King Richard's Faire hiring 'ye olde villagers.' These actors think they have what it takes

PROVIDENCE − Armed with a ukulele, wearing a burgundy vest and sporting a voluminous white beard, Dan Gagnon strummed and stomped and tried to elicit a response from the five people sitting at a table in front of him as he sang of what one does when confronted with a drunken sailor, especially in the early morning.

Gagnon, 63, of Coventry, said he was a little rusty, as he tried to remember the exact melody. In his other line of performance, it's less about the singing and more about being jolly: He's one of the Santas at Garden City Center.

"With Santa, you can't talk about drunken sailors," he said.

Gagnon, strumming the ukulele he recently learned how to play, did remember enough to sing about shaving bellies with rusted razors and shoving drunks into longboats.

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Gagnon was one of 14 performers who showed up on Saturday and Sunday at the black box theater at AS220 downtown to audition for King Richard's Faire in Carver, Massachusetts.

With his big white beard, Gagnon, who is preparing to sell his telephone service company so he can retire, said he is on the waiting list for a beginner's acting class at Trinity Repertory Company and is going to a Santa school this year. Despite his memory lapse, he said he thought his first-ever audition went pretty well.

"I love making people smile," he said.

For Gagnon, the fair's villagers program offers exactly what he is looking for with classes, seminars and lessons in acting, singing and stage combat.

Range of performers came out for the auditions

While it was Gagnon's first time auditioning, for Richie Oliver, 26, of Lakeville, Massachusetts, it was an easy lift, as he already has a background in music and theater. He is even performing in a New Bedford production of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."

Armed with a guitar, Oliver played the Irish song "The Wild Rover" before putting the instrument away and letting his voice, and his stomping feet, carry the sea shanty, "A Drop of Nelson's Blood," which refers to the pickling of Admiral Horatio Nelson in brandy.

A cannabis marketer by trade, Oliver said his background is in improvisational music and his dream job at the fair would be a wandering minstrel, serenading guests or asking for suggestions and using them to come up with an original tune on the spot.

David Evans, 29, of Warwick, came into the auditions underselling his singing ability, giving a dour rendition of happy birthday, and playing up his improvisation and voice acting, answering questions as Cookie Monster's cousin, Veggie Monster.

Evans touted his experience as a dungeon master, leading a group of role-players through a fantasy world, as well as his belly laughs, cackling laughs and bellowing laughs, before demonstrating his favorite walks (a hunch and a confident, chest-out march).

Evans said he would like to learn more about stage combat and, on demand, safely fell to the ground as if slain, before asking how he did.

"You did what we asked with confidence," Villagers Program Co-Director Dan Reed said.

Confidence is 90% of the job of being a villager, he said.

Auditions tapes accepted until May 15

King Richard's Faire is accepting audition tapes until May 15, for both its entertainers program and its villagers program. The fair this year will run from Sept. 2 through Oct. 22

The villagers program does not pay, but it promises to be a training ground for actors, offering workshops, seminars and lessons in singing and stage combat.

Professional musicians and entertainers are also being hired and are also asked to send in audition tapes to info@kingrichardsfaire.net.

Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Islanders answer casting call for King Richard's Faire