#parf support 2019

[parf-fan]

Last but not least: Support!

Those heroes who the patrons rarely see, who even I wouldn’t recognize half of, who work every bit as hard as the actors, who deserve all the ruddy credit in the world yet get but a modicum of it on a good day.  Goodly Gentles of all and sundry genders, prithee take a moment to actively appreciate the fuck out of the following superstars.

Directorial Staff

Jessy Hamel – Director of Entertainment

Gwen Donnelly – ET Assistant & Housing Manager

Amanda Scott – Production Stage Manger

Sam Little – Fight Director & Casting Director

Jeff Wolfthal – Improve Director & Casting Director & Co-Blackfryar Director

Evin Hoffman – Music Director & Casting Director

Arthur Rowan – Head Script Writer & Plot Show Director

Josh Kachnycz – Assistant Fight Director

Allison Petrillo – Assistant Music Director

Sarah Williams – Assistant Music Director

Haley Karlson – Assistant Improv Director

Sheila Barton – Co-Blackfryar Director

Adam Shepley – Assistant Blackfryar Director

Nathan Worster – Blackfryar Music Director

Ian Agnew – Dialect & Language Coach

Doug Wallace – Dramaturge

Allison Petrillo – Choreographer

Jonathan Handley – Dance Captain

Sound Staff                        

Roger Fitzwater – Audio Director

Jhed Stewart – Audio Coordinator

Costuming Staff          

Lily Steiner – Head Costumer

Katie Gallagher Worster – Wardrobe & Admin Support

Kate Lilley – Stitcher

Katie Davis – First Hand

Lillian Murphy – Stitcher & Wardrobe

Katarina Kelby King – Stitcher

Brianna Bloomer – Apprentice and Uniform Support

Festival Photographers 

Michael Ulrich – Photographer

Michael Adelson – Photographer

Abby Armstrong – Photographer

Katie Sickles – Photographer

Jesse Turner – Photographer

Production Staff                       

Ian Smith – Technical Director & Sign Shop Manager

Mara Cantrell-Paulson – Assistant to Technical Director

Matt Giguere – Master Carpenter

Julia Bowman – Prop Master

Michael Pryor – Production Crew

Brandyn Nordlof – Production Crew

Doug Sarmir – FX Designer

(okay but seriously, I still had to fix spelling even here. at least use a basic spellchecker, guys. please. please.)

[parf-fan]

Ya’ll better get to O’Malley’s at 1:30 for this new season-long show!

[parf-fan]

Yah this is gonna be badly written but I literally do not have time to write it well.

I'm gonna talk about Sir Walter.  Maybe no one was wondering how in the year 1560+, Sir Walter could still be alive and young as he was in 1518-1520.  But mayhap some of you were. And for those hypotheticals among you who maybe were, I present several options.

The first is that which I deem most canon compliant, and I do to bring receipts.  In autumn of 1518, Sir Walter got engaged to a faerie monarch.  This moment can be seen in Renaissance Road Trip's video here, from about 0:40-1:50, with further reference made at 4:06-4:33.

Though this moment was never repeated at future Finales, a relationship between the two was implied in Rumple's famous Sank Zee speech, as can be seen in PARF Performers's video here, at 27:31 – 28:11.  

A relationship was further alluded to in the Halloween II Finale of 2018, as can be seen in PARF Performers's video here, at 45:27 – 45:46.

Sadly, the most overwhelming moments to support the canonicy of Walterstiltskin were never recorded that I know of, for it was through interaction with Alex as Sir Walter.  At any time in the 2018 season, one could (and my friends and I often did) interact with Sir Walter at length regarding his marriage to Rumpelstiltskin.  It was through such interaction that I learned that Sir Walter canonically split his time between the fae Realm of the Black Forest and the mortal Realm of Mount Hope.

Now, I don't know how familiar you all are with faerie folklore, and it's true that – as with all folklore – there is variation throughout the lore, but it's generally pretty consistent that humans in the fae Realm don't age, particularly when acting as spouse or consort to a faerie.  So it's probable that, at least so long as he is in the fae Realm, Sir Walter does not age. Whether or not he continues aging when in the mortal Realm is up to individual interpretation.  My headcanon so far has been that he does continue to age when in the mortal Realm, and began phasing himself out of the mortal Realm around the time that his peers begin aging and dying off, eventually settling permanently full time in the fae Realm.  This season may change that headcanon, or at least introduce other options, we shall see.  Regardless, there's plenty of canon-sound fae-based explanation for Sir Walter to still be alive and young in the year 1560+.

"But PARF-fan!", I hear you cry.  "Sir Walter canonically died of a heart-attack!  They said as much in the in memorum section of 1558's DisasterCon!" (as can be seen in PARF Performers's video here at 34:05 – 37:19).  And you're correct!  Howe'er, I call your attention to the weekend of DisasterCon: Time-Travelers' Weekend.  Chronology is relative on that weekend.  While I do not deny the fact that Sir Walter eventually dies, that information could have come to them from anywhen, particularly the future.  The distant future.  Given on Time-Travelers' Weekend, this knowledge nullifies nothing.

There are yet some other options, which I run through now.  First, for all we currently know, this could be a descendant of the original Sir Walter, much as I'm theorizing that this season's Diggory Applebottom is a descendant of 2017's Diggory Applebottom.  There is precedent here in the characters of Olivia Charnwood and Yeoman Adam Cringer, both of whom were described in their 2019 character descriptions as the respective grandchildren of the 2018 characters of the same names.

Second, I would be remiss to not call attention to this most excellent theory put forth in the Facebook comments of my character name post by Katie Markey, all hail: “I hear that stress creates minor amounts of electricity. This makes perfect sense, you see, because Sir Walter Rodrick Kensington was an adult in 1518, and has not aged since. It is my theory that the man has promptly had 500 heart attacks only to be brought back with the sheer electric shock of his own stress, and is therefore immortal. I am not taking criticism at this time.”

The lack of ~realism~ of that theory brings me to my final point.  There doesn't have to be an explanation!  Hell, the Lady Mayor hath been here from Elizabethan to Catherinian-Henrecian to Elizabethan again, through several universes and versions of events.  So too have Rip Skeleton and, until recently, Lanky Hemptwister.  We don't need a why in order for it to be believable, any more than we need an explanation as to why a scullerymaid or a painter is a skilled fighter, or why nobody (except Hans) cares a whit that there are actual pyrates running around.  I make it my business to determine the whys of some of these things (not all of them), because I fckn love consistency and continuity, and enjoy fitting all things into a cohesive universe.  But my interpretation of the Faire is not universal, nor would I have it be so.