Sep 9, 2016

Photos and text by Amy Davis

: The audience for The Royal Welcome show includes Nyla Hendrick, of Annapolis, right, and her daughter, Aurora Hendrick, seated to her right. Like many visitors to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, both are dressed in period costume. In front center is Paige Jordan, of Crofton, MD, who came with her sister Grace and grandparents, Diana and Philip DeVries of Roxbury, CT. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Fred Nelson, who has played King Henry VIII for 15 seasons at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, says he fell into the job by accident. He also plays other roles, and Nelson, who is a television producer, says the challenge keeps his mind sharp. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Fred Nelson, center, has been playing King Henry VIII for 15 seasons at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. At left is Queen Katherine of Aragon, played by Stephanie Phelan. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Mark Jaster, on a ladder with a musical saw, and his wife, Sabrina Mandell, perform as “A Fool Named O and LaLa” at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Jaster, who has performed here for 31 years, says he is continually learning from the live audiences, which make it like a laboratory for perfecting comic timing. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Members of the Royal Court mingle in Revel Grove with visitors at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, now in its 40th season. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Claire Martinez models one of the more elaborate flower garlands she sells at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: The Joust Arena at the Maryland Renaissance Festival seats 5,000 people. Flag-bearing riders begin the Free Lancer joust. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Rylee Lowery, 6, of Macedonia, OH, looks pensive as she watches a game of skittles. She came to the Renaissance Festival with relatives from Frederick, MD. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Brent Ferrell, of the Midsummer Knights Dream craft shop at the Renaissance Festival, with one of the animated fantasy pets he creates, a little winged demon called Nocturnus. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Mark Jaster, the silent half of “A Fool Act Named “O” and “LaLa,” leaps from the stage into the audience with a pie at the Renaissance Festival. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: The Nye brothers, from left, Jayden, 7, Eli, 3, and Noah, 7, of Alexandria, VA, came to the Renaissance festival as young swordsmen with their parents. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Johnny Fox, “sword swallower extraordinaire,” is in his 38th season as a performer at the Renaissance Festival. Fox, a magician who performs other feats as well, was inspired to try sword swallowing through yoga and breathing techniques. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Mistress Ann Boleyn, played by Heather Howard O’Shaugnessy, is wooed by King Henry VIII, played by Fred Nelson, during the Royal Court and Village show at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Each year the festival advances the story line. This season is set in 1526, when the King’s attraction to Boleyn changed the course of English history. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: The Steele SIsters, played by Nicole Skelly, left, and Samantha McDonald, right, are in their 4th season at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. They relish the interaction with the audience. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Candy Mozeliak, who works at the John Sosnowsky art gallery, takes a break to play with a hoop at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: The popular Shakespeare’s Skum perform “Macbeth in 20 Minutes or Less” in the Globe Theatre at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Danny “Rat” Ventsias, a regular at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, wears a foliage mask and other accessories to play The Green Man, celebrating nature. At right is Renee Thompson of Towson. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

: Johnny Fox, who is in his 38th season performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, is known as the “sword swallower extraordinaire,” but he also does other magic tricks with comic flair. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)

Nestled deep in the woods of Crownsville, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, now in its 40th season, attracts over 300,000 visitors each year. Participants, often in period costume, repair to Revel Grove for the spectacle of theater, music, jousting, street performers, crafts, grog, roast turkey legs and other treats. Most of all they come to be transported back in time. Many return, year after year.

Jules Smith, the festival’s longtime operator, reflects that such festivals were once considered counterculture. It was “a communal opportunity for people to get together and celebrate the live arts. That’s changed in this country and we’ve become kind of the establishment now. But it’s still a great opportunity to get out and have an unstructured, safe experience. People come here to be somebody they aren’t in their regular life.”

Performers love the interaction with the audiences. Mark Jaster, a mime whose act, “A Fool Named O and LaLa” has been running for 31 seasons, says the spectators are direct and honest. “We get scholars, bikers and toddlers in one audience.” Nicole Skelly, who performs with Samantha McDonald as The Steele Sisters, puts it simply, “I like to make people laugh. That’s my favorite

Maryland Renaissance Festival in its 40th season

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