Widener to Host Renaissance Fair Sunday

Widener Celebrates the Bard’s 450^th, Renaissance Style on Sunday

In celebration of William Shakespeare’s 450^th birthday, Widener University’s Lone Brick Theatre Company hosts the campus’s First Annual Renaissance Festival on Sunday, April 27. The festival runs 2-6 p.m. on Widener’s Main Campus in Chester on Memorial Field and in Alumni Auditorium.

Bringing together the creative talents of more than 60 students and faculty members, the festival blends entertainment and education through performance, sports, food and crafts.  Among the events are:

The Calcio Fiorentino Tournament in which teams of students compete throughout the festival in a Renaissance precursor to modern football, soccer and rugby.

 “Skewered!” an interactive fencing demonstration in which Dr. Annalisa Castaldo, associate professor of English, touches on the duel and its role in the Renaissance.

Fair Ophelia’s where visitors can discover the meanings of the maid’s flowers and make floral head wreaths of their own (jumping in the water afterward is optional).

 New World Drums where visitors can sate their appetite for America’s greatest contribution to Renaissance Festivals: the turkey leg.

Instrumental in the process of organizing the festival has been the Festival Planning Committee comprised of Widener students.  Robert Reutter, director of Lone Brick Theatre and senior lecturer of English, molded his PRWR215: Effective Communication in the Digital Age course into this committee and tasked his students with various components of the preparation applying theoretical coursework to real-world application.

“It is my hope that festivals like these will help not only Widener come together but Chester come together as a community. If we can rally together and support one another, only good things can follow,” said Michele Hanley, a member of the Festival Planning Committee and sophomore at Widener.

Entrance to the event is free, and the festival is open to the public. Some individual attractions, food and activities carry fees.

For more information or to contact Lone Brick Theatre regarding participation in the event, e-mail Reutter at rareutter@mail.widener.edu or visit https://www.facebook.com/lonebricktheatrecoA hilarious, provocative, and poignant look at a modern family and an epidemic dilemma: Are we so tuned into our 24/7 info-rich world that we've tuned out what really matters?.