Friday evening

We have access to the Sky Harbor Room, just off the lobby, for a pre-revel.  If you’re staying over, drop in and get warmed up for the Madness. A few snacks would be welcome, or you could stop at Heroes for a drink to keep your whistle wet.  Troll will be open to save time in the morning.

Saturday

8:30AM                            Site officially opens.  The Gate will be in a room called “The Greenery” by the hotel, but we’re renaming it “Anonymous Agora” in honor of the most prolific composer of the middle ages.  The Agora is a room for the populace to gather, for children to escape to for a cry, or for writers to concentrate.    Performances will all take place in “Chaucer’s Chancery”.

9:30 – 11:00                   Fyt* 1

11:00AM-12:00PM       Class I

12:00-1:30 PM              Lunch**

1:30-3:00 PM               Fyt 2

3:00-4:00 PM                Class period II

4:00-5:30PM                 Fyt 3

5:30-6:30PM                 Meeting of the Northshield Bardic College.  Also Catch-up or Free Play

6:30 PM                         Fyt 4/Feast

Post-Revel – On Site!  We have the whole complex until they start setting up for breakfast.  Sing**** until the cows come home.

 

* What’s a fyt?   It’s a chunk of time defined not so much by minutes or hours, but by an activity that fits in it.  Each fyt contains two or three Challenges***.

**  There’s an excellent restaurant (Heroes Bar & Grill) on site. Quillens is a grocery next door to the site. Fast food places abound on the next exit east.

***What’s a challenge?  You might think of a challenge as sort of a “theme” for a performance.  Sometimes the challenge is to write in a particular style (like a sonnet or a murder ballad ) or about a particular subject (like chivalry, or love, or horses or Northshield).  Sometimes the challenge is to do something authentically medieval — other times it may be to use a Broadway showtune. Some challenges require participants to think on their feet, like the ensemble tale, in which the storyteller shifts at the whim of a director. Other challenges may be prepared and rehearsed before the event.  One thing a challenge is not — it is never a competition. No one is being judged in the challenges.  Rather, we try to provide a “bardic safe zone” in which people can feel free to experiment and try new things.  You win by participating — or by providing an attentive audience for others to try on a new style and see if it fyts*****.

**** “Sing” is shorthand for any performance art. Bardic Madness includes poetry, storytelling, instrumental music, juggling, mime, dance… as long as we remember that it’s a family-friendly environment.

***** Are puns allowed at Bardic Madness?  Hmmm.  Is it ok to footnote a footnote?