Ohio Renaissance Festival now open weekends


The Ohio Renaissance Festival

Where: 10542 E. Ohio 73, Harveysburg

When: Saturdays, Sundays and Labor Day, Sept. 3 through Oct. 16.

Tickets: $19.99 for adults ages 13 and older, $9.99 for ages 5 to 12, free for kids younger than 5. (Discounts available on the event website.) $100 for a season pass.

More info: (513) 897-7000 or www.renfestival.com

Themed weekends

Sept. 3-5: Family and Friends. Half-price for adults, free for children 12 and younger.

Sept. 10-11: Wine & Chocolate. $40 for the entire “flight,” or $2 per taste.

Sept. 17-18: Pirates Weekend. Including a “Talk Like a Pirate Contest.” If you can’t talk the talk, you walk the plank.

Sept. 24-25: Barbarian Invasion

Oct. 1-2: Highland Weekend

Oct. 8-9: Romance Weekend

Oct. 15-16: Final Knights

HARVEYSBURG — The term renaissance indicates a renewal of sorts: a cultural rebirth, a new spirit.

Fittingly, the 2011 Ohio Renaissance Festival, fashioned after a 16th century English village expecting a weekend visit by royalty, will unveil several new attractions when it opens Saturday, Sept. 3, for seven weekends.

Newly installed carillon bells will be rung periodically throughout the season.

First-time diversions will include heroic tales told by Robin Hood and acted out by volunteers from the audience.

The festival’s propensity for themed days will expand with a Wine and Chocolate Weekend.

And a new Queen Elizabeth will debut.

For reasons besides propriety, it would be wise not to challenge her to a contest of strength or balance.

Connie Pfeiffer, who will don the crown for the first time on opening day, Saturday, Sept. 3, is a certified fitness and Pilates instructor from Lebanon.

Pfeiffer portrayed a member of the high gentry, Lady Agnes Grace Porpington Lydon, the Lord Mayor’s mother, last summer.

She wasn’t looking for a promotion, but it’s easy to see why she has been elevated to the throne.

She has a radiant Queen Bess air about her, a royal bearing and some impressive new clothing, tailored for her.

She particularly looks forward to interacting with children, instructing them in a proper curtsy and dubbing them as knights, addressing the boys thereafter as “Sir” and the girls as “Dame.”

“I love history, costume and doing the court dances,” said Pfeiffer, who was born in Chicago and earned a bachelor’s degree in fashion design at Kent State University.

She teaches fitness at the Countryside YMCA in Lebanon and Pendleton Pilates in West Chester and Loveland.

OLDE FAVORITES RETURN

Perennial favorites will also reign at the festival, which will boast 150 costumed characters, entertainment on several stages, food, drink, arts and crafts.

Returning attractions include: the Mudde Show, the Swordsmen, Washing Well Wenches, Stuart Siskanovich, the DaVinci Bros. Comedy Operas, full-armored jousts, Wenches a’Wailing, Father, Son & Friends, Craig of Farrington, the Other Woman, Glasnots, Pirate Comedy Stunt Show, Life-sized Human Battle Chess and the Bubble Sisters.

A RENAISSANCE FAMILY

It wouldn’t be September for the Brough family of Miamisburg without their weekends in Warren County.

Jennifer Brough, one of the performing Wenches a’Wailing, will be performing at her 20th Ohio Renaissance Festival.

“This year’s director is either the seventh or the eighth I’ve worked for,” she said.

The other members of the singing group are her sister- in-law, Johnna Brough, an 18-year veteran, and Crista Eberhart, starting her 19th year. Johnna Brough is the seamstress who put in 80 hours making a new dress for the queen.

Jennifer Brough’s husband, Charley, will work his 16th festival. He plays Sir Francis Drake in the Pirate Stunt Show and is a human chess piece in the battle match.

The Broughs’ oldest son, Chance, plays fiddle in the dance band. Their youngest, Johnny, 9, also comes in costume and fits right in with street scenes.

“There’s a tradeoff for us. We miss out on other fall festivals and dance competitions. (The boys are involved in Irish dance). We’re almost always late for family gatherings this time of year, but it’s definitely worth it,” Brough said.

“Through rehearsals, I learned that the same smart mouth that got me in trouble in middle school was really quite a gift for improv. I grew up playing music, but Renaissance festivals gave me the opportunity to develop my confidence and stage presence. And now I get to watch my oldest, Chance, reap the same benefits,” she said.

ON GUARD ONCE AGAIN

Another old hand is Ken Honnigford, who plays Her Majesty’s royal guard Sir John Reswald.

She is his third monarch in five years, but has already won his loyalty.

“I have high hopes she will be a marvelous queen,” Honnigford said, while keeping an eye on her at her first public appearance, a media event at the Dublin Pub in Dayton.

Although Pfeiffer’s accessories included the queen’s flagon, her beverage of choice was a different kind of brew as she waited to make her official entrance off to the side. She clutched and sipped a familiar, Venti-sized cup from a Seattle-based establishment with a different lady on its logo.

“I’m driving myself,” she explained.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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