[Ansteorra] The Texas Rennaisance Festival Demo

Gerald Norris jerryn at houston.rr.com
Wed Dec 4 09:10:50 PST 2002


Greetings unto the populace of Ansteorra.

I am HL Gerald of Leesville, last year's liaison to the Texas Renaissance
Festival demo.  Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from Jeff Baldwin,
Entertainment Director for TRF, that read as follows:

"Dear Gerald:

This letter is to inform you that, after a great deal of thought, I will not
be renewing your contract with the Texas Renaissance Festival.  This has
been a very difficult decision, but we feel that it is necessary due to
continued violations of the festival dress code, demeanor code and our
ongoing concerns about SCA participant adherence to our rules and
regulations as outlined in our Texas Renaissance Festival participant
handbook.

We appreciate the fact that the SCA was an integral part of the festival
during our early years.  However, over time, our organizations have grown in
different directions.  We have become increasingly business oriented, while
the SCA, in our opinion, has become less cohesive.  It is time for our
organizations to part.

Thank you for your 28 year participation.

Best wishes,
[sig]
Jeffery L. Baldwin
Entertainment Director"

This morning I called Mr. Baldwin to talk to him about the letter, and the
gist of the conversation is that, over the years, TRF has become more and
more a theme park, with actors who are paid to make their decisions based on
audience reaction, while the SCA is a group of role-players who make
decisions based on personal reactions.  This is what he means by becoming
"less cohesive".

In talking with Jeff he wanted to make it clear that there was no bad blood
between TRF and the SCA.  He said that this year's TRF liaison (Beowan) put
in a good effort to insure that any requests he had made were carried out.
The decision was a result of several years in hoping that the SCA could come
closer to what the rest of the TRF personell were trying to achieve, and
finding that it just wasn't happening.

While there's a part of me that is sad to see the end of this particular
yearly demo, I think we did a good showing for ourselves.  I would like to
thank all of you who participated in this year's demonstration, in whatever
capacity.  Our fighters did a good job with the change in format and with
the change of schedule.  Our artisans, as usual, did a wonderful job of
displaying the depth and breadth of all crafts that are practiced/pursued
within the SCA.  Ld Beoan did a splendid job of keeping things going and
trying to enlist sponsors, and his coordinators worked hard to make sure
that all the pieces that were part of the demo (waterbearing, parade, etc.)
were taken care of.  To all of you, Vivat!

I would end this message with a request; there was no fault, so please don't
try to find any.  There was no malice in the decision, so try to find no
blame. If you feel so inclined as to respond to this message, please do so
by bringing back memories of past TRF demos that stand out.  This, I think,
is a fitting end.

I thank you for your patience.

In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am
HL Gerald of Leesville
Title bard of Loch Soillier
A bard of Stargate
Kingdom Ansteorra




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