ANST - A Question for the Performers

[Mike C. Baker]

    Her Grace Duchess Willow de Wisp has asked me to pose the following Questions to the list for her.
    What can the Laurels do to Help the Performers of this Kingdom?
    
    What kind of help do the performers of our Kingdom want from the Laurels?
(I'll speak more to this the next time I vist with HG Willow in person, 
but want to air my request before a more general audience...)

There are several aspects of the performing arts as formerly and now practiced
which have become troublesome to me, in some personal ways and more 
generally in increasing despair for the more recently-arrived who seek to 
share our common "Dream".  (Darn.  That Word Again. Deal with my use of
it off-line / as a separate matter from the performance discussion, please.)

As recently seen in comments by others, I am concerned with the runaway 
emphasis upon formal competitive performance venues at the seeming 
expense of other individual or small-group performing opportunities.  Please, 
encourage and participate in as many spur of the moment performances as 
you can.  

Please, don't force performers and potential audience to choose between 
the highest level of endeavor in the performing arts and other can't-miss 
activities.  As much as it may be occassionally useful to do so, my 
personal opinion is that combining the Kingdom Eisteddfod with LPT 
or other A&S-intensive events does both at least some disservice.  

In the Kingdom Eisteddfod format as most recently seen, that of the 
"tournament", it is counter-productive to isolate the performance area 
from audiences other than the competitors and their immediate friends. 
I _know_ that this was not the intent, but it appeared to be the reality 
of the particular event.  Who among those without some specific personal 
interest were really aware that the Eisteddfod was present, was open to 
audience as well as performers, AND actually sat in for at least one 
exchange of performances?  (Regretfully, no, I don't have a better suggestion 
that would satisfy any more people than the current format and most recent 
physical arrangement -- the LPT site was a good one, and I enjoyed the 
event otherwise, and don't think the populace would really support yet another
"pure" A&S event at the present time.) 

A fair amount of recent comment has been exchanged considering "firewalking".
Expand / mutate the concepts: more needs to be done to encourage and 
recognize the efforts of informal entertainments and alternates to live performance.  
What of the storyteller who regales all who visit a given camp with tales, but 
does not care to wander for whatever personal reasons?  What of the young 
weaver bending to their task while singing for personal enjoyment, incidentally 
entertaining those who happen nearby?  How about a competition for written works
in a particular form or speaking to a given theme?  More A&S material in 
the _Blackstar_, esp. poems, songs, short tales?

Folllowing the theme of the themed competition, perhaps the experiment with the 
judging form and point system will once again encourage the entry of short written 
works in competition with other more "physical" objects.  (HYPOTHETICAL
Example: Not that my poetry will necessarly compare well with the efforts of a 
certain glassworker *directly*, but in a points structure I at least have a chance 
that wouldn't be semi-automatically torpedoed by running up against a judging 
team where one or another of the judges holds personal grudges against sonnet 
forms due to bad experiences with a high school literature teacher...) 

What else would I as a performer ask of the Laurels? Their attention when I am 
performing, their candid comments afterward, their assistance in educating 
new performers, their help in dealing with disruptive audiences and sub-par 
performance venues -- and their acceptance and suggestions when the 
documentation for a performing style, format, or material is thin or nearly 
non-existent... 

On that last matter, the occasional reference to oral tradition transmitted 
orally instead of through the filter of a post-period recordist should not be 
an automatic down-check for the newly-arrived. PLEASE, help them to 
relate what they already know to known / acceptable / "better" documents. 
Or, and this I would prefer, establish a means of cross-verification to accept 
these oral sources insofar as possible, particularly when dealing with cultural 
material from sources where there were specific admonitions against written 
recording of the material.

As usual, I'm full of it -- and right now, I'm late for work.
Amra

Mike C. Baker
SCA: Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra
"Other": Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard)
My opinions are my own -- who else would want them?
e-mail: kihe at ticnet.com OR kihe at rocketmail.com

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