The wind was pretty well gusting strongly, but Lary and I went outside and played our flutes to welcome the audience as they came in the driveway. We were most delighted and thrilled to see lots of familiar faces from our park, Almar Acres, all there because we had worn our costumes over to coffee on Thursday here, and announced the play. We were so happy about that, and then Annie, our flute teacher arrived with our friend Chip, then Wendy and Dave and our friends from home Sophie and Larry. When the wind gusted so hard that our hats nearly blew off we returned to the hall. It was almost full, it was set up for 60 folks, for lunch, and I think we had at least 50 or so.
We performed our introductory greeting, getting folks settled in, and chatting together. A few folks were declared out of line for some infractions real or perceived, and taken out to be put in the stocks, which was fun and got things off to a rolling and rollicking start. The royal court entered singing Deck the Halls, then they had a prayer in Latin, and wassail was served. In fact it was way too hot and nearly scalded the Lady Rosalynde, but that was mopped up, and they sang the Wassail Song.
Wassail was hot apple juice. We had wenches serving and they did a great job, too. Rita from our park was the Royal Wench, did I say Lary and I were a minstrel and the court jester? Phil from our park was a knight in the royal court.
Then the main course was served, we had already set the date at 1555, and invited people to get into the spirit of things. There were a couple kinds of soup available and stew also, the audience paraded up to get what they wanted, and they had only a spoon to eat with on the table. It took a bit for them to be fed, and we got food as well. Buns, mixed nuts and grapes were on the tables so folks could help themselves.
The light entertainment consisted of a very amusing knight, The Knight before Christmas, dragging a Christmas tree behind him, saying December 24th, followed by Lary as a page who played some hoof beat sounds for his horse. They then went back again through the hall with a quiet sign, yes you are right, he was the Silent Knight. After that there was a scream offstage, and he was declared to be the Holey Knight, having been stabbed offstage. Lots of laughs over that play on words.
There was a very flirty elderly gypsy lady who danced next, with her husband drumming and a CD playing gypsy music for her. Then Lary and I held a Minstrel fluting Contest, he was Scottish and I was English, he was very determined, but I won the contest for holding a note and blowing it far longer than he could. He was definitely louder, and had more flute tricks that he did, but my wile won over his brawn.
Dessert was plates of cookies put on the tables, and then the Royal Court entertained us, singing Good King Wenceslas, a lady and man played another carol on a flute and a recorder, Lo How a Rose, then Lary and I divided the room and we all sang a round, Hey Ho Nobody Home, I had a big cue card that I held up. Lady Rosalynde sang Gesu Bambino, and James accompanied her on a flute. We all sang Pat A Pan. The whole cast including serving wenches was around 29 people, quite a lot of folks from all around our neighbouring parks got involved.
Then we had a fare thee well, all the Royal Court of 8 plus Lary and I paraded off the stage, through the tables, and stood at the back of the hall wishing everybody Merry Christmas and thanking them for coming. We had a basket for suggested donations, and there were quite a few dollars in it.
It was over pretty quickly, in a couple of hours, but in retrospect was a lot of fun, once I got over my stage fright, and worry about memorizing lines. We mostly read our lines. The other cast members were a hoot, some of course more than others, the king was a bit of a lush, and made some bawdy comments which I found very funny. Who knows if the audience could hear what was said, though Lary and I being in front of the royal court and below them on the floor could more easily be heard by the audience anyway. Both of us can project pretty well when we need to, luckily.
We tried to thank all our friends who had attended the show.
We helped clean up the food tables, strip the tablecloths off, clear away the food and linen, and then we came home to fall into a chair and put our feet up for a while.
There was a dinner and dance here at our park at 5 PM, we sat with Terry and Tom, Raymond, then Bill and Linda joined us. It was smoked salmon linguini, and then a dance with the Van Horns playing CDs and singing to them, we lasted til about 9:30 or so, then came home and collapsed.
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