HOT off the presses, here are the dates for auditions and rehearsals for VARF this year. If you ever thought about being on cast, here is your chance! I'll include the specifics later once I get them.

Auditions

Febrary 9
10-4
Main Branch Library - Theatre Room

February 16
12-5
Main Branch Library - Meeting Room 2 and Cabel Room

February 17
1-5
Main Branch Library - Theatre Room

Cast Meetings

New Cast
February 23
9-5
Louisa Library

Returning Cast
February 24
1-5
Louisa Library

Rehearsals

Rehearsal times will be announced later

March 1-2
Louisa Library

March 8-9
TBD

April 19-20
Lake Anna Winery

May 3-4
Lake Anna Winery

May 10-11 (Dress Rehearsal)
Lake Anna Winery

Show

All at Lake Anna Winery

May 17-18
May 24-26
May 31 - June 1
June 7-8
June 14-15

Locations

Main Branch Library
1201 Caroline Street
Fredericksburg, VA

Louisa Library
881 Davis Highway
Mineral, VA

Lake Anna Winery
5621 Courthouse Road
Spotsylvania, VA

Taken directly from the VARF website.

On behalf of the all-volunteer cast and crew of the Virginia Renaissance Faire, I would like to thank YOU, our patrons, for making 2007 our most successful season yet. Your enthusiastic participation, generosity and passion for fine educational entertainment make our job the most rewarding on earth. We appreciate your continued promotion and patronage which allows us to grow and expand each year.

Along with our faire family, our loyal patrons are our ambassadors to the public. As such, your observations and ideas are vitally important to us. I personally invite you to share your comments about your visit and suggestions for how we can make your faire day even more enjoyable. You can send your thoughts via email to OOTW@VirginiaRen.info or by mail to Out of the Woodwork Productions, 5436 Lomax Way , Woodbridge , VA 22193-3559.

Once again, thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you again in the spring. We're all excited about next season and have big plans underway. There's no doubt that the 2008 Virginia Renaissance Faire will be the biggest and best yet.

Cornelia Miller Rutherford, President & CEO

Out of the Woodwork Productions

2008 Schedule

May 17, 18

May 24, 25, 26

May 31, June 1

June 7, 8

June 14, 15

Location: Lake Anna Winery
5621 Courthouse Road
Spotsylvania, VA

Man, I had intended on keeping this up to date every weekend but it just wasn't possible.  Oh well.  Well VARF is done for the season *sniff*.  We had a fantastic year however.  Our numbers were way up this year as we had a 20% increase in patrons!  Thank you one and all for coming out and supporting us!  Thank you one and all!  I hope everyone enjoyed the faire as much as we enjoyed putting it on!

Well what big things happened this final weekend?  Well we had a gathering of the Clan M'Crack, an invasion by the Friends of Maryland Renaissance Faire, rat pucking, Pyrates Royale, the Nickel Shakespeare Girls were back, we also had an invasion of people from Renaissance Feastival board and it was Pirate Weekend!  We even had King Henry VIII from MDRF show up incognito to check us out!  What a great weekend we had!

On Sunday the nobels got a real surprise when the Queen knighted us all and presented her tokens to us!  There wasn't a dry eye in the house or as our Yoeman puts it, everyone's eyes were sweating.  It was very emotional as it was the end of the season and we all trully do love our Queen.  It didn't help that she was having a hard time keeping it together either.

After the gates closed on Sunday, we broke down the entire site and packed up everything for next year.  A bunch of then went up the road to Hubbub's Restaurant and did kareoke and sang songs with Hither, Dither and Yon and Son of Strumm until late that night.  We then all parted and went our separate ways.  We will see each other at other faires but we won't be back together again as a cast until next year, which is sad.

Man I'm late on getting this posted!  Been a short and crazy week!  Well lets see.  First it was a VERY hot and humid weekend!  As a result, we had a lot of cast members go down throughout the weekend but all are just fine now thankfully.  This was a 3 day weekend and we had a LOT of entertainment from some great groups!  We had Captain Fletcher Moone of the Pyrates Royale, Hither, Dither and Yon, In Our Cups, Nickle Shakespear Girls, Master Will Paisley, Neid Fyre, and many others that I can't remember right now. 

As with the previous week, and every Saturday until the end of faire, everyone got busy early in the morning getting all the guild areas setup and prepared for the day. We then had cast call at 9 followed by fight call for those of us involved in fights.  Then we got dressed and ready for the day.  Saturday and Sunday were SUPER hot and muggy!  It was a tough few days but OH so much fun!  I was the keeper of the Queen's treasure chest which has plastic rings, coins and necklaces in it that the Queen as children take one out of it after they have visited with her.  So I got to help make a lot of children happy. :-D  The days just flew by and everything worked out very well from what I could tell.  With weather being so hot we had to make adjustments to the Gentleman Pensioners, Maid of Honour and Queen Enterouge schedules changing them from 1 hour to 1/2 hour and rotating people through so that they don't get overheated.  Thankfully 1/2 the faire is in the trees but the other half has come to be known as the Sarenghetti!!!!! And the Rose Stage on the field has be renamed to the "Frying Pan".  LOL!!!!!

Monday started out just fine although maybe just slightly hotter than Saturday and Sunday but a little less humid.  At 3 we had a ceremony to recognize those that have served and those that made the ultimate sacrifice.  It was a very touching ceremony and we had a D-Day vet there that was absolutely pleased that we did that ceremony and wasn't shy about telling anyone who would listen.  Then around 4 the weather turned ugly and a HUGE storm started to move into the area.  Predictions where for hale, high winds, rain, lightening and potential for tornados.  At 4:40 when we were seeing lightening strikes about every 15 seconds, the choice was made to close the faire early for safety reasons.  Given what we were seeing and hearing on the radio, it was the right but tough choice to make.  What wound up happening is the storm when south of us and we just got a bunch of rain and some lightening but the main part of the storm could have just as easily slammed right into us.  As a result, we got home about the time we would have been leaving so that worked out well.