Have you met The Limeybirds?

The Limeybirds at the 2008 Greater St Louis Renaissance Festival, photo by John Wright, Flickr Creative Commons A flash of lime green catches the eye as the pert young woman heads for the unsuspecting patron. Teasing him just a bit, she encourages the group he’s with to attend the show that will begin in just a few minutes before taking her leave. As she continues up the lane, a second wench in an identical skirt—but wearing a yellow bodice in contrast to the original one in pink—joins her. As they arrive at the designated stage, a third joins them, again in the signature green, wearing a blue bodice. Their smiles are bright, their personalities sparkle, and their joy at being there is evident. Let me introduce you to The Limeybirds.

Background

Shannyn Kelly is the constant behind wenches group known as The Limeybirds. Originally from a small farming town in southwestern Ontario, she loved animals and planned to be a vet until the first time she encountered an injury. She quickly learned that she had an aversion to blood. Around the same time, she received a scholarship to attend a summer music workshop on the recorder and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. During her seventh grade summer break, her parents agreed to allow her to attend the entire summer music program. She concentrated on choral and solo voice classes and anything else she could fit in. The experiences and her love of making people laugh steered her acting, dancing and singing.

She attended college in Toronto, graduating with a degree in theatre arts. Having finished school, she started doing stand-up comedy and other improvisation stuff. She and two friends were performing as an all girl improv troupe with a show full of original music, Monty Python-esque humor and many sketches.

Faire History

One of the girls had been on cast at the Ontario Renaissance Festival and told the group they could get an eight-week paying gig, but that it was renaissance. Shannyn had never attended a faire and had visions of “hippies running around in the woods,” she told me with a chuckle. In 1997, they auditioned and made the cut as a three-girl act. Shannyn was hooked the first time she stepped on the grounds, wondering to herself, “Why have I never been here before? This is great.” Realizing that Faires ran all year round, they applied to more shows and started touring the circuit. As the first season ended, one of the troupe was married and wanted to stay home. The remaining two auditioned and hired a replacement, bringing her in to the existing role. When the other co-founder decided that touring was not for her, Shannyn talked with the two and they reached an agreement that gave her full ownership of the show. Having already hired one replacement, she had the confidence to do it again.

Bunnie, aka Shannyn Kelly, at the 2008 Greater St Louis Renaissance Festival, photo by John Wright, Flickr Creative Commons The improv/sketch/humor shows were not working well at the stages the troupe where they were appearing, so in 2002 Shannyn re-wrote the entire show, dropping the sketches and adding more music. It was then that The Limeybirds as we know them today were born; Faith, Charity, and Bunnie, three zany sisters who sing three-part a cappella harmonies, throw out one-liners with flare, and flirt outrageously. She also made the decision to hire and train a group of women who would be ready at any time. This made scheduling, and the inevitable departures, less of an upheaval on the troupe. The result is that The Limeybirds are able to appear at shows that have overlapping schedules and replace members if someone is incapacitated or decides to leave the troupe.

These days, Shannyn strives to keep the staff at about fifteen trained and costumed members who are able to step in to their designated role. She holds auditions and, when approached in the lanes at faire, sometimes does impromptu bits to see if the girl might have what she is looking for. “People don’t realize that singing is hard work. Everyone knows someone who can sing, but to do it properly, live, and reproduce the exact same sound every time outdoors a cappella with no prompts is very difficult.” She auditions around 200 people per year and selects about five.

The characters and costumes remain the same, no matter who is playing the role and Shannyn makes sure of that by making all the costumes. “It’s a branding thing,” she told me, “like McDonalds. No matter where you go if you see pink, it’s Bunnie; the one in blue is Faith; and yellow, that must be Charity. The lime green skirt makes them Limeybirds.” When hired, the new Bunnie, Charity, or Faith is measured and her garb made for her. With the help her serger, costumes take a couple of days—cutting the pattern and making the bodice take the most time.

All the planning and preparation came in very handy in June when, at the Greater St Louis Renaissance Festival, an overly amorous mannequin in a booth injured “Charity/Donna”. As the ambulance crew took her to the hospital for the resulting concussion, “Charity/Jeanine”—who lives in the area and was spending the day with the girls—made a flying trip home to get her costume and was back on-stage belting out the songs within 30 minutes. She had no warm up time and hadn’t been on stage in three months but the show went on and very few were the wiser. Shannyn says that it is because of amazing actors like Jeanine, and the others she hires, that The Limeybirds are such a hit. “Each girl brings something amazing and wonderful to the table.”

The mannequin incident is an unusual situation though. Typically, life on the road is rough and the girls know that going in. By 9am every morning, you’ve got to be in costume and on-site, ready to belt out your music as hard as you can four times each day. Short of a broken bone or being dead, the show goes on. Shannyn told me that she has performed with a cracked rib and fevers running 102 degrees. “Between shows, you go back stage, sleep, and then up you go because you’re the reason the audience turned off their TV and came out to the faire that day.” That kind of rigorous schedule isn’t for everyone.

When choosing who will appear at a show, she decides based on seniority, availability, and proximity. The girl who has been with her longest, who can be there all the weekends of the show, and who lives the closest gets highest priority. She has the hardest time scheduling “Faith” because strong sopranos are not common. Sometimes she will have to work with the “Faith’s” schedules to get a show covered, but she tries not to change cast in the middle of a run. At the least, it’s hard on the one coming in; audiences are accustomed to one person playing a role and will often come up saying, “You’re not Bunnie, where’s the real Bunnie.” Shannyn told me it is very hard on the ego.

Currently

The Limeybirds, as they exist now, are quite popular. Shannyn, who told me she suffers from stage fright, has written the act in a way that shows fans how wonderful they are without requiring anyone to come up on to the stage. She told me she’d never want to cause one of their fans to feel the heart pounding, hands shaking, all over panic feeling that she gets when in an unfamiliar situation. The girls don’t single someone out to stand on stage for insults or ridicule. Instead, they strive to make the person selected feel as if he is the hottest man there and that they cannot wait to go home with him. “At least,” she chuckled as she said, “until his wife smacks him and brings him back to reality.” The girls love it when someone approaches them in the lane and bribes them to select a certain man for their attentions.

The troupe’s repertoire consists of about 45 songs that they are ready to sing at any time, with about fifteen sung each day. They take requests from the audience but try not to do the same songs repeatedly. That can result in disappointed fans, for example, when they get requests to sing The Scotsman at every set. They use improv and interaction with the audience to help prevent going on autopilot during performances. Shannyn told me that the best times are when the audience gets involved, feeding the energy back to them. “At Louisiana Renaissance Festival,” she told me, “the audiences are amazing. When we ask them to sing along, they are right there with us, sometimes in 25-part harmony. It’s just wonderful.”

The rest of 2008 will see the bright costumes and smiling faces of the girls for a couple of weeks at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, the full runs of the Ohio Renaissance Festival, Kansas City Renaissance Festival, the Greater Saint Louis Pirate Festival with their YO-HO! Pirate Show, and closing the year at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. The 2009 schedule is already in the works with confirmation for the Florida Renaissance Festival where The Limeybirds will host the Pub Sing.

When not on the road, Shannyn performs at the Casa Loma Castle in Toronto, portraying the Lady of the Castle in full Edwardian garb. Her responsibilities include appearing at special events and leading occasional tours. “I understand completely now why ladies would sometimes swoon and faint. The corsets are VERY tight, you can’t move in them.” In addition, she is constantly researching and preparing material for The Limeybirds. New CDs, including one of fan favorites, are in the works, though studio time is difficult to manage when they are on the road.

The Limeybirds fan club in YahooGroups is very close-knit. She told me stories of them pulling together both before and after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, which is about 40 minutes from the Louisiana Renaissance Festival site. Shannyn called members of the fan club who lived in Southern Louisiana, encouraging them to come north and offering places to stay. As soon as the storm had run its course, a roll call went out requesting members to check in. They had heard from everyone except Tommy, Lisa, and their girls, and were beginning to worry. When the family was finally able to check in, about two weeks later, the group learned that they had lost everything but were safely with one of their parents. The fans and the girls worked together to supply them with garb, street clothes, gift certificates, and many other items. Shannyn told me the outpouring of support from their fans in response to finding out the family was in need was just astounding. When the group got to Louisiana that fall, many patrons came to thank them for what they do. They heard from someone that when they were leaving their homes with only what was in their car, The Limeybirds CDs in the stereo helped them through by just giving them a chance to laugh.

Final Thoughts

Shannyn told me that hearing that what they do matters is very special to all the girls. She especially wanted to thank each person who comes out to support both her group and Renaissance faires in general. “These are my friends and family. Anyone who comes out allows me to do what I believe I was put on this earth for, to make people laugh and forget their troubles for a little while. By coming to fest you are supporting small business and actors and the theatre. Thank you”