[Bards] Let's Talk About Bardic Circles ...

[Snorri Hallsson]

Greetings my fellow bards:

 

I will be teaching a class at Steppes Warlord on "How (Not) to Host a Bardic
Circle."  The class is scheduled for 11:00 am on Saturday and will take
place wherever the event steward tells me to.  If "experience" is the lesson
learned by one's own failures and "wisdom" is the lesson learned by the
failures of others, then I invite one and all to come and be wizened from my
own personal experience!

 

(This is a slightly serious, but mostly tongue-in-cheek class.  However, you
should be able to walk away with some useful information, or you can use the
handout as a firestarter.)

 

However, in making my final preparations on this class, I'd like to enlist
the help of my fellow entertainers, who I trust to have more success in this
venue than I.  If you're so inclined, please answer the following questions:

 

1.                   What's your favorite and least favorite bardic circle
format, and why?  (For instance: pass & play, where a candle is passed from
person to person and the holder of the candle either performs, requests a
performance from another, or passes the candle to the next person.)

2.                   Do you set a "theme" for the circle beforehand?  If so,
what do you do to keep a circle on track?  Is there a point where you let a
themed bardic run itself?  (For instance: a bardic circle at a melee event
may have a "war" theme but the majority of attendees want to hear and are
performing romantic or bawdy pieces - what do you do?)

3.                   (The $64 question!)  What do you do to save your circle
when someone performs a circle-killing piece?  (For instance: Joe Schmo has
decided, after maybe one or two too many, that he is a legendary bard and
decides to perform the one piece he knows, a 45-minute epic punctuated by
off-key choruses and a liberal helping of "Um," "Uh," and "No, wait ." -
people are getting quickly distracted and frustrated with Joe - how do you
handle the situation to get the circle going again?)

 

There, that should get you guys talking for a couple days, I hope.
Otherwise my class might be shorter than I'd like it to be.

 

 

 

Health and fortune,

HL Snorri Hallsson

snorri at houston.rr.com

 

 

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