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Lost & Found / Will Call

Scene Just Inside the Entrance

Disproportionately disproportionate characters

State-of-the-art climate control

King Henry VIII of England

 Second Monarch of the House of Tudor
Michael Samuel Marzella

Portrayed by Miami native Michael Marzella, a 30-year veteran of the Bay Area Renaissance Festival and 9-year veteran of the the Ft. Myers RenFest.  Michael is a king size man at 6’4” and with king sized physique. His distinctive booming bass voice has created voiceover characters for Disney World in rides, announcements & attractions in all four parks, and for the Disney Cruise Line, Universal Studios and Sea World in central Florida. He's done voiceover jobs for Verizon, banks, and a range of stores, services and products. He recently recorded an instructional video for Rolls Royce aircraft engines. He has performed at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival (Tampa Bay) since 1979 and has performed as numerous characters in acting roles.  He had a role on "Full House" with Bob Saget as a lamp seller and once won the Metropolitan Opera auditions for Florida.  Michael was an award-winning writer for The St. Petersburg Times for nearly a decade before moving on to the Renaissance Festival circuit.

Visit his MySpace Page

View his photos

Queen Catherine Parr, King Henry's 6th and final wife,
 & Lady-in-waiting Anne Parr Herbert
Read about Caroline Jett, a.k.a. Queen Catherine
 

Caroline Jett plays Queen Catherine Parr at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival and Queen Elizabeth I at the Michigan Renaissance Festival.  She is a professional actor and member of the Screen Actors Guild, having graduated from the College of Charleston (South Carolina) with a B.A. in Theater. She has over 50 stage credits to her name, including Fiddler on the Roof, Good Woman of Setzuan and Godspell. Jett has appeared in several films including North and South and Phantom of the Ritz; television shows including Swamp Thing and Nickelodeon's Think Fast; and has numerous commercial credits to her name. Caroline has also taught extensively, including dance, acting, theatrical make-up, set design and construction. Her theatrical experience also includes directing and choreography, and she and her husband have written several screen and stage plays.   (From Jobsite Theater Bio)  When she's not acting, Jett publishes a monthly anti-crime newspaper based in Tampa, Florida called The Crusader. Since the paper's founding in 1992, it's helped authorities capture 3,289 fugitives from justice and find 438 missing children. To learn more about it, visit www.usacrusader.com.

HerSpace

Landsknechts were European, most often German, mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, who achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of the European Renaissance.

A mercenary is a soldier who takes part in an armed conflict, who is not a national or a party to the conflict, and is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain.  He is promised, by or on behalf of a party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party.

The term "landsknecht" is from German, Land "land, country" + Knecht "servant", recorded from circa 1480. It was originally intended to indicate soldiers of the lowlands of the Holy Roman Empire as opposed to the Swiss mercenaries.

Fraulein Britta with Wilhelm Eberharrdt (Bill Clark) & Jürgen Dietrich (Jeremey Davis), soldiers of fortune.

Oberst Baron Gerrit von Greyssn
(a.k.a. Devon Sharkey)

Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti and the Icelandic rank ofursti.

Wilhelm Eberhardt teaches Zweihänder combat technique
 (a.k.a. Bill Clark)

Landsknechts were trained in the use of the famous long pikes and used the pike square formations developed by the Swiss.  A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used two-handed and used extensively by infantry. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used by European troops from the early Middle Ages until around 1700, wielded by foot soldiers deployed in close order.           

The majority of Landsknechts would use pikes, but others, meant to provide tactical assistance to the pikemen, used different weapons. An experienced Landsknecht could be designated a Doppelsöldner, and instead of wielding a pike as did more recent recruits, would employ a six to eight foot long halberd or partisan, or, more famously, a Zweihänder, a two-handed sword as long as 6 feet (although it was generally called at the time a Beidhänder rather than a Zweihänder). These great war swords could be used to hack off the heads of enemy pikes; or more likely to knock the pikes aside, creating disorder among the tightly arranged enemy pikemen in order to break through their lines.

Albrecht and Kimberly, a playtron.

Three of ten Fraulein Basket Weavers
Grizelda, Mildred & Britta weave 15th Century German-style baskets.

Fraulein Britta, a.k.a. Samantha Turner-Richardson

Albrecht on his private perch a.k.a. Ken Mortimer

Hauptmann Fritz, Wilhelm, Frauleins Grizelda Weinzaffel & Fygen Wunderlich

Oberst Garrit von Greyssn and Fraulein Grizelda with a fine variety of traditional German foods

Fraulein Grizelda Weinzaffel, a.k.a. Libby
Visit her MySpace site

Theobold Hochstetter (Ted Dwyer) gives intense combat instruction to a young landsknecht wannabe.

Fechtschule - Fencing School

Korbflechten - Basketry