The Washer Well Wenches can be seen at the Salisbury Faire, Waterloo Days Ren Faire, Renaissance Faire of the Midlands, Iowa Renaissance Festival & Harvest Faire and Wybreg Village Ren Faire in 2001.

WASHER WELL WENCHES INVADE DES MOINES
by Willa, ATF Staff Writer

Have you ever been part of a performance group? Have you ever had the joy of coming up with skits out of thin air? Well, welcome to my world. I am new to this part of the faire world, but I couldn't be happier to be here! As the head wench of the Washer Well Wenches, I got the joyously wonderful job of scheduling our first official meeting here in Des Moines.

The Washer Well Wenches were founded last October when John Mills, the spectacular General Manager of the Wybreg Village Renaissance Festival, decided that what the village needed were a group of wenches to do laundry. So he contacted me, asking if I could possibly gather some girls to accomplish this. We did the festival without even a single skit, but we played the audience so well that we got mentioned in the newspaper! I was fortunate enough to have enlisted the help of the two best ad-libbers on Earth, Jennifer Braden (Keirra Mayholme) and Marci Petefish (Mistress Sheila).

JP fell in lust with Marci last year at Hamlet of Slater when she was full-force Mistress Sheila. I warmed up to her eventually *grins jealously*, and I'm glad I did! She's an amazing gal who rivals me in flirting. I experienced love at first sight with Jennifer at the Iowa Renaissance Festival and Harvest Faire last year after having been introduced to her previously via e-mail by the "God-like" Cale *bows low*. We all seemed to click immediately, and it was then decided that we would take this chance encounter to a whole other level and become an actual troupe.

So this past weekend was our weekend to get down to business! Since we hadn't seen each other in the flesh since the previous October (Jennifer lives in Cedar Rapids and Marci lives in KC), we got reaquainted over lunch at my favourite Mexican restaurant here in Des Moines (Monterrey's), and after the first five minutes, it was as if no time had passed at all! (Margaritas helped with that, I'm sure.)

We spent the afternoon in garb taking full advantage of John-Paul (can you really take advantage of a stalker?) and his cameras as we shot some promo pictures in the snow behind the hotel. Then we continued in garb (including JP & Jennifer's hubby) on to dinner at A.K. O'Connor's (the best Irish pub in DSM), where we were in full-character (meaning that we completely harassed the poor waiter whom we blame for being far too cute). On the way home, we stopped at a laundromat (a sudden brilliant idea by someone other than myself) and took pictures and filmed some ad lib stuff for a video. From there we went to the grocery store, where we invaded the detergent aisle (BOUNCE!) and removed as many bottles of wine as our arms could hold.

After proceeding to the hotel, we decided it was finally time to get down to "real" business and work on our skits. Add many glasses of wine to Jennifer's scarily brilliant mind and my laptop, as well as Marci's knack for saying just the right thing, and you come up with "The Letter", our first official skit! And because we were giggling and picking on JP so much, he decided that when we acted it out to time it, he would TAPE it! I just hope that that footage never makes it into the public...it's far too scary...but it's hilarious!

We wrote down ideas for other skits and then decided it was far too late, and besides...the wine was gone. So we called it a night and retired to our beds. The next morning we supped again together for breakfast and chose JP's and my house to invade. We watched the brilliant videos JP had put together the night before (can you say workaholic?) after everyone else had gone to sleep and looked over all of our photos, which were gorgeous, as usual ;)

I don't know if any of you are really very interested to read this article, but I enjoy sharing with you all the steps it is taking us to do what we do. Of course, we're also wanting you to go to our web site, where you can see two videos and lots of photos. And most of all, we want you to show up at the faires we've been hired to work so you can see our shtick! Keep your eye on the Washer Well Wenches. Jennifer's convinced that we're gonna be great!

Help keep us online. Book your travel here, or patronize some of these folke:

1. Des Moines Ren Faire (IA)
2. Iowa Ren Festival (IA)
3. Iowa-Minnesota Pirate Fest (IA)
4. Greater Quad Cities Ren Faire (IL)
5. Midlands Pirate Festival (NE)
6. Nebraska Ren Faire (NE)
7. Ren Faire at Sleepy Hollow (IA)

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2. threegryphons.com

1. danzamystique.com
2. gypsycomedyshow.com
3. mydragonstories
4. phoenixswords.atthefaire.com
5. piratecomedyshow.com
6. queenbea.atthefaire.com
7. revelers.atthefaire.com
8. wenchville.com

1. anothercrappypodcast.com
2. atthefaire.com
3. crocolyle.atthefaire.com
4. perin.atthefaire.com
5. renbanner.net
6. renreporter.com
7. sirclisto.com

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Permanent festivals in our area: Kansas City Renaissance Festival, Bristol Renaissance Faire, Des Moines Renaissance Faire and Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
Other ATF sites: DisneyFans.com DMHauntedHouses.com