Introducing:
Francis Flute!
What role do you represent in the Mechanicals?
The unfettered mind of
random merriment. I know not the meaning of restraint, though Nick Bottom doth
often take great pains to spell it out for me. Just last week, as
the Lord Governor's guard were dragging me to a command performance
before His Lordship...
What is your
occupation away from the Mechanicals?
I be a bellows mender, a true innovator of the
trade. I have pioneered the one minute bellows repair.
I also be the inventor of the human bellows,
patented and sold to Sir Francis Drake over several pints one evening at the
Boar's Head Inn.
Who inspires
your performances?
Not so much who, as what. I have these visions of the Queen's ankles. Each and every performance I dedicate to the glory, the perfect form, to the curvaceous sensuality of Her Majesty's ankles.
The Man Behind
the Madness:
Richard Mooney
How did you get involved with the Mechanicals?
I had successfully auditioned for PARF for the 2000 and 2001 seasons, being cast as a Yeoman, and then as a noble on the Queen's court, but for 2002 I wanted to audition in a way I hadn't heard that anyone had ever tried before for PARF. That I was cast as Francis Flute as a result was purely serendipitous. I then convinced that year's Blackfryar director that he should also cast the rest of the "Rude Mechanicals" from Shakespeare's Midsummer. The group of us then worked with determination to make our version of those characters, christened The Mad Mechanicals, a memorable roving band of street players, with our wacky interpretations of Shakespeare's plays.
What kind of performance background do you have?
A long time ago, in a lifetime far
far away, there was the usual involvement with a
few high school productions. That was followed by a year as a
theatre major in college and performances in A Midsummer Night's Dream as
Peter Quince, a member of the rabble in Man of La Mancha,
and as Peyton Farquhar in a one act performance of
Occurrence at
I returned home to
And then I let all of that go for
about 25 years or so, until one day in 1988, when I ventured to the
Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I so enjoyed the energy of the cast's
interactive street theatre from that first visit, that
I found myself returning again and again over the years.
Finally, after years of being
urged to audition by friends I had made in the cast, I took the plunge and
returned to the stage. Only this time the stage was a street, and I've been
at it every year since 2000, playing Francis Flute and performing as a member
of The Mad Mechanicals since their inception in 2002.
Whose comedy inspires you the most?
Robin Williams, Gallagher, The Three Stooges, Bugs Bunny and almost any old Warner Brothers cartoon, and three men who inspired me to "kill all the nuns" during my initial years at the PA Ren Faire; Tom Roy, Joel Kabik, and John Williams.
How long have you been a Mechanical?
Since their inception for the 2002 season at the PA Ren Faire. I'm one of the original two still at it, the other being
Jill Wentzel.
What is your favorite Mechanical Memory?
It was during the 2003 season at the Pennsylvania
Renaissance Faire. At that time The Mechanicals were only comprised of
four players, all of us holdovers from our initial season in 2002. It was
a very rainy, chilly day in late September. As a
result, attendance that day at Faire was quite low.
The Mechanicals gathered in our usual performance space at the
time we were scheduled to put on Romeo and Juliet, but there was no foot
traffic to speak of to hawk our show to. However, there were
two people, a woman and her teenage son, sitting at one of the picnic
tables in our performance area.
We approached their table, chatted with them for a few moments, and
then asked them if they would like to see a performance of Romeo that we'd
do just for them at their table. They were soaked through, we were soaked
through, and though the hard rain had let up, it was still drizzling. To
our surprise they agreed to sit and watch.
The four of us quickly agreed that it wasn't a day to drag out props,
so we surrounded the table, and sans our physical props, using
improvisational skills only to showcase imaginary props, we put on, what
to this day for me, was one of the best performances of our Romeo that The
Mechanicals have ever done. And mom and son laughed, clapped, and were
incredibly enthusiastic during and after the show.
Moments like that? That's why I'm still at it.
Updated 6-14-08