Dear Reader – this brilliant story of a far-traveling crown was written by Tony Korol-Evans, Ph.D, who is the dramaturg for The Company of Women’s Richard III at The Maryland Renaissance Festival. This is posted with her permission.
This is the story of a king and a tyrant brought together across centuries by chance. While many look to the contemporary American Renaissance festivals as a places of pure fantasy, they can be much more than that. Sometimes echoes from the past imprint themselves in the present. This time, it is a crown that weaves together the threads of time.
Planning for the next season’s Renaissance festival begins almost as soon as the closing cannon sounds. Before 2019 was over, Carolyn Spedden, the Artistic Director of the Maryland Renaissance Festival (MDRF), had chosen the play for their 2020 Company of Women. The Company had debuted with Julius Caesar in 2019, and Ms. Spedden chose Richard III as the play to follow. Erin Riley, who had directed Julius Caesar during the Company’s inaugural season, was tapped again to direct Richard III, and Emily Karol, a long-time festival performer, veteran actor in the Maryland theatre scene, and teaching artist was precast to play the titular role. Though the season opening was still almost 10 months away, Ms. Riley, a well-known director throughout Maryland and the Associate Artistic Director at Strand Theater Company in Baltimore, began the planning process. One of the first items to find was the proper crown of a King that fit the head of slender, feminine Ms. Karol. After ascertaining that no crown that fit the bill currently existed in MDRF’s costume selection, Ms. Riley began an online search for an appropriate piece. She knew it when she saw it and ordered the crown. Ms. Riley was thrilled when she finally received the crown in the mail, and carefully replaced it in the box in anticipation of its use in a few more months.
Of course, as everyone knows, March 2020 changed everything. Performance venues — along with the rest of the world it seemed — closed down due to the coronavirus known as COVID-19. Even though MDRF is open weekends in August through October, like many other festivals throughout the country, its gates remained closed throughout the fall of 2020. Among so many other losses, an entire season of work for actors, merchants, craftspeople, food and drink vendors, staff, and the owners of MDRF was lost to the pandemic. It was August of 2021 when MDRF finally opened its gates again. Due to the continued uncertainty of the pandemic, Ms. Spedden chose a shorter rehearsal period and and did not produce a full hour-long period play, instead focusing on shorter more quickly rehearsed pieces such as the festival’s STREETspeare project in which scenes from Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and even classical writers and Restoration playwrights are featured. Because of lingering concerns about the pandemic, these scenes often took place on smaller stages, balconies, and well-defined spaces in the village of Revel Grove, as opposed to simply “popping up” in the lanes and pathways. Some of the smaller and shorter scenes did take place in the paths, but longer scenes, were performed on MDRF stages, including a scene from Henry VI, Pt. 3, in which Ms. Karol portrayed Richard, Duke of Gloucester. This piece – performed on the MDRF Globe Stage – set the scene for the upcoming performance of Richard III in 2022.
Back to the crown. As preparations began for a 2022 festival that looked more like it had prior to the pandemic, Ms. Riley began again to plan for Richard III. As case numbers from COVID-19 finally began to fall, the future was beginning to seem bright.
And then, in the midst of the still ongoing pandemic and political division here in the United States, a war began as a Vladimir Putin-led Russia invaded Ukraine. Thousands of miles from MDRF, people fled in fear from a military incursion into a sovereign country’s territory. Amidst this backdrop, Ms. Riley was revisiting Dr. John Sadowsky’s excellent cut of Richard III. She decided – for no reason in particular other than inspiration – to open the box with the crown in it. Ms. Riley carefully removed the crown, a shining gold with large gems, kingly, yet not overly ornate. And it was only upon this re-examination that she noted the origin of the golden circlet – Ukraine. The irony was not lost on her, that as a war waged there, thousands of miles away, as images of smoke and people fleeing and pain replayed over and over on the television, she held in her hands this beautiful creation by a member of Ukraine’s artisan community.
Whether that artisan, Olena Grin, is still in Ukraine or is even alive is unknown. What is known is that this crown sits atop Ms. Karol’s head this fall as she portrays one of the most infamous villains in literary history. Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most well-developed characters, a tyrant whose monologues give not just snapshots but full portraits of the thoughts behind his actions. Whether Ms. Karol is holding the crown with a determined longing or wearing it with a regal depravity, it serves its purpose to mark ambition desired and ambition gained for much of the play. However, in the end, it stands for ambition lost as Richard falls to an Earl of Richmond-led force with significantly fewer troops. As Ukraine battles Russia – a country with more money, firepower, and troops – this crown reminds us that villainy does not always win. It illustrates that tyrants who rule with an iron fist are often felled by those with less resources but more courage. And it prompts us to seek the
beauty that can spring forth from otherwise unseemly circumstances.
This is the story of a king and a tyrant – more than five centuries removed from each other – whose actions coalesce in the history of a crown.
Shakespeare’s Richard III plays at The Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, MD on weekends through October 23, 2022. The production then moves to Baltimore’s Strand Theater Company for one weekend only November 10-13th. http://www.rennfest.com for tickets to the festival. http://www.strand-theater.org/tickets for the November event.
Dr. K. Tony Korol-Evans holds her Interdisciplinary Ph.D in Theatre & Drama with specialties in English Renaissance Drama, paratheatricals, and theatre for social change from Northwestern University’s prestigious graduate school. She has practiced performance art as an actor, director, writer, intimacy coordinator, and dramaturg all over the United States. She is the author of Renaissance Festivals: Merrying the Past and the Present and is considered a foremost expert in the enactment of living history. She, along with her husband Mark, is the creator of the highly popular A Klasse Act, which features the live shows Cakes & Ale and Casks & Flasks – which bring the authentic food and drink of the Renaissance Period to life. By day, Tony has been working in the anti-gender-based violence field for over three decades. In addition to testifying in Maryland’s General Assembly and writing performance pieces about the aftermath of sexual assault, Dr. Korol-Evans has held numerous positions working with and for survivors. She lives on the beautiful shore of Virginia with her husband and is a devoted mom, busia (grandma), sister, and activist. You can find her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Festivals-Merrying-Past-Present-ebook/dp/B003VPWXVA
Life of Riley 