<div>You know, a couple of 12th Nights ago, they had multiple vigils going on -- they solved the space and focus problem by throwing up tents outside.</div> <div> </div> <div>Could we do something like that?</div> <div> </div> <div>Esther<BR><BR><B><I>Robert Fitzmorgan <fitzmorgan@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"><BR><BR> <DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 10/29/06, <B class=gmail_sendername>Darlene Vandever</B> <<A href="mailto:annescvb@gmail.com">annescvb@gmail.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN> <DIV><BR> <BR> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid"> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="times new roman,serif" color=#3333ff size=4>My goodness, this person is going to be asked by Their Majesties to stand up in Court or at Feast and command the
attention of a group of people...sometimes in a very busy and noisy atmosphere! *Why* isn't it held in the center of the main hall? Let me tell you, if a Bard could stand up and deliver a piece which made that whole hall go quiet, (which I've seen happen at one Baronial event in the past) then that would be a strong indication to the Judges as to their suitablity to be the Kingdom Bard! </FONT></STRONG></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><BR> The main hall at Twelfth Night is VERY busy and very loud. I can get louder than most bards, but being that loud tends to strip away a lot of the subtlety from a performance, and doing it for any length of time can be very damaging to the voice, particularly as many of our bards do not have any professional voice training. Many bards can't get that loud and would have difficulty in competing. With all that noise can chaos going on the Judges will have a hard time hearing the performances, while
the rest of the hall will have very little trouble ignoring them. The only people who are going to hear are those who specifically go to where the competition is and place themselves where they can hear. And these people can just a well go upstairs to where the competitions is and where it is a bit less noisy and a lot less chaotic. <BR> Also if it is in the middle of the hall and the competition runs long, we have to end when they start setting up for feast whether we are done or not.<BR><BR> </DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid"> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#3333ff size=4>Second, beyond the challenge of that staircase, is the fact that if you go up there to watch or compete you are there *all day*. There is an awful lot to see and do at Steppes. *Any* competion that lasts 7 or more hours (in my
humble opinion) is about 3 to 4 hours to long! </FONT></STRONG></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><BR> You know, I've never really understood why some people think that spending 6 hours in a room listening to the best bards in Ansteorra to be a bad thing. Maybe that's just me. 8^) <BR><BR> Suppose that we have 20 people enter this year. That would be a fairly decent turnout. There have been more, and a lot of people here would like there to be more. Even with a time limit, when you figure in time for performers to get up and sit down, judges to make notes, introductions, breaks. etc.. You will have more like 8 minuets per performance. All 20 get to do 2 performances. That's about 320 minuets or a bit over 5 hours. Even if you get the the average down to about 6 minuets you are still looking at 4 hours. Give the judges 30 minuets to chose the finalists then another 30 to 45 minuets for
the finalists to perform and you are looking at more than 5 hours. <BR> <BR> <BR></DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid"> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#3333ff size=4> There are many ways to make sure that the competition is a speedy one. The simplest is to limit the Bard to 5 minutes or less....and use a time keeper! Every high school drama cometition does this...why can't we? <BR></FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#3333ff size=4></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#3333ff size=4>My 2 cents</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#3333ff size=4>Annes</FONT></STRONG></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><BR><BR> I for one don't want Kingdom Eisteddfod to feel like a high school
drama competition. I'm sure that's not what you meant but I feel it could be the overall effect. Hustling people on and off the stage as quickly as possible, "got to keep things moving", someone with a watch calling "Time". What could be more mundane? <BR><BR> As a storyteller, I get annoyed when I hear judges who want documented performances done in a period style with a 5 minuet time limit. I like to do the High Chivalric tales of France and Provance. They were not short stories. With a lot of cutting and a lot of pain I can squeeze some of them into a 7 minuet time limit, but at 5 minuets they pretty much aren't worth the trouble. The people of the Middle Ages didn't have our limited attention span and our obsession with keeping things on schedule. Yes I can do shorter stories, but the stories that really move me and seem to move my listeners tend to be longer. It takes time for a good story
to unfold. <BR> I really feel that short time limits penalize storytellers. I'd be interested in hearing what the other storytelles on the list think.<BR><BR>Robert<BR> </DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">_______________________________________________<BR>Bards mailing list<BR><A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:Bards@lists.ansteorra.org">Bards@lists.ansteorra.org</A><BR><A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/bards-ansteorra.org" target=_blank>http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/bards-ansteorra.org</A><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." John A. Wheeler <BR><BR><A
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