Camberly Owen has been promoted from peasant girl to pirate.
Owen, a 23-year-old anthropology senior at ASU, said although she has worked as a performer in the Arizona Renaissance Festival every February and March since she was 10 years old, she will get paid only about $200 this year.
Her motivation is not monetary, but lies in the experience of performing in the Renaissance atmosphere and the positive feedback she receives from festival patrons, she said.
“One of the best things, when you’re out there, is for people to say that you did great, or ‘Your show was my favorite part of the day,’” Owen said.
The festival, an annual medieval-themed gala of jousts, costumes, cheeky performances, turkey-leg feasts and handmade artisan crafts, will celebrate its 21st straight year in Apache Junction when festival season opens at 10 a.m. Friday.
Jessica Willard, entertainment director for the festival, said even though most performers are unpaid, the event gets so many volunteers that auditions are held to select the cast members.
Willard said because of the high cost of costuming and little to no monetary compensation, Renaissance Festival performers have no illusions of striking it rich as wenches or yeomen.
“In the end, you do it for the love of it,” she said. “It’s a hobby, not something to make money on.”
Cast members continue to volunteer year after year, Willard said, because performing in the festival forms a sense of camaraderie with people of similar interests and personality. The festival is also appealing as a realm for performers and patrons alike to indulge in reverie and fantasy.
“We’re kind of raised on fairytales, so this is your chance to be Prince Charming or be Robin Hood or, if you stick with it long enough, you can be the king,” Willard said.
Owen said she enjoys the escapism of pretending to be someone else for a day. She and other college-aged performers love shocking introverted Renaissance Festival attendees into getting excited, she said.
“Shy populations [of patrons] get attacked by the performers to get them to come out of their shell,” she said.
The youthful energy of college-age performers adds a unique and dramatic energy to the festival, Willard said, something the patrons notice and appreciate.
“You’re not watching a show — you’re part of the show,” she said. “I tell my performers to perform with [patrons], not at them, and the younger performers seem to really grasp that mentality more than the older cast members.”
Willard said a large percentage of the nearly 400 cast members this year are young adults. She said this is because people are more extroverted, lively and open to new experiences as young adults than at any other age.
Owen said for college-age cast members like she, this extroversion is just part of the fairytale experience of performing at the festival, an experience that’s worth it every year.
“I have been doing it for so long, I can’t imagine not doing it,” Owen said. “I’ve been setting aside February and March [to perform] for so long now. Only going overseas could keep me from doing it.”
Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.
