Employment at Faire 2001

The job?

Selling children's swords and shields from a cart and/or my booth, and participating in a short parade once per fair day. This is not an overly stressful job, and you don't have to deal with coins in making change for customers. All prices are in whole dollars.

The requirements?

Work in costume, STAY in costume, speak in an appropriate accent, and attend a language workshop in July (actual date still not set). Costume rules are down below.

The Rules of behavior?

No smoking in public view
No drinking alcohol before or during festival hours
No drug usage
Stay in character as much as possible. Remember the way you are speaking is not supposed to be an act. You're supposed to be living in the time period.

There are some others, but these are the biggies. Have trouble with accents? More on this later, as time allows. For now, go rent some Monty Python videos, as there are some acceptable accents to be had within them. (*note: this notion makes actors cringe. They will recommend "Lion in Winter" or some such film. Nothing wrong with that. There is something to be said for laughing as you learn, however, as Python is the 'poor man's Berlitz'. ...nuff said.)

The pay?

This will be discussed one on one with the potential employee

Camping on site?

This is on an 'as needed' basis. Festival management allows camping by employees only if they live a good distance away from fair. (I think they said 50 miles, or at least 1 hour's drive) The management can, and will, ask campers to leave if they cause too many problems in the campground, so behave yourself.

Costume rules?

The following rules are from 1998. If you don't follow these rules, the festival management will get on your case about it. I will hear about it. If you are found breaking these rules often enough, they might just ask you to leave. They can and will do this. This would be bad.

Everyone must wear a complete costume. (Go here for costume guidelines, hints, and stuff)
Full length, or 3/4 length sleeves must be worn. No short sleeved blouses or shirts are allowed. Absolutely no T-shirts. It is acceptable to roll up sleeves while working or demonstrating. Just not all the way to the shoulder.
No parti-colored tights, printed or otherwise, may be worn. No 100% Lycra, or any form of spandex. Woven hose such as Danskin are acceptable.
It is preferred that all men wear breeches and shirts, not just tights and a shirt. If you are wearing tights, you must wear a cod piece. (please!)
All women must wear bodices, blouses, and skirts (no shorter than 4 inches above the ankle). No bodice may be worn without a blouse underneath. Women are not allowed to wear pants (Elizabethan law forbade cross-dressing).
No tiered dresses.
All hair must be of natural color (...no, really, my mother's hair is green...), or it must be completely covered.
Absolutely no fantasy costumes may be worn.
All body piercing, with the exception of ears, was considered reprehensible in the Renaissance. Therefore, if you have unusual 'decoration' in the form of piercings, you must disguise them from the view of the public. Either remove the studs (or 'what-have-you') during fair hours, or use flesh-colored studs.
While it wasn't spelled out in the publication, I feel I should mention hats. You must keep your head covered all the time. Period. Even if it's hot.

Well, there you have it. These are the rules from 1998/99 for the NYRF. They haven't given us any changes yet for 2005, but I would guess they will follow the same basic rules as laid out here. Try to remember that the whole idea of these rules is to create an entire 'village' of people as they might have lived in the Renaissance. The more everyone looks and acts the part, the happier the visitors will be. This makes them more likely to want to purchase from you, tell all their friends about the good time they had, and return another day. Everyone benefits this way.