All the weather forecasters predicted wintry weather to arrive over Muskogee at about midnight after Saturday, so all activities on Sunday at the OKRF Academy were cancelled, as well the dance rehearsals and sewing workshops Saturday evening. Anyone who had come from Kansas City, Arkansas, or any other out of state place was authorized to leave at noon. The predictions came true; there was a glaze of ice on my driveway and the street out in front when I went out to get the paper at 4:30 Sunday morning, and since that time there has been an ever changing array of just about every variety of precipitation, from snowflakes to ice pellets to sleet to liquid raindrops (which freeze upon hitting objects on the ground). I have even heard occasional thunderclaps. If I could have picked up my car and set it down on Highway 69, I probably wouldnt have had much trouble going the two miles to the Pilot truck stop, but I would have got very nervous trying to stay between those side ditches on the stretch of Fern Mountain Road that gets you to the Castle. That last little hill just before you get back to the highway might could have turned into an Everest. But I did get to spend one day with the Gypsy peer group, and it is starting to look like it might be as I was hoping for, a kinder and gentler experience than it was with the Villagers. The two peer group leaders ironically were not people who play Gypsies during faire; one plays a foppish French nobleman (but he started his OKRF acting career as a Gypsy), and the other plays a daughter who longs to be able to hang out with the Gypsies, but her merchant class parents disapprove. They let me not have a character sheet filled out until I was able to talk further with them one on one away from a classroom structure. I started out by saying that since I was the oldest person there, I probably should have some kind of father figure role, and they both agreed with the concept, but told me my being a grandfather would be complicated by there having been a grandmother figure who was in the camp for several years but now had had to leave the cast, and whose husband in the story had long ago passed away, and my suddenly stepping in possibly as this persons widower wouldnt work in several ways. So instead I could be an uncle or some other relation. I also asked if Arabic or Middle Eastern attire would be incongruous (on the Gypsy Camp page in the 2013 program there is a picture of a man in a black Arab headdress who looks like Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia), and they said no. I also seemed to get tentative approval for some kind of robe. What I am envisioning right now is some kind of design from a Middle East culture other than the classic Arab, maybe Persian, Turkish, or something I havent heard of yet. Perhaps trousers could be optional on a hot day. On a cold day they would be extra baggy. Maybe I could even alternate sandals with the maryjanes that Dr. Plunkett wore that I intend to continue to use. Amie Montedoro said that she would love to clad me, so I am placing that in her hands. After I have the outfit down, I will progress to further defining the character (and giving him a name).
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 18:24:40 +0000