So, five years ago, there was a young man. Fresh out of college. He was a geek, and he was only just realizing this. It wasn't that he didn't know he was a geek, it was that he didn't have a proper outlet growing up. He was a ghost in school, he showed up and did his work (or sometimes didn't, if it bored him) and then went home. He went home and he wrote and so on and so forth. Then he went to college, and eventually his roommate got him involved with the theater program. And this was one of the first times he was surrounded by a group of people who he could talk to without feeling so different. And even when things were awkward, they celebrated it.
When he graduated and came back home, he realized that he didn't have that outlet any more. He was back to being alone, but he'd made friends and contacts online over the years, including the fan forums for author Jim Butcher. On the site were some of Jim's Beta Readers, Priscilla, Richard and his wife Sue. They met, and they got along, and they hung out. And once again the young man felt connected, and felt like the things in his head made more sense. With them, he went to his first New York Comic Con in February of 2009, and that was when his life changed again.
One of the scheduled performers was a group called "New York Jedi", a fan group that specialized in fight choreography using lightsabers. The walls of fandom bled with them as Jedi and Sith came from the usual places like Corellia, Coruscant, Tattooine or Hoth, but worlds like Krypton, Gallifrey, Arrakis, and worlds that only existed in the minds of the people in the group. I saw fights that showed off martial prowess, comedic timing, and a flare for the theatrical.
I was in love. Between the theater experience in college and years of martial experience, I wanted to do this, to tap into something and express myself after years of just...existing.
I should point out that this wasn't a Larp. Larps are acting and scenes for the benefit of each other as audience. This was theater, we had traditional audiences. But there was a level of roleplay involved. We made our characters, some of us from wholecloth, we added them to written or acted out scenes and we built on them from one another, evolving our characters and sometimes changing their costumes from those scenes.
So creativity, martial activity, and the chance to perform in front of other geeks. Exited, I did what you'd expect me to do: I blogged about it. I know! Shock! Except my site of choice was Livejournal back when it was the only thing around. I blogged about the fights, and two in particular. Then one night after the con, I got a message from one of the members of the club whose fight I commented on. The next night, I got an IM from her fight partner. They found me through my blog and invited me to come to a class with them.
Incidentally, these two were my friends Brandon and Jenna Hughes, both of whom would follow me to Requiem eventually. Brandon is our current VST there, and Jenna is playing the Prince of New York.
But before that, there was just the invitation, and I was tempted.
So on February 19th, 2009, I went to my first class. It was taught by Maria, also known as Azure Dragon. She taught us beginning attack patterns, how to chain them and make them look like a fight. She then taught us one of the Seven Forms of Lightsaber Combat, a martial art that was mentioned in the star wars books and that one of their members had created. It was a legitimate, honest to god sword form, added with the mystique that this was something from the world we were playing in (or at least based on).
But I remember going to that class, nervous to the point of being sick. Anxiety. What the hell was I doing there? Playing make believe with glowing sticks and funny costumes. What if I fucked up? What if they laughed, what if I wasn't good enough.
But they were welcoming, and they were cool and I became an active member. My lightsaber was in the mail that week, and what would become my first PC was being created.
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| "I may have started that riot...may have" |
Rave was a Jedi Shadow, part of the Jedi Order that served as an internal police force against Jedi who join the Dark Side. They were internal affairs, they were the KGB. They were from the novels of books around star wars that never saw the light of day in the movies. Rave grew disgusted with the order, not for the constant suspicion of each other, but because his office existed in the first place. He could not reconcile his station and the will of the Jedi. So he left the Order, and worked on his own. He was still a member of the Light, he just was not a Jedi. He fought old comrades, made new ones, and even held unsteady truces with the Sith, even taking one as a friend and another as a lover. He fought monsters, all the while dealing with the secrets of his own life.
During that time, I began writing. I began writing Rave's story, I began writing stories featuring other characters. I began writing in chapters, and novels and my writing began to get better with every chapter, to the point where you could see the difference just by reading it. And then I began writing for the group. I wrote one play, Poker Night, set around a Sith bar with them telling stories about their clashes with Jedi. It premiered on December 5th, 2009 to a packed house. I've written two other such shows with another still in development as a dream gig.
Most impressively, I wrote about the Seven Forms of Lightsaber Combat. A document that discussed how to develop the fictional martial arts for lightsabers into real styles, as I had learned from the form I was taught. Currently, that paper has spread around the various clubs and enclaves, and fans. It has been in the hands of Nick Gillard, who choreographed the fights for the prequels. I have received emails thanking me for writing it, and telling me they joined the community because of the paper. I have become something of an authority in this community. God save them all.
So how does this lead to larping?
During my time there, several of my friends introduced me to the concept of live action role play. It was a more serious take on an aspect we did for Jedi. I mentioned I was interested, wanting to explore more character work and more story ideas. So, like an true geek lineage, I was given the entire pdf Library of Vampire the Requiem. From there I began researching the role I wanted, the character. Vincenzo Taglia of the Ordo Dracul came into being. And I've thrown myself as much into this field as I have the other. And I was still a nervous wreck walking in, wondering what happened if I fucked up, what the hell was I doing there. Meanwhile I've learned more about reaction, performance, staying in character, improvisation than what most people get. Some people talk about these things from a theoretical sense, Larping is all about the practical.
Things have come full circle, as I am now in the beginning stages of preparing a freeform Star Wars larp with several of my friends and colleagues. I'd made Star Wars a source of research that I'm helping to translate that information to the needs of the game. It's an interesting process and one that I hope we can get off the ground.
I am also cast to play MacDuff in a Star Wars inspired rendition of MacBeth. It's directed by my friend Melissa Koval, a member of New York Jedi (now New York Lightsaber Academy). It's fight captain is by fight choreography veteran TJ Glenn and is cast by the members of New York Jedi. Proceeds will go to Concourse House. It's interesting in that I've taken the experience of the past five years, both in Jedi and in Larping, and have put it into a performance.
In the end, the past five years have been an odd roller coaster. Through New York Jedi, I learned to embrace my inner geek, to embrace the part of me that enjoys to create and enjoys to share in that creation in a communal setting. Because of them I have seen and done things that few would ever admit, because of them I have met people I am glad to call friends. Few of whom I accept as family. Because of them I am in this subculture of larping, like a gateway drug it lead me here. Because of the club, I actually learned to accept a lot about myself and strive to do more.
And I wish to do more.
Thank you all for letting me in on the madness.
Later.
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| "Long Live the Fighters" |
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