Area High School, College Students Participate in Queen’s Court at Festival

WEST CAPE MAY — Access to Art, an l8 year old not for profit, is presenting the first ever West Cape May Renaissance Festival celebrating Elizabeth I, patron of the arts, on Oct. 2nd and 3rd this year in a 40 acre vineyard in West Cape May at l68 Stevens St. (Check location online at www.accesstoart.org)
The event is located at the Willow Creek Farm on l68 Stevens in rural West Cape May. Twenty-one acts featuring music, magic, theatre, bubble blowing, poetry and an Elizabethan Court will be featured.
The event presents the era of Elizabeth I of England, a patron of the arts, remembered for maintaining the peace, sponsoring theatre, poetry, rhetoric, languages, music. She was known as Good Queen Bess, Gloriana, and the Virgin Queen.
Renaissonics Band, led by John Tyson, who performs in England, France, Canada and the U.S., and on NPR radio, will bring two Renaissance dancers in costume to perform, and a stilt walker.
“The Ren Festival is filling up with lots of acts, designed to delight children of all ages,” said Barbara Beitel, Access to Art, director. “We are having Felix the Bubble Meister, who has been making bubble machines from l983, originally for kite flying to provide a visual reference for what the ground wind is doing.
Another fun act will be Lucas the Magician, a Franklinville man, who does razor blade swallowing, puts his assistant into a 23 by 23-foot box in which he plies his three-foot long sword. In his spare time, he does fire eating, and sets his tongue on fire.
Singing sweetly through all this mayhem and magic will be a Couple of Note, who have performed Renaissance music and Medieval Music at both the New York Ren Festival, and the Medieval Festival. Joining them in song will be Coeur de Lion, who are also regulars at the NY Ren Festival.
Mary Roth, from Drexel Hill, Pa., and Cape May, will charm listeners with her melodic music. On Saturday, Rowan’s Collegium Musicum will make an appearance and bring their 20 plus person band with period instruments and music.
On Sunday, Madrigals from area South Jersey high schools including Haddonfield High School and Cherry Hill East with students who have performed at the White House and the Kimmel.
“We will have NY actors from East Lynne, and also regional actors from SJ Regional Theatre and the Ritz,” said Beitel.
On Sunday, a bagpiper will serenade the visitors; on Saturday, they will be greeted by a Renaissance poet. Patrick Mulvaney, actor, director, will direct the court and is laying out the field configuration” Beitel said.
Celebrate the arts, with Access to Art, Inc., your key to the arts in Southern New Jersey. Tickets are reasonable and priced for the recession: $l5, adult, $l0 seniors and children over l2. Children under 12 are free if accompanied by adult supervision.
Check our website at www. accesstoart.org. Tickets are available online under our Renaissance page.
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