Wizards, fairies and bards will drift between the stocks, tavern and stage in Norfolk’s NEON District during the Dragon Faire, Saturday and Sunday.
Push Comedy Theater runs the free event, which will sprawl across Push, the Plot and The Hugh Copeland Center, and people are encouraged to dress in Renaissance costumes, trade trinkets, play games and explore the vendor market.
The festival is Dungeons & Dragons-themed, but Push’s co-owner Sean Devereux said people who have never played D&D come to enjoy the spectacle, which includes live entertainment and free workshops.
“There's a very whimsical, magical nature to ren-faires that could be really great escapism,” he said. “Seeing a person walking down Granby Street in chain mail armor is definitely a sight to behold, right?”
The idea for Dragon Faire began shortly after the COVID quarantine, when Devereux and Push’s other co-owner, Brad McMurran, invited their Zoom D&D group to start playing at the theater.
“My wife told me that I could either play Dungeons & Dragons or I could do the theater, but I couldn't do both,” Devereux said. “So we created a Dungeons & Dragons show.”
The show, “Pushing Dragons,” acts out a D&D game with costumes, giant dice and audience participation. Each storyline, or campaign, meets monthly for 18 months. Devereux said the show consistently sells out.
Dragon Faire expands on that success, but success doesn’t mean profit for the partners. Renaissance fairs can charge between $20 and $40, which can get expensive when inviting friends or bringing children. But Devereux said they’ve never considered charging.
“We are horrible businessmen,” he said, “but we know how to throw a good party.”
Like with improv, Devereux said, the participation of the group brings fresh ideas, humor and energy — and that’s the magic.
Sydney Plackett is one of the faire’s volunteers and performers. She coordinates vendors and her production company, You Are Here, helps curate the acts.
She said many participants go all-out with costumes and role-playing, but people often just stumble upon the event in their street clothes. Either way, the performers and actors wandering around play along and maybe even give a stranger a special quest that leads to a discovery.
“You're entertained by the improv that we do, but we're also taking characters that you see on the stage and bringing them off the stage so you can interact with them.”
The faire will have costume workshops, a Maryland-based D&D rock band, Bard City, which plays mandolins, flutes and harps, science teachers demonstrating experiments as “magic” and a nonprofit that gives away books.
“As we get older, we kind of become more jaded,” Devereux said. Improv, role-play and fantasy, however, “bring us back to a time when we were kids, when make-believe was just something fun and exciting to do.”
Play is fun, but it’s also a vehicle to learn. He said most people who take improv classes at Push aren’t looking to become comedians. They're marketing students or corporate professionals who want to learn how to think quicker on their feet, engage people and collaborate effectively in conversation.
“It's all about just staying in the moment, listening to the person that you're having a conversation with, not thinking about what you're going to say next,” Devereux said.
“It's just a really wonderful, magical community,” he said. “The sky's the limit to whatever your imagination can conjure up.”
The Plot, 776 Granby, St., Norfolk. The event runs 10 a.m. -5 p.m. each day. Visit pushingdragons.com for more information.