Actors perform in Wives, Wenches, & Fools—The Lord Mayor’s Show on the The Royal Garden Main Stage.

All the  world’s a stage—literally—for the actors and colorfully dressed visitors of the annual Northern California Renaissance Faire held at Casa De Fruta.
“I have to get into my accent,” said Hollister resident Marni Friedman, 45.
“And not do Dickens,” said Barbara Poulter, 52, from Sonoma.
Moments earlier, Friedman, 45, a stage manager and a member of a guild, or club, that attends this event and the Dickens Fair in Daly City, had been sweeping leaves off the faire’s main stage, setting the way for the actors now shouting their lines to an audience seated on hay bales.
The faire brings visitors and actors—some professional and some volunteers—back to simpler times and celebrates an earthier age, albeit an idealized one where actors and attendees have access to deodorant, regular showers and modern underwear.
Seated at a table within site of the stage, Friedman applied generous amounts of sunscreen powder and wore lip gloss but she went without other kinds of makeup, she said.
The event is an odd mix of history—including weaving and spinning demonstrations—and the fantastical imaginings of visitors, some of whom wear flesh-colored elf ears, fairy wings, long dresses, chainmail and corsets.
It was here that Friedman, a physician during the work week, enjoys a chance to associate with other geeks, as she says. Friedman majored in English at the University of California, Berkeley.
“I wrote my thesis on Chaucer,” she said. “I can still speak middle English. So the Renaissance is not totally outside my interests.”
It’s also where Friedman met her husband.
“The story is, he remembers the first day I walked into the guild yard,” she said.
As for Friedman, she took note of him after a sweaty day at the faire when she noticed he had cleaned up and wore a button-up, pressed shirt, “and that’s unusual here,” she said.
Her now life partner, Fred Northrop, 62, had a different take on their first meeting. He was having a drink and a wasp stung him.
“Fortunately, Marni came running and removed it,” Northrop said. “That was our first interaction.”
When reminded of Friedman’s account—that just a single look at her was enough to catch him off guard— Northrop smiled.
“I had admired her already,” he said. “That is true.”
Northrop, who participated in the faire 13 years compared to Friedman’s 10 years, goes each year to interact with other renaissance faire fans.
“It’s really the comradeship, I think,” he said. “You gain a set of friends that you see intensely once or twice a year.”
As Friedman in her almost floor-length dress led the way toward a city of tents—hidden from visitors behind brightly painted walls—she passed Dea Foley, another Hollister resident. Foley comes to the faire to teach children how clothes are created and to demonstrate weaving.
“It’s making something that didn’t exit,” she said. “I get to pick my own colors. I get to pick my own patterns.”
Foley started coming to the faire when her daughter wanted to work the event and she didn’t want her running loose in a bodice, she said. Foley and her daughter did embroidering at that faire, and later Foley learned weaving.
“My husband cooks,” she said. “He and his best friend are in there trading puns, which is wonderful because then I don’t have to hear it.”
Not far away, on the main stage, the fictional queen, prince of France and other dignitaries made special appearances and delighted the crowds with witty humor.
“One of my favorite things about the faire is it is complete immersion of acting,” said Robert Jerome, 28, a Los Banos resident who played the prince and previously lived in Hollister.
Jerome wrote and directed two shows at the faire including a Shakespeare-themed one that was new this year. While he never attended San Benito High School, his husband is a Baler, he said.
“The cool thing is everyone becomes an actor,” Jerome said. “It’s like community theater on steroids.”
Tickets are $25 for the day, $35 for a weekend pass or $150 for the season pass. There is also a two-for-one coupon available on the event website. For more information, go to norcalrenfaire.com.

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A staff member wrote, edited or posted this article, which may include information provided by one or more third parties.

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