In my professional field, a workshop is a kind of brain-storming session. People involved in the workshop topic get together to discuss it. While some of those people may be more experienced or expert than others, it's a hierarchically "flat" event, with only a facilitator or moderator of some kind to keep things on-track.
A bardic workshop has been proposed for Tournament of Chivalry by the King's Bard, Baronesa Gracia Esperanca de Sevilla. It is of course up to the autocrat whether or not there will be a bardic workshop (it admittedly doesn't have much to do with tournaments or chivalry), and it will be up to la Baronessa as to the final form and content of the workshop (if there is one). But we've bounced some emails around and I came up with some workshop suggestions that I'm pleased enough with to post here. If we don't do them at ToC, I'd like to run one or more of them at some other event.
Spectacle Workshop: Putting some pomp into our circumstance
If their Excellencies agree, participants workshop a bang-up court. (Challenge: this is not for bards to show off, but to make the court excellent.) The eventual final form will be dependent on the talents of the workshoppers, but a group of bards with some talent in versification, filk or original musical composition, and perhaps some instrumental capability might come up with:
- A sonnet or other poem composed for the herald to read as she announces their Excellencies.
- A song (vocal, instrumental, or both) for processional music
- More dramatic scripting for the herald, during court
- Incidental music - perhaps instrumental, perhaps a great swell of vocal music if someone is approaching for a baronial award. Perhaps even songs (very very short ones - 8-16 bars) specifically composed for each person called forth, sung as they approach the thrones.
- Another poem to close and recessional music, which (depending on circumstance) may fold directly into songs welcoming diners in to the feast hall.
Performance Venues Workshop: Getting out of the feast hall
After a very brief reminder about the etiquette of interrupting people and of family-friendly performance, workshoppers are sent out into the wilds of the event, in the middle of the day, to "bard" for 45 minutes, either alone or in pairs. Workshoppers reconvene afterwards to discuss what they did, how they approached other SCAdians (if at all) and how well it worked.
Performance Workshop
The basic "Here's my piece, what did you all think?" sort of feedback roundtable. Standard but valuable.
Vocal Projection and Enunciation Workshop
Maybe not worth an hour? Each participant takes turns wandering 20-50' away from the rest and projecting something back. The ones who are the loudest and easiest to understand get grilled for their secrets.
Discussion Roundtable: Encouraging the bardic arts
Why do some areas (like Windmaster's Hill) have a thriving bardic community and others don't? What can we do to recruit and retain new bards? What have you tried (at events, at monthly meetings, etc.) to raise the visibility of bardic in your area, and what's worked?
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