Doing manual research-right up there with paint drying

With spring coming (eventually) I look forward to swinging  around swords and fire without so much hazard and clothing. But winter does lend itself to sitting down, reading manuals and doing some interpretation and scholarship. This generally leads to some peer review, some plays from history and if we’re lucky, a shared class and a new demonstration for the historical show.

Earlier, I’d become sick of driving 30+ miles each way for a group that meets in Cambridge, MA at MIT. It’s a good group but it was wearing on me. I asked “Why can’t we have a group that meets nearby? (and if you’ve driven in MA, you know why we are called M*SSholes) So we started Worcester Historical Oral Martial Practitioner’s Study (yes, that spells WHOMPS) It’s a few friends, Fenix and me in various backyards and living rooms going through facsimiles and translations. (Outrageous and non-period correct costumes optional)

Recently someone made a general inquiry and I told her 
“It mostly takes enthusiastic people, some source material and a living room with a high ceiling”
Really and truly that is your primordial ooze of historical European martial arts.

I also lure people with cookies

Here’s how we did it-we picked a manual  from here:
http://www.umass.edu/renaissance/lord/collection.html

Then we looked at some online translations and did our best to kluge through and make sense of it all. This involved calling in favors with people who spoke and wrote French,  asking some folks familiar with smallsword and taking our best guess.

From there, we did approximately 1-2 sections per session. This involved having the English, our friend’s notes from our sessions, a projected image and an out-loud reader. Ideally you’d have a minimum of three people. We are fortunate to have four so we can swap out bodies, ideas and readers.   I tease our “bodies” and call them “Western Martial Arts Barbie” –that is, the outside observers position them, watch the maneuvers and critique. If you have a thin skin, this part will go poorly for you.  And if you have bias regarding another martial arts form-it will show up here. The difficult part is following the manual and not throwing in what you feel. And if you present the material that way to others-prepare to take the heat. I have been at a number of events where an interpretation has been presented and the speaker was stunned when the material was  skinned, gutted and held over an open flame (figuratively) If you try to cite your material and can’t find the relevant piece of reference, then it’s not really using the source material, it’s just making stuff up. And there are plenty of people with internet-bought blades slicing milk jugs and posting it on YouTube, thank you.

But you need people who are good at physical interpretation to balance your scholars. Because many treatises are fairly obscure and vague, sometimes there will be a position shown, a description and a WTH finish with no explanation. Bridging that gap is where the understanding of bodies, blades and geometry comes into play. I know a couple of people with a fantastic grasp of this-and they are still often wrong on the first go around.  Sometimes you will not come to an agreement within the group and you have to agree to move on and revisit it another day. No one gets it on the first try. Sadly we can’t reanimate these sword masters and ask what it was they *really* meant, we can only do our best guess with what they have left us. And there are similarities-in all martial arts-bodies move in limited ways, but we have to make sure it is physics, not slipping in some other form. An analogy might be using frog DNA to create dinosaurs, and we all know how that turned out….

Reproducible results is one of the tricky points. This is my strength-I am the one with the dumb look on my face who says
“I don’t get it.” And I am willing to do it over, and over and over, and over until it is clear to me. And very often watching me struggle with something will illuminate that it is just a bad idea. It’s a gift, I know. And I might need someone to say that “It’s like George Silver” or a similar “maneuver in Swetnam” to get it. And there is nothing like teaching it to others to blow holes in all these nice interpretations and theories. Which brings me to;

Peer review, a key part to making sure you have done it correctly. I am not saying that more advanced sword users are always right-in fact, it’s good to question them and their opinions. Like you, they have to be ready to back the horse they rode in on and cite sources  and show and tell. “Because I said so” only works with your parents, not with your peers. If your work can’t stand this scrutiny, then it isn’t good work. I’m not saying that it is not discouraging or that you have to take what others say as gospel, but it IS good to take an additional look at your work. Sometimes we are too attached, or too close to our interpretation to see its flaws. A practitioner I respect very much was asked about a change he made in some teaching material and he had to admit he’d thrown some 19th century boxing techniques into the class, and had to admit that then the play was not a direct interpretation and should not be represented as part of the original material. Everything was all better over beer.

One of my favorite parts of continued work with weapons manuals-beer (after sword work) and camaraderie. Like any accomplishment, when you receive kudos for it, it’s great to share those accolades because in the wider world, that will not be forthcoming.  But when others in your sword community admire solid work, that makes it worthwhile. Different weapons will have different distances, stances, techniques and speeds. One will not use a poll arm like a dagger or a longsword like a cudgel (usually.) It can be maddening to see individuals dismissing the differences. The whole “to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” people. They make me a little crazy and it’s disrespectful.  So if you are someone at a renfaire and you make fun of people who have done more research  and then quote Wikipedia at me-in my mind I am sending you to a special hell. And other uncharitable thoughts.  But the bright side was that a German manuals scholar recognized our work at a faire-he rocked our world AND he wanted us to clarify the manual year. We are still talking about that to this day. So it’s not a big segment of the population but some people can appreciate and recognize flavors of swordplay.

The last thing I have to say about this is that you don’t have to be a snob about it. I will *gladly* and *gently* talk about swords with anyone who wants to discuss them. Manual interpretation is not sport fencing, it is not sparring (although information can cross those borders) and it’s not SCA fighting. It is its own creature and we are all better off discussing it in context. I would love to bring more people, regardless of physical skill into more historical research but it is not for everyone. It’s time consuming, problematic and riddled with as many alpha personalities as any other interest.  And it’s not for us to judge how it is used. A number of our stricter friends joke with us about translating it into performance pieces-but adding an entertainment element gets it to a wider audience. One member became the dreadnought of his Live Action Role-Playing group using a historical ward he learned with us-so you never know where the information will lead or how it will play out in the big picture.  

But if it sounds like something you’d want to do-here are some links (not exhaustive, just some suggested)

For Manuals
http://www.wiktenauer.com/

Membership gives access to manuals
http://www.ahfi.org/

Finding interested parties locally: (free to join)
http://www.swordforum.com/forums/forum.php

Getting Equipment
http://casiberia.com/
http://www.darkwoodarmory.com/

Or, as always please feel free to contact me-phoenixswords@gmail.com

A snapshot of my (general) individual experiences at renaissance faires

One of the first experiences I had at a faire nearly put me off them completely. But I’m a born mistake maker-you know the person who has to do it twice to make sure of it. And in many cases that has saved me from making a hasty decision I may have regretted. Last entry I talked about non-renfaire entertainments with a “medieval” flavor. They are varied and wide just as being in a renaissance faire can be a buffet of what we take in for ourselves. So it really torques me when people explain how it is that I am expected to enjoy and or participate in a renaissance faire. It really goes right up my proverbial…nose.

Going as a patron-anything goes because one PAID  TO BE THERE.

When you are part of the ambiance,  having fun is not the number one priority-it can be a high one but you are paid to do a job (even if it is comp tickets) So I have been thinking about the experiences that I  personally enjoy.

I am a strange person who enjoys the setup as much as the show-fortunately we have others like that as well. Our group basically travels like a field trip-they get dressed, pack a lunch and expect a tour guide with written directions. If that’s what you want, that’s what you get- it leaves more head space for a performance, but I can’t go on comfortably without lists, discussion and touching everything.

Doing a good job-when we engage and it goes well that really warms me up inside. It means weeks and years of hard work have dragged our sorry butts here and we have earned a laurel crown that we get to wear until the next show. And it’s an accomplishment, it looks easy to be an entertainer but especially here in the Northeast, there is a certain cynical element that one needs to cannon-blast through to reach the audience.  We have to tone some things down when we travel to other parts of the country (that’s another blog entry) but when you have built a show brick by brick and it stands, there is nothing like it.

Being in the moment.  It’s funny to see how different this is for each different performer. For me it’s getting on-site and sitting down after setting up the tent, the moment before I have to start practicing our first bit for the day. It is especially satisfying if I get to sit in my own chair, but barring that, sometimes it’s just sitting on the grass or a cloak and taking in everything around me. And then it is listening to how a sword sounds or getting a sense of the performance space.  A habit I have is “walking the plot” or getting a sense of how big the stage is, how weapons fall in a disarm, where there may be holes in the ground or red ants, or a loose rope stanchion. Knowing it helps work in or with it. The performance itself passes in a blur so I rely on cameras, friends or other performers to tell me how it went. I don’t have a lot of mental capacity onstage and so it’s my game face and the task at hand. And being in the space is part of the greater faire as well. My eyesight isn’t the best at distance and I can’t wear contacts  so I rely on some of these same things to procure water, find a bathroom or just chat with visitors to the faire. I have what we jokingly call “retail face”  because no matter where I go, people expect me to know where items live, the location of first aid and the bathrooms.

There is the bonding element that is important. My devoted percentage to this seems to be smaller than that of most people. I’m fairly binary-can I get through this with you or not?  Sometimes the answer is “just through the performance.”  This is something of a lifesaver because I don’t generally need the approval, desire to be liked or friendship of another performer, this allows me to work with the ‘tough cases.’   Often we’ll have that “bee in a bonnet” at a job and it’s my duty to close my fist around it and take the sting for the team. My partner does this as well, we tag-team often. When it’s positive I really enjoy it. I may not need it to be as salacious, raucous or epic as everyone else, but I still enjoy it. And I like hearing how it went from my fellow performers-the retelling is part of the experience as well.

Faire hangover-I think this a different experience for everyone. My “day job” is at a conservative workplace with high politeness standards and indoor voices. I enjoy it very much. But when the time comes for doing performance I have to turn up the decibels,  be more outgoing and put on my arse-kicking boots. (I fact have to do this at practice every weekend so *shrug*) But without the filters, profanity limiters and hijinks ensuing, it can be hard to squeeze that genie back into the box. Fortunately for me, one of the bigger shows falls at a time where I have some transition. When I don’t have that, I’ve seen the reaction by my other set of employees and it’s like getting a face full of megaphone. But the two worlds are very different experiences and sometimes it’s hard not to laugh when placed back-to-back to one another.  I feel blessed to have both available.

If you asked many other performers it’s another set of the quiet and loud moments in different amounts, like a recipe or a sound check-tweaked to your personal needs and outputs. It’s not one thing to all people. So while I tell faire participants to get their friends involved, I do so with this caution-let their experience be their own and compliment yours, not clone it.

One of these things is not like the others-observations on "Medieval-style" shows

 

We are a bit spoiled, we cater to renaissance faires and in that respect there is expectation built into how our audience receives us. BUT if you want to appeal to a wider audience sometimes sacrifices must be made in order to be nimble enough for mass consumption or you just have to be in such narrow band that you are a take-it-or-leave it kind of act. The first one that comes to mind is the Badpiper-he is a kilted guy who plays a flaming bagpipe. Is it Celtic? Is it musical busking? Is it flame performance? Yes it is all of the above and you can hire that for any event that comes to mind except for perhaps a paper and accelerants convention.

But in order to make your act easily consumable, sometimes it is watered down in some areas and combined with new ingredients. I like to go and see other acts bigger than ours that *kind of* do the same thing we do but NOT at faires. It’s going to be a strange list and I see two ends of it-one is a performer-based and the other is performance based.

When we first started, I accidentally elbowed my way onto a table with George Emlen while there for a Revels pub sing. He asked me

“Would you like to know the secret of how we put together shows?” and I nodded, brain and ears on full record.
“We find a group of talented people and we structure the shows around them. And now you know.”
And now that I have heard that, when we go to the Christmas Revels in Boston, I take note of the central hub players and see how the performance spirals out from the paragons. I’ve also noted this seems to be the case with Cirque de Soliel –there is a definite formula of  5-6 highly-skilled specialists with a show structured to support their strengths. It is less obvious with some shows than others. The better ones have a fairly cohesive storyline and others we’ve come away saying
“Well those were some great tumblers and silk performers but what was the rest of that?” We try not to do those ‘what was that?’ shows but sometimes that’s what you have to work with when performers fall ill, you are short-handed or if there is a major change in venue, staff or circumstance.  When we do our larger shows (twelve or more) we often have to subcontract from a variety of sources-and if that person is a musician, they get a certain support. If the main mouthpiece is a comedian, that’s another type of show. And if we have only a stable of sword fighters, well, then, guess about the focus of THAT show. But the silver lining is that even if you saw our show last venue, it will not be the same show you saw last year or even the show before on the same day! We have events where we do three different types of shows over the course of a day and our fans are often made when they decide to check us out for more than one performance!

Other groups have a more corporate attitude about how to handle a “faire” or “Medieval experience” by relying on common tropes and the audience doing more of the legwork by bringing expectations and sports-team level participation. The selection I’ll talk about are Medieval Manor, Bunratty castle, Medieval Times, and the Tournament of Kings.

I’ll admit although the staff at Medieval Manor was funny, I am not a person who enjoys  uncomfortable/mocking humor. I attended an example of “I can do it better” type show in RI and enjoyed that one much more. The gist is that you are in a bawdy tavern and being fed. Adding food and booze and somewhat “off the cuff” behavior (eating with hands, being loud, dirty jokes, drunkenness expected) there are competitions and I think this show lets people release a few inhibitions without worrying about repercussions. Most renfaires do that but they don’t have the same advertising budget, location and time limit. The costumes are not remotely accurate but the advantage is that it relies on audience participation and that is helped with liquid lubrication (le booze) The flip side is that people have to staff this event and I’m not sure I’d be up for dealing with some of the behaviors. It’s a sort of renaissancey Dick’s Last Resort. I guess if you have to work in food service, at least you can let loose on the patrons. I would say the strength of this is that they make the audience part of the gag and have a pseudo-medieval banquet experience. (At least from cultural perceptions)

I loved something similar at Bunratty castle in Ireland. That banquet was all the booze you can drink and held in an actual castle. It was Fecking awesome and I won’t even have to tell you why after the first two reasons. The patrons were part of it in a kinder, gentler way and they love to mock Australians.

Tournament of Kings in Las Vegas was everything I thought it would be and still a good show. That is, it was the most sparkly, tassled, bejeweled Merlin I have ever seen in my years on earth.  This show does tiered seating, rooting for knights, a joust, sword fights and meals delivered to the guests.  Although there were joust-style setups, the focus was much more on characters. A friend of mine once said that your renaissance faire character needs to be summed up in three easy words the audience can remember. In this case it was Country of origin, good guy, special costume-all all was frosting. And they did lighting and pyrotechnics.

Quick aside: As a person who has worked concerts and played with fire-these folks have a very slick production.  I *really* want to find out where they had their custom flame-shooting staff made-not that I could afford it.

Anyway, this is made for the family and they did a great job rousing the crowd. And their Merlin was also a good actor who clearly liked people. When he tried to involve the little boy next to me, and it failed,(not his fault, I think the kid was a little input overloaded) he made a joke and rolled on… We expected schmaltz but actually got a good show. (Okay, it’s Vegas, no one was looking for historical accuracy or educational elements)

Medieval Times-This is a show that is jousty Mcjousterson, with some sword fights and the focus is *definitely* on the horses. Once again, the tiered seating and the team-style audience participation.  Specialty costumes and the ubiquitous “three adjective” rules in effect.  They lower netting around the main stage/corral because they use titanium swords that spark beautifully but also are fairly brittle. We saw more than one sword shatter at the show so the netting was not a bad idea.  I was somewhat surprised to see the same folks who carried banners down in the corral were the same ones who served my chicken. Some notes I’ll make here that are not so cheery for some, about most of these shows I’ve mentioned are that usually it’s primarily female waitstaff not performers, it’s almost always chicken,  and you are expected to eat with your hands.

Once, as a troupe we entertained the idea of doing show feast-style show but that requires so many specialists that frankly, we weren’t interested in the hassle. The shows I’ve listed here run a gamut of how our popular culture sees “medieval-style” and “renaissance” entertainment-generally they are going to be entertained not as part of an education trip and I think these do that very well.  Do I feel the audience is being cheated? No, they have terrific performers or some specialty and they are clearly good at what they do because they are still in business.  Do I think it’s unfortunate that it’s a bit off for history input-yes, but that is not the primary function and it would serve me better as an entertainer to observe their successes and try to translate that into making our own act better for a wider audience.