A Lawrence musician becomes Lady Pamela each year at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.
Visitors this weekend at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival will enter a carnival version of yesteryear's Elizabethan time period.
Royalty and ladies-in-waiting will hold court, knights will joust, artisans and craftsmen will hawk their wares, and several musicians will provide songs contemporaneous to the 1600s.
Lawrence musician Pamela Bruner will be there, but looking and sounding a wee bit different than area music lovers are accustomed to seeing her.
Wearing a billowy blouse and spouting a thick Scottish-Irish accent, Bruner makes herself over into Lady Pamela, a ne'er-do-well harpist who performs throughout the day under a cove of shade trees at Westover Way in the village.
This is Bruner's sixth year of performing at the Bonner Springs festival, and for her it's all about having fun with history.
"To my mind the Renaissance Festival is about having fun. It's not carried to an extreme that makes you uncomfortable. It's more like a theme park," she said.
From now through mid-October, each weekend will provide a different cultural adventure. The theme this year is loosely based on William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and depending on when visitors attend, they can experience reenactments focusing on vintage Italy, the Scottish Highlands and Middle Eastern escapades. France and Spain also get a turn at the festival.
The festival opens this weekend with an "Irish Blarney" theme and concludes in October with its usual Oktoberfest celebration.
Bruner is among scores of performers who entertain each weekend, and she puts a lot of time and effort into her shows. To ready herself for the event, she must first sacrifice other weekend performances. Then she works on the selection, arrangement and composition of the material.
Not all of the material is from the 1600s -- Bruner said she gets a lot of requests for tunes like "Danny Boy." She also will perform many original selections.
"The songs I write are about fairies, dragons and mystery, things that contribute to the atmosphere," she said.
On location she becomes Lady Pamela, and
Bruner describes Lady Pamela as somewhat well-to-do for a musician.
"That means I'm lower-middle class," she said with a laugh.
Lady Pamela is a character sometimes favored by nobles, Bruner said. Her music leans toward high-brow, and she aims to play for a family audience.
Bruner will play throughout the day, giving a half-dozen performances. She also plays in the pedestrian lane, and she'll conduct demonstrations for the kids.
For Bruner, the hours can be exhausting.
"Musicians can't believe I play seven hours per day," she said. "To stand in the heat and perform and play and sing is quite grueling."
Bruner does it for several reasons. She enjoys the challenge of trying to compose music that will work at either a Renaissance festival or at a contemporary folk concert. But mostly she does it because she loves performing for crowds.
"I love playing in a close, intimate setting, interacting with people," Bruner said. "I love seeing how the kids' eyes light up when I tell them about the harp."
-- The Mag's phone message number is 832-7146. Send e-mail to jbiles@ljworld.com.
Visit the Renaissance Festival's Web Site for more information.
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