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Have you met Spade?

The final chess match of the day would start in ten minutes and the crowd was beginning to grow. Bleachers behind the opposing sides began to fill. The callers and announcers stood on stage to the third side and, on the fourth, bales of hay became seating for a third faction of the audience. As the time drew nearer, members of The Thieves’ Guild moved on to the field and took up positions in front of each bleacher. The white and black side audiences were encouraged to cheer for the fighters assigned to their side. In front of the hay bales stood a young girl, assigned the task of getting the “grey” side involved in the game. Little did she know what the event held in store. Let me introduce you to Spade.

Spade, officially Helen Miney, is a 16-year-old high school sophomore in an International Baccalaureate program. She auditioned for The Thieves’ Guild, a volunteer acting troupe, two years ago after members of the Guild recruited at her school. Not driving yet, she has special challenges to get back and forth to training, rehearsals, and faire. She catches rides with her parents or carpools with others from her school who are also members of the Guild. Her future plans include a Florida college, possibly studying some aspect of medicine, and continuing in The Thieves’ Guild while in Gainesville.

Helen spoke happily about being a part of Guild and this years’ chess staff under the direction of Scott West, who plays James Stumble on the board. Since joining the Guild, she has trained in unarmed combat. Knowing what it takes behind the scenes to make the stage fighting look real is her favorite part. The improvisational aspects of staying in character and not having an exact script to work from are both challenging and enjoyable. The encouragement from other cast members is what keeps her going when it is an off day at practice. She credits AJ Harret and Dale Easterling, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck respectively, with giving her lots of encouragement. They always are ready to help with a difficult lesson and try to keep things light with a smile or a joke.

Besides the Living Chess Game, Guild members are encouraged to interact with other cast members to set up intriguing street bits. The goal is to raise interest in the Chess Game and increase both attendance and audience participation. When not involved with her duties, Helen is able to roam the shire, doing a bit of shopping or watching a show. Helen’s recommendations for shows were to see the Living Chess Game, the New Riders of the Golden Age jousting, and Barely Balanced, who are three entertaining acrobats. Then it is back to the Thieves’ encampment to rest and ready herself for the next performance.

Scheduling conflicts this year resulted in her assignment to encourage crowd participation on the grey side. With no fighters assigned to the grey side of the board, the audience has no one to back so it is traditionally a hard area to engage. It is difficult to give them a reason to cheer. Chess board staff assigned to the grey side have their task cut out for them and, on Sunday afternoon, Helen got a little help from a group sitting together. Her happy attitude struck a chord with them and they took up cheer after cheer both with her and for her. They were easily the loudest of the three audience sections, shouting encouragement and teases. When the match ended, there was a final round of resounding cheers for “Spade”.

Helen found out after the chess match ended that the group cheering from the grey side is a fight team from a different Florida faire, turned out en masse to see the living chess game. She said the Guild was pleased that the visitors attended and they have discussed making a similar trip when the other faire opens. You could hear the excitement in her voice when she said that Sunday afternoon was her best day in the two years she has been doing faire.

Spade and the visiting fight team

January 30th, 2008 Posted by Escarlata | Have You Met? | 5 comments