[singlepic id=12 w=320 h=240 float=left]The Ohio Renaissance Festival is happening now, and some Sinclair Community College students are excited it\u2019s here.\u00a0 There are students involved in entertainment, food and crafts at the festival.<\/p>\n
A few students have joined the street cast of performers who roam the festival and interact with patrons.\u00a0 Fine performing arts student Michael Conley plays William Shakespeare in the Pirate Comedy Stunt Show.\u00a0 He says he enjoys working at the festival and in the stunt show.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah it\u2019s fun, but it is dangerous.\u00a0 We fight with real swords and we do our own stunts.\u00a0 We take our bumps and bruises.\u00a0 It\u2019s work, but it all pays off in the end,\u201d Conley said.<\/p>\n
Street cast performers rehearse for eight weeks and perform for eight weeks, according to Conley.\u00a0 Training includes dialect, language and history of the Elizabethan period, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe renaissance festival is unlike any theatre that you could ever hope to do.\u00a0 I would recommend that everyone try it once,\u201d Conley said.<\/p>\n
Samantha Percy has been working in the street cast for two years.\u00a0 She plays Smooth Morgan Blair, the town criminal, and she is involved with the human chess match and festival dances.\u00a0 She also performs in the stunt show where she climbs a cargo net and dangles upside-down by her legs.\u00a0 Percy believes the improv games during rehearsals help build relationships among cast members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just get to know each other as a cast because it\u2019s easier to come out here and play with each other when you know each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
[singlepic id=11 w=320 h=240 float=left]Some students get involved by working at the festival. Online student Pat Stanley works as a food service manager.\u00a0 She and her husband used to work at the festival together before he passed away in January.<\/p>\n
Business and biology student Jennifer Howard will be selling braided leather crafts of her own creation including belts, chokers, wristbands and more. \u00a0She said she was trying to think of what she could do to work at the festival when she remembered she could braid things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my random talent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Adam Aaronson doesn\u2019t work at the festival, but he said he enjoys the atmosphere and hanging out with his friends.\u00a0 He goes when he can, though he hasn\u2019t been able to for two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, it\u2019s a hobby,\u201d Aaronson said.<\/p>\n
Both Conley and Percy say that people who have never been to the festival should be open-minded and try to enjoy what is happening around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I was a very open person before I came to the renaissance festival and tried out,\u201d Percy said.\u00a0 \u201cI come to find out that I was not as open as I thought I was.\u00a0 It\u2019s a completely different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n