
Name: Brianna Gray, 14
Profession: Student
Renaissance Festival Character: Sybil Eden Everbrook
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 8
“There’s a certain romance about it that just drags people in,” says Gray. “It’s an escape from our reality. You are looking for that little bit of fantasy and fun and that is sort of what this is, but you also have your own connection with the people (performers) you work with.”
Name: Krista Gray
Renaissance Festival Character: Captain Cinn O’Lawt
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 18
“I am Captain of the Sea Sirens. We are an all-female pirate group,” says Gray. “We wander the lanes and randomly accost and flirt with pretty much anybody. We have to convince you not only is this truly this time period and yes, fairies are real, but we have to convince you enough that you want to play and that you want to be a part of the fantasy, too.”
Name: Eleanor Flowers, 11
Profession: Student
Renaissance Festival Character: Princess Mary of England
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 4
“I do enjoy myself with acting and I love putting on shows and interacting with the patrons,” Flowers says. “They are always very lovely.”
Name: Michael Bishop
Profession: IT Professional
Renaissance Festival Character: Rowan Brownie of the Spring Court
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 1
“This is my first year as a performer,” Bishop says. “But if you add it all up this is my 21st year of coming out to the Renaissance Festival in general -- since I graduated from high school in 1994.”
Name: Pernell Thomas
Profession: Plant worker
Renaissance Festival Character: Shabak Nubian guard
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 1
“This is my first year performing and I love it all — the wine, the beer and the turkey legs,” Thomas says.
Name: Jasper Hudgins-Bradley
Profession: Scriptwriter
Renaissance Festival Character: Ogun, Crown Prince of Nubia
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 1
“I’ve come here several times and an opportunity came up to pull me in and have a character that I could have some pride in, instead of a slave or something,” Hudgins-Bradley says. “So I was more than happy to come add what I could.”
Name: Allison Ontiveros
Renaissance Festival Character: Amanda Dragov, The Russian Pirate
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 4
“I’ve been coming here not since I was little, bitty tiny. I came in high school and I was an awkward kid in high school so here I am surrounded by a bunch of other nerdy, awkward people and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I found my home,'” Ontiveros says.
Name: Diane Glenn
Profession: Nurse
Renaissance Festival Character: Ahni D’Amore, the Italian Pirate
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 3
“I am the pink pirate,” says Glenn. “I am a breast cancer survivor.”
Name: Audrey Rice
Profession: Customer Service
Renaissance Festival Character: Willie Finder
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 17
“I came out here when I was a little girl and I had very fond memories of it and I like the idea that I like to make memories for other people now," says Rice.
Name: Abbey Briscoe
Profession: Temporary Receptionist
Renaissance Festival Character: The French Princess Marguerite
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 2
“I wanted to improve my acting skills and better myself at improv, because a lot of your time here is improv, but I come back because I have made so many friends here,” Briscoe says. “We are like a second family. And the joy you bring to the children it’s incredible.”
Name: Amie Montedoro
Profession: Hairdresser
Renaissance Festival Character: The Hair of “Turtle and the Hair,” on cello and vocals
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 20
“I am a history nut,” says Montedoro. “I love the history of it and the music has stuck with me my whole life.”
Name: Jeffrey Davis
Profession: Graphic Designer
Renaissance Festival Character: Turtle of “Turtle and the Hair” on guitar and vocals
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 25
“We sing songs that are two and three hundred years old that people still love hearing,” says Davis. “Who wouldn’t love to get to play around in their pajamas, strum on a guitar all day and make people smile — just make ‘em smile.”
Name: Jacob Solum
Profession: Leather Worker
Renaissance Festival Character: Sangreal
Number of years at the Renaissance Festival: 5
“I make everything out of leather,” Solum says. “I made my costume from head to toe — every single thing. The first year I didn’t get a part in a high school play so I came out here instead. The people and the friends. It’s what keeps me coming back.”
The Kansas City Renaissance Festival continues through October 13, at 633 N. 130th Street, Bonner Springs, Kan. 913-721-2110.
