He loved the twilight that surrounds
The border-land of old romance;
Where glitter hauberk, helm, and lance,
And banner waves, and trumpet sounds,
And ladies ride with hawk on wrist,
And mighty warriors sweep along,
Magnified by the purple mist,
The dusk of centuries and of song.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Prelude to Tales of a Wayside Inn

I'm not by chosen career an actor, a performer, a poet. But all those things are where my passions lie -- I love the stage, I love the performance, the assuming of roles and the playing of parts. I love the whole invitation to others -- to the audience, to one's fellow players -- to join in a collective dream, the collective story. I'm at heart a storyteller, a tale-spinner, a dreamer of the day -- someone who has always found irresistable Shel Silverstein's invitation. (So much so it forms the front page of my personal (vs. academic) homepage. :-) )

So, here I was, someone marvelously in love with fantasy and imagination and stagecraft and acting. Mind afire with wild visions of ages long ago that never were and stories that begin Once upon a time. The quotation that Longfellow first penned with which I opened this story described me to a perfect point almost from the time I could first read and dream. And so it was inevitable that I'd eventually find my way to the marvelous community of shared living fantasy -- the Ren Faire circuit, the SCA, Markland, Adria, whathaveyou. All it would take is the time to dive headlong into it and folks to show me the way. That part took, oh, twenty years. ;-)

At left: with Constantine at Maryland Renaissance Festival, 2003; at right, Constantine Blackhart, Aethelmearc Thrown Weapons Champion.

At left: with Constantine (f. left) and Morwen (2nd from right) at Maryland Renaissance Faire, 2003; at right, dancing with Morwen at Thrir Venstri Foetr

That evening in the basement of the U. Maryland Armory was my very first exposure to Medieval dance, and it captured my imagination. While heavy armored fighting or fencing or camping were things that required a lot of investment of equipment and money, dancing seemed like something I could do right away. All of a sudden, medieval recreation was something that might be practically possible -- and lots of fun. And then one more chance encounter opened the gates wide...

At left: Magda (middle) and I in her laboratory; at right: Magda (at right) and our dancemistress Alina of Foxwood (at left) at the Chelsea Celtic Festival

The last hurdle was finding a local SCAdian group to be a part of; unbeknowest to me, I had been living right in the middle of one of the largest and most active SCAdian Baronies in the Middle Kingdom. I in fact had two very active local SCAdians working in research laboratories literally upstairs and downstairs of me; one of whom was Lady Magdalena Vogelsang, whom I first met when I went up to learn how to use the real-time PCR system she was in charge of and she was wearing a Pennsic t-shirt. :-)

From there, the rest very rapidly fell together: at U. Michigan's Festifall I picked up a brochure from Ashkam and Elsa, attended the first evening demo, began to attend dance practices, and the rest is (very happy) history. :-)