A wee bit of 16th-century British Isles history will invade Boulder City High School's athletic fields Friday and Saturday as the city's first-ever Renaissance Faire kicks off two days of food, fun, Highland Games and a special Celtic rock concert featuring Killian's Angels.
Not unlike other fairs, this one will have an encampment, a games area and vendors offering period clothing, candles, psychic items and a variety of food.
"This is a family thing for all age groups from kids on up," said high school history teacher Cathey Strachan, the event organizer who'll be dressed up in replicated housecleaning clothing while she plays Mistress Catriona Mairi, part of the House of Stuart household. "Even little kids will get dressed up in the garb because what it is, is role playing. It's a chance to act out a period so different than ours. Kids get into it because they're playing Dungeons and Dragons."
Taking center court -- rather the football and soccer fields -- is the entourage that surrounds Mary Stuart, once the leader of the United Kingdom, played by Kaye Dent.
In real life, Dent is a cosmetologist who will put her talents to use by morphing into a monarch surrounded by Sir John Stewart, the fourth Earl of Athol, played by Gerry Anderson, a cement truck driver, and Wyatt Dent, a Mannion Middle School student who acts out Master Connor, a squire to the earl and three ladies in waiting. They are masterfully portrayed by office worker Julia Scism as Lady Fleming, concrete lab technician Yvonne Heddman as Lady Seton, and certified nursing assistant Yvette Werckman, who will play Lady Beaton.
One thing to be on the lookout for while the fair is going from 1 to 8 p.m. on Friday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday is crossing up Mary Stuart. If you do, the pillory awaits you.
"Aye, people can also pay me to put someone in the pillory," said Dent of the wooden board that locks head and hands in place as a means of punishment for petty crimes. "Nay, people can't get out when they want. They'll get set free when I, her majesty, decide they should be let out."
But on the good side, Stuart has been known to perform some kindly acts.
"She can be impromptu, you know, with her majesty holding court and performing knightings on the spot," Anderson said.
He also noted the queen and her ladies in waiting also will be ladies waiting for the Bonnie Knee contest, where they'll judge the best set of men's knees a kilt has ever seen.
There'll also be "flog and feather," a punishment meant to run you out of town.
When asked why the group members, also known as a Scottish guild, like to perform this period and get dressed up the way they do, the answer was fairly simple.
"We get to teach history by re-enacting those lives," Anderson said. "That way, we have a reason to pass it on."
"And besides, we want to dress up like 400-year-old dead people," Dent joked.
Advance tickets for the Renaissance Faire are $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students, but will cost $1 more at the door. The concert is another $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and students.
For more information, call the high school at 799-8200.
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