Mountebank Stage *a stagemanagers story*

Mountebank Stage Agoura

Across from the old Kelt camp, over the tiny rise from The Teahouse and nestled neatly between Traders Market and Witches Wood my stage tended to suffer from having no real hang-out area...until I took over that is. The underside of the stage was raised up in back due to the dual story levels...moist helpful for magicians and story shows. It was my first "real" stage of my own since "The Maypole Common", which had beenmine the year earlier was really just a big dirt circle of haybales pushed up against a fence (they decided to remove the "in the round" theatre from that stage that year...very challenging).

Jonnathon helped me put in a hootch bed underneath, and we created a division so that there was place for musicians and actors to stash their personals, plus a private nap bed, plus...plus...

Generally there were a lot of performers moving in and out of the Back stage area all day, I had about two-hundred people to shepherd all day through the knotty hoops of performing before an audience that was at times rather flaccid from the heat, overwhelmed by the stimulation and just plain wasted. Thye high number was due to the several dance groups, and to James Hendrixs Madrigal group in large part. The Fools Were kept upstairs, in general we made an agreement with the crew that if they would limit themselves between the tsage, the coffee-house and the privies they would be left alone. Good times.