Cabarrus players bring fun, smiles to Renaissance Festival

Captain Wayne Williams had to leave his pirate days behind, knowing all too well the authorities were gunning for him and his crew. With things too hot on the high seas, he came inland, into the forest and into the Village of Fairhaven.

“Because who’s going to look for a pirate in the middle of a forest?” Capt. Williams asked.

That bit of logic comes from the man behind the person of Capt. Williams, 37-year-old Matt McDowell. Formerly of Kannapolis, McDowell now lives in Salisbury - when he is not busy living the pirate life of course.

McDowell created the character of Capt. Williams for the Carolina Renaissance Festival, which is celebrating its 18th year. The festival, which takes place in the fictional land of the Village of Fairhaven has more than 500 costumed characters and entertainment, including jousting and merchants. More than 25,000 people visited on opening weekend.

During one recent Sunday, Capt. Williams and the rest of the inhabitants of Fairhaven stood outside the village walls waiting to greet patrons.

“Sir, could you give us a hand?” Williams shouted to a passerby.

Before long, 35-year-old Tony Dutra was caught up in one of the little gags Williams performs. Williams asked Dutra to hold out his arms. He then placed a board across Dutra’s outstretched arms. Williams stacked his mug and drinking gear on the board and turned Dutra into a makeshift bar.

“They won’t even build us a proper pub out here,” Williams growled with a smile.

It’s a silly little gag, but it made Dutra laugh.

“If I could live this for real, I would,” Dutra said. “I just love the whole era. It just seems like a simpler life.”

McDowell was quick to agree.

“I think it’s really a great escape, especially for the ones who come out in costume who we call ‘playtrons,’” McDowell said. “They build relationships with the street characters, the stage acts. It’s just the same as it’s a way for me to relieve my stress during the week. It’s a really great escape for them.”

In the past two years, McDowell has been laid off from two different jobs because of the housing market slump. The Renaissance Festival is a break from the stress.

“I can spend the five days searching and stressing about not having a job,” McDowell said. “But when I go out there, nobody cares… Basically we get to go out there, dress in funny clothes and be kids again. It’s great.”

He used to simply visit the festival, but now is a cast member with his crew from the music and comedy group, Irish Rogues for Hire. McDowell himself started off as a “playtron” attending the festival more than 15 years ago.

He and some friends made the jump from “playtron” to cast members, after encouragement from one of the festival members, Bret Blackshear.

McDowell eventually made the jump to cast member, forming the Irish Rogues for Hire with Scott Leeper, who is known as Masters Mate Wallace Kerr and Mason Cress, who plays Bosun Tamalain.

Outside the gates of Fairhaven, the group was looking for a bit of fun, always quick to try and get a laugh out of patrons.

BEWARE THE PUPPETT MASTER

Drew Nowlin, 33, of Pineville, is better known to the people of Fairhaven as the Almost Great Gadolpho.

Outside the gates of Fairhaven, the Almost Great Gadolpho stood in full Renaissance regalia. But topped off on his hand was a “Punch” puppet, from the classic “Punch and Judy” series.

“We’re going to welcome you in true ‘Punch and Judy’ fashion,” Gadolpho shouted, as he chased after 10-year-old Trinity Dutra of Mooresville, who giggled the whole time she fled from the mad puppet man.

“I just love doing this because it’s really fun,” Dutra said. “Because I can be in my own world… I kind of like that because it’s just fun to be chased by a puppet man when you like puppets.”

But it’s the man behind the Gadolpho who has created a winning performance. Drew Nowlin has been involved in puppet work since he was a child. He used to visit a puppet group that performed in Charlotte.

“They inspired me so much with their one man shows, how much they could do and how wonderful their puppets could come alive from lifelessness,” he said.

The visits lead him to making puppets and he found himself making the plant monster, “Audrey II” during his senior year of high school when they performed, “Little Shop of Horrors.”

After studying puppetry at UNC Charlotte he established himself in local theatre groups, providing work in Davison, Charlotte, Rock Hill and other areas.

Nowlin is also a juggler, a stilt walker, a mime, a clown, a balloon sculptor and a fire manipulator.

“I just try to get into everything I possibly can so I can be as versatile as possible so if a job comes along I can say, ‘Yeah, I can do that,’” Dowlin said. “Jack of all trades, right here.”

And his puppet work comes in quite handy with the Renaissance Festival crowd.

Nowlin created a dragon puppet, with green fabric wings that flap up and down and a working jaw. Below the jaw is a shield that asks for “greens” to be fed to it, in the form of tips.

Three-year-old Mallory Sims, of Kings Mountain, tucked a bit of “green” into the dragon’s mouth and smiled up at the dragon puppet that was harnessed around Nowlin’s shoulders.

Nowlin then bent down, allowing the dragon to “kiss” Mallory on her forehead.

“A dragon kiss is a lucky thing,” he told her. “For you are lucky to walk away with your head.”

THAT GYPSY AIN’T NO LADY

In another part of Fairhaven, Mistress Couture, dressed in a regal Italian-style Renaissance dress, and sat for a picnic, eating apple slices and cheese with the Gypsy Violet.

“Take a small sip and do not gulp,” Mistress Couture snapped, trying to teach the gypsy how to drink like a lady. “We should not hear you slurping.

“The gypsy is getting lady lessons. It is quite the challenge. I’m beginning to believe it’s a lost cause.”

The Gypsy Violet scoffed.

“Like I could be trained like a bear,” she said. “Bear training is easy. Gypsy training is hard.”

Mistress Couture nodded in agreement.

To the villagers of Fairhaven, she is Mistress Couture, but to people of Cabarrus County, she is Carol Salloum, 49, of Harrisburg.

Salloum has been a part of the Renaissance Festival for about five years now. And unlike some of the cast, she makes all of her own costumes.

She’s been sewing since she was a little girl, receiving scraps of clothing from her mother she used to make dresses for her dolls. Now, as an adult, she uses those skills to make eloquent dresses, many of her cast mates recognize.

“It’s the joy of creating something and it’s something nobody else has,” Salloum said.

She’s made about eight different outfits over the years, Salloum said.

“I have plenty of costumes,” she said. “When the family comes to visit, we all go in costume.”

And she is sure to make plenty more. She buys fabric whenever it is on sale and always stocks up to be ready for the next project.

“Anybody else would call what we have a four bedroom house,” Salloum said. “Ours is a three bedroom house with a sewing room. My husband refers to my sewing as the kudzu because it creeps out of its room all around the rest of the house.”

Salloum said the dresses she makes are relatively inexpensive, as far as materials. She had less than $100 in materials for the Italian dress she wore at the festival. But the time required to make a dress is a different issue.

One outfit can take anywhere from two to five months to complete, she said. And each one is original, which is why she created the character name of Mistress Couture. Mistress is a term of respect during the Renaissance era, and couture is French for unique. A fitting name for Salloum’s character since her dress are indeed unique.

And that unique nature is something Salloum is proud of as she and other members of the Renaissance Festival strive to create a unique world.

“When you walk through that gate you’re suspending disbelief and you are imagining you are elsewhere in a different time and place,” she said. “And the people in the cast, our job is to help you enhance that experience, and it is fun.”