There's a lot of things that go into writing a script for a Renaissance Faire, and if you've never written a script for a stage show before, it can be a lot. And a Renaissance Faire is even more specific. Here's the guidelines for what we need to write a script for our faire:

10-12 Characters Maximum

-6 Scenes

-Scene 1 occurs at the front gate at the opening of faire, usually no more than 3-4 Minutes
This scene is meant to create a teaser for the story to come and open the gates to the faire officially, usually introduces anywhere between 3 to 5 of the characters involved in the script.

-Scene 2 occurs on the Field of Honor, 10-15 minutes
This scene introduces the premise, all of the players (or most of them, depending upon the script itself) and welcomes everybody to the Midsummer festival.

- Scene 3, 4, and 5 take place throughout the other three stages on field, This is where you flesh out the story and characters and lead it to the climax of Scene 6. Each scene is 10- 15 minutes.

-Scene 6 is the grand melee. This will be the conclusion of the story that will have one side fighting the other side for some reason, which which after the fight is over, the story will wrap up and all loose ends are tied up.

Other notes on the style of story:

This is a Renaissance Faire, not an Arthur Miller play. It is okay to have texture in your story, but we have to keep it light and accessible to the audience. Good guys win and bad guys lose, mostly.

Also, through whatever method you use, the audience must be able to walk in on any scene of the script and know what happened in the scenes before it. This is because the fair audiences come in at all different times of the day, and if they feel too lost with what's going on, they won't stick around.

Do not create a ton of backstory that an audience will have to read somewhere else to know what's going on. You have to accept that a majority of the people who see the show are what is called "a casual audience". It is akin to someone flipping through channels and stopping on your episode of this show, probably in the middle of the episode.

Here's, however where the delicate balance comes in. We do connect the scripts from the previous years, we will include all of the previous year scripts in a PDF format so you can read through it, understand the Canon of the faire, and we'll create a story Bible that you can use as a reference when writing your script. (Story Bible to come...)

Stage combat (outside of the melee) and special effects can be written into the scenes, but know that we are a Renaissance Faire and space, time, and money, are limited. Combat within scenes should be very short and, with the exception of scenes to take place on the field of honor, are in close quarters. If you have a special effect that you'd like to include in the script, please include an idea for how you think that would happen practically.

The final version of your script, will most certainly not be the final version of your script. If it is chosen to be the script for the faire, it will be combed over by the script director, Keith Fiermonte, and the artistic director of the faire, Daniel GreenWolf. If a script is chosen or not chosen, and then once it is chosen, if it is rewritten, do not take it personally. The script and any characters within it will become the property of Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire and Found Artifact Entertainment, LLC.

The writer whose script is chosen will be paid a stipend of $300. We are but a small faire and can't afford much, but we want to pay people for their creative work.

The deadline is November 1st, and they can be sent as a PDF or Google doc format to:

performers@foundartifactent.com

with the subject headline "2024 Script Submission"

Thank you so much for your time and we look forward to your submissions.

(All Past Scripts and Characters are the property of the Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire and Found Artifact Entertainment, LLC and may not be reproduced or used in any way without the express permission of MFRF or FAE.)