Today, I’m going totally off topic and giving you a glimpse into a different part of “Studio Life” (the flexible part) that isn’t really studio at all. At the end of the article, you’ll find some Elizabethan needlework resources for your weekend browsing.
There are two weeks every autumn that sees us out of the studio for three (and sometimes four) day weekends.
During the last weekend of September and the first weekend of October, you see, we do Shakespeare. And when we do Shakespeare, there’s just no time for needle or thread.
I’ll tell you about it!
Every year since 2011, my family has been participating in the Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival in St. Marys, Kansas.
Here in Northeast Kansas, the Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival is a well-attended community arts and crafts festival running over two weekends, highlighting a performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays acted by a cast of both professionals and amateurs.
Accompanying the play, nestled down in the woods of Sir William’s Hollow, is a family-friendly festival featuring good food, fun and games, roaming musicians, arts and craft demos and displays, a pub area with a stage for musical gigs, and so much more.
It’s a blast!
You’d think that I’d participate in some grand Elizabethan-embroidery way, with glorious Elizabethan needlework displays and demonstrations – in costuming that reflects the textile grandeur of the era and whatnot. You know – sporting that stiff linen ruff, showing off those blackwork sleeves, maybe even strutting about in a farthingale.
But I’m a little more realistic than that. If nothing else, outdoor festivals in autumn in Kansas tend to be a little dirty. I can’t see myself taking any needlework or textile goods – especially some of my older treasures – down to the woods.
And, while I have some close-to-Renaissance-era embroidery pieces that I wouldn’t mind displaying for people, an outdoor festival where there’s no control of climate, elements, dirt, smoke from cooking fires and a blacksmith forge and bonfires and more, isn’t the place to do it.
So What DO You Do, You Ask?
Nope, that’s not what I do at the Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival.
Instead, we spend the weekend peddling victuals – that is, making and serving up the best wood-fired brick oven pizza you’ll find in the Flint Hills.
Sure, pizza may not seem very Shakespearean, but I’m pretty certain that, if pizza had been popular Shakespeare’s England, he would’ve capitalized on it – and he would’ve made it just this way.
Additionally, and perhaps a step closer to authenticity, we provide scrumptious meat pies (think Cornish Pasty – but we’re not in Cornwall, so we call them meat pies), veggie pies, and varieties of fruit pies.
That’s what we do.
Well, at least the oven’s authentic!
Like a well-oiled machine, we’ve got Anna (she garbs up!) and siblings hand-crafting the pizzas – stretching the homemade dough, topping it, and prepping it for the oven…
…and my sister working the oven.
It’s a hot, demanding, fast-paced, and sweaty job, especially when you’re putting out around 200+ pizzas in just a few hours.
You know what I do?
I take orders and chat with people.
Most years, I don’t even break a sweat.
With the serfs doing all the hard labor behind me in the back of our cozy outdoor kitchen heated by a 900-degree oven, you’d think I’d feel kind of bad, getting the easy job.
But I don’t.
We start serving at 5:00 pm and we finish when we sell out, or when the play ends. We do this over three weekend days, two weekends every autumn. This year, we’re there this weekend (starting tonight) and next weekend (October 3 – 5).
The festival and the play are great fun for the whole family! This year’s play is The Tempest, and I’ve heard the production is good. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hope to catch snatches of it.
The Plug
If you live in – or are passing through – Northeast Kansas this weekend or next, why not check out The Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival?
You can spend an enjoyable evening or two eating good food (there are a lot of food vendors!), listening to live music, viewing a Shakespeare performance, meandering through the magical, wooded festival grounds while watching artists and craftsmen at work, delighting in the various games and booths, visiting the pub, and, of course, eating pizza!
We’ll be at The Merry Pies of Windsor. It’s the brick oven booth down towards the stage entrance.
And that, my friends, is another small slice of my life on the Other Side of the Screen.
If You Like Elizabethan Textiles & Embroidery…
And just to tie it back into embroidery, here’s a weekend rabbit hole for you:
I’ve already written about this English Embroidery course that’s available online through the V & A (Victoria and Albert). There’s a nice segment in there about Elizabethan era needlework. I really enjoyed this series of videos and downloads!
Speaking of the V & A, take a look at this Corbet bed in the collections. Now, talk about a project – how’d you like to embroider all the “slips” (appliqués) for those bed curtains and cover?!
If Elizabethan era embroidery is Your Thing, check out this article on English Embroidery of the Late Tudor and Stuart Eras hosted on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
Do you like exploring Elizabethan stitches? Have a look at my review of Jacquie Carey’s book, Elizabethan Stitches. It’s a good one!
Finally, take a little time to enjoy this video on Gilt and Silk: Getting Dressed in the 17th Century, where you’ll enjoy seeing some fabulous 17th century embroidered clothes and see what it’s like to get dressed in them.
Have a Wonderful Weekend!
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