I had heard through the grapevine that friends of mine had plans for a Faerie Festival in central Texas. Next year it will be a full-fledged festival, but for this year, they're starting off smaller with a one day Faerie Bazaar. I volunteered to recruit entertainment and help pass the word around. If you will be in Central Texas June 28, and want to be involved as a performer, please send me a message here, or via email at kaademusic AT yahoo DAWT com, or through my myspace at www.myspace.com/kaade. This year will be for tips and CD sales, because the Bazaar will be free admission, but this will change when it becomes a full-weekend festival. For artists and others interested in vending, contact Chameleon or Alyria at the email addresses listed below.
From the webpage, www.serendipityhaven.com:
Saturday, June 28th
10 AM to 7 PM
To be held at the Rocky Hill Ranch located on FM 153 in
Smithville, Texas, just a few miles North of HWY 71.
Don your Fairy Finest and let the child within come out to play!
If you are interested in Performing or Vending, please contact: Chameleon---chameleondreams@hotmail.com or Alyria---alyria_stargazer@yahoo.com Vendor setup will be Friday the 27th begining at Noon. A valid tax ID number is required for ALL vendors. Food vendors must present a copy of a current Caterers License.
Hi all, the schedules for both the worlshops and performances for this
year's Fairie Festival are now on the website at
http://www.fairiefestival.net My personal schedule is as follows for
everyone who can make it:
Saturday:
11 a.m., Chautauqua Tent- Fae-Trad Workshop: The Nature of Faerie Music in World Folklore
2:30, Dark Fairie Realm- Things Going Bump: Tales and Tunes of the Night Court
5:00, Sunshine Stage- Crossroads: When Bards and Faeries Meet
Sunday
11 a.m., Chautauqua Tent- Fae-Trad Workshop 2: Instruments of Faerie Music
2:30, Dark Fairie Realm- Things Going Bump: Tales and Tunes of the Night Court
4:00, Sunshine Stage- Crossroads: When Bards and Faeries Meet
I am so happy to be coming back to the May Day Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm. It looks like this year I will be on the Sunshine Stage and in the Dark Faerie Realm, and possibly the Chautauqua tent for a workshop as well.
I'm going to be flying up there from Austin (the day after my best friend's wedding) on Friday May 2, so I will be scheduled for just Saturday and Sunday this year. I will need to find a ride to the festival from the airport, and can show my appreciation with CDs and comp tickets. It looks like Harrisburg is the closest airport, but Baltimore is also a possibility if anyone knows they will be coming from that direction.
And since this kind of took me by surprise, I'm just now in the process of planning a performance schedule in the Mid-Atlantic in the weeks that follow the festival. In particular, I'm looking to present my shows in Baltimore, Frederick, and Columbia, MD in May, and later (end of June, beginning of July) Wahington, DC and surrounding towns like Takoma Park and Alexandria. If you wnat to have a performance of traditional Faerie music and stories in your town this May, and can help suggest venues or host a house concert, and live in the area, let me know what kind of event you have or want to have, and I will help make it happen.
I have spent much of the winter doing research and preparations, and am just now moving into the season when I have regular gigs. So to gather up more needed seed money for the possibility of having a new CD printed before my travels, I have lowered the cost of downloading my first CD in mp3 form to just $8, so here's a link. The physical CD is still $12 (there's only 2 left) but the download link is below that.
Live
performance art should be interactive and envelop all the senses. I use
techniques of resource mapping to design group performances to showcase
the best of each performer, and bring out the best in the audience, as
well. If you or your group would like to be involved with any of the
following, please contact me. Many skills are useful in producing
these, and the dedication of novices is as welcome as experienced
performers. Some places I am looking at producing these include the Boston/Salem area of Massachusetts. I will be doing various solo and collaborative shows starting late Spring, and will try to do one or more of these ensemble works starting early in the Fall.
Dancing with the Faeries
This program is
designed to introduce a wide audience, including young children and
people with special needs, to various rhythms and dances, using
traditional Faerie music of Ireland and Scotland. I am looking for
session musicians (many of the tunes are well-known session tunes) and
a group of dancers, versed in any Celtic style, including Irish
step dancing, sean nos dancing, or highland dancing, who can
choreograph to hornpipes, reels, jigs, slip-jigs, and waltzes, and can
teach at least one of these to a diverse group of people- all while
wearing wings or other faerie accoutrement. You must be willing to
bravely play the fool so that audience members won't be afraid to seem
foolish. Anyone interested in designing wings or other costume aspects
for this production please contact me as well.
(If you want to
learn the tunes I will use in this production, I will be posting many
in my blogs on my myspace page, www.myspace.com/kaade, and here as well if people express interest.)
Following Darkness Like a
Dream
When Richard Corbet,
in the days of King James, wrote the song "Farewell to the Fairies" he
believed- like many from Chaucer to the present time- that faeries
belonged to generations past. But the Age of Reason, rather than
burying the elves, revived them in the consciousness of the populace.
This program explores how minds of the Renaissance, in words and music,
found inspiration looking at the Land of Faerie in new ways. This
includes lyrics penned by Shakespeare and Jonson, poetry of Spenser and
Herrick, music by Holborne and Ravenscroft, and ballads by that
perennial favorite, Anonymous. I am looking for people who play period
instruments, and particularly vocalists.
Upon Nine Waves
"Sometimes we forget what we are."
Thus begins this tale
of a sailor, a selkie, and the spirit of a ship, and how remembering
our true natures is the only way to preserve what we cherish. This
intertwining of three distinct stories occurs along the sea routes from
North Scotland to the Baltic and draws from the music and traditional
stories of sea-beings in the places along the way. This small ensemble
production requires each performer to be both actor, musician, and lead
or chorus vocalist, and uses blocking and choreography techniques
reminiscent of both Thornton Wilder and Tibetan opera, an always
changing environment where all performers are present throughout the
performance using minimal props to evoke the sea, the shore and the
ships.
I plan to
premiere this piece this Fall in New England, possibly as a solo act at
first.
The Brugh
With this piece still
in development, I intend to challenge and make demands of both
performers and participants. This is a tale of the dark and difficult,
but ultimately empowering, aspects of the fey, in the vein of such
writers as Holly Black, Charles DeLint and Guillermo del Toro. As the
participants (as this is not to be a passive "audience") enter the
space of the Brugh- a Faerie hill- they are presented, as a group, with
a challenge: find the changeling, free the abductee, restore a balance.
Every performer has his or her own repertoire of tools to offer, be it
faerie-lore or music, symbolic objects, or means of encouragement, that
gives the participants clues and strength to accomplish the tasks at
hand. Through a series of challenges including riddles, games of wit
and skill. and interactions with the characters within the Brugh,
participants reach their larger goal through smaller ones. Live action
roleplaying and divination mean that no two performance will be the
same. The participants will leave the Brugh with tools and insight from
the Faerie realm to empower them in their own lives.
Inn of the Dancing Cranes
I first produced this
piece with the help of visual artist/film-maker Jeanne Stearn and
members of the House of Commons Co-op. Based on a chinese tale of a
wizard, a kind inn-keeper, and three dancing cranes, this ambient
production is set entirely within an inn along the silk road.
Performers and audience members sit amongst each other, and as
different servings of a vegan feast are served, different stories,
music and performances come from unexpeced places. Types of skills
which are useful for this include storytellers and actors, musicians on
instruments and vocal styles that could be found along the Silk Road,
belly-dancers, jugglers, and of course cooks (I can provide all
recipes, or work with cooks to provide suggestions.)
