The Theater Scene

As the Amphitheater [J11] is an outdoor venue, performances can only be held there in the summer months. Traditionally, the season opens in Peonu with the Peonian Restoration Festival. Different guilds or noble families sponsor galas at the Amphitheater throughout the summer, entertaining townsfolk and visitors who arrive ahead of the caravans. The season officially closes with the Halean Festival in Halane, although periods of fair weather will sometimes allow productions into Savor.

Thespian companies produce entertainments. Operated by Masters of the Thespian’s Guild, these businesses obtain funding, bring actors and writers together, and provide costumes, props, and a place to perform. Only the best entertainers play in the amphitheater itself.

The theater companies offer plays that run the gamut of comedy, tragedy, religious, and satirical work. Most companies are capable of staging elaborate and varied performances, but many specialize in religious or educational material under the tacit sponsorship of one of the religious orders or guilds.

An exception to this rule are Eleri plays. Although they are used to teach Halean liturgy, these productions are performed by a small number of actors and are not widely appreciated. Bored and debauched noblemen sometimes sponsor these lewd performances, often encouraging audience participation. Actors that accept a leading role in an Eleri play often find themselves unable to find work in the “legitimate theater.”

Each play is based on a theme. Practitioners of the ‘classical’ school have established some twenty seven basic dramatic themes which are constantly reworked. Traditional forms tend to be stylized, conservative and hardly ever political, since secular and ecclesiastical observers monitor many performances. In addition to the classical school, there is also a genre of contemporary dramatists, called ‘populists,’ who specialize in the use of allegory to satirize current figures or political events. These plays are strictly the province of street performers, as no theater owner would risk incurring the wrath of the authorities by staging a populist play in his establishment.

An evening’s entertainment might start with a puppet show that explains the plot of the play. Actors in masks and simple costumes perform their play in short acts, often accompanied by a narrator. Intermissions are filled with jugglers and short, usually bawdy, skits that occasionally feature animals.

Longer plays, called cycles, are performed during fairs and festivals. These are a number of shorter works, played over a number of days, that tell a single story. In the case of the Summer Fair, the cycle varies from year to year but the story is usually about a great achievement of the House of Elendsa. This year (720 TR), the cycle will tell the story of the Treasure War and Torastra’s magnificent victory.

Acting is not usually steady employment. Except for the most successful thespians, players find “regular” jobs to keep food on the table and clothes on their backs. Those actors, puppeteers, singers, and mimes that do strive to earn their living through entertaining often travel the length and breadth of the kingdom during the off-seasons. During the spring, fall, and winter, players journey from manor to manor and perform for noble households or local temples and guilds. Summer always brings the troupes back to Tashal, as a good showing at the Fair can earn an actor as much as he might receive throughout the rest of the year.

Italicized text is from Hârndex.