This week we talk about playing a character who believes in something that you don’t. All three of us are performers at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and we have to think about what our characters believe and if that belief differs from our own. Tim, for instance, plays a character who is Catholic. Molly and Nick haven’t spent so much time thinking about that sort of thing but they know their characters believe in fairies. Our conversation isn’t so much about being performers at the Festival as it is about being actors and how you come up with characters who are different from who you are. And do we read five answers from a listener? Of course we do!!!
Show notes below the fold:
We talk about whether or not Leonardo da Vinci was an atheist. Nobody knows but here’s an interesting article on the topic.
Here’s some information about Granny Weatherwax.
Really nice episode, guys! Very informative and funny. I’ve tried making a Ren Faire character in the past (not as part of a group, but just to do it) and I always felt there was something lacking. I think I was unconsciously quirking and not recognizing the issue. However, hearing about your older characters, your choices just to inform your characters’ actions, and all that, has inspired me. 🙂
I’m only three minutes into this episode, but I had to leave a comment 🙂
I was surprised to learn, at the Madison Freethought Festival this year, that there were a number of atheists, prominent atheists, in the ancient and medieval worlds. Dale McGowan, author of a number of books and a researcher, gave a great talk about “20 things I learned While Writing Atheism for Dummies!” It was probably one of my two or three favorite presentations over the weekend.
For example, a surprising amount of evidence is found about atheism through the records of the Inquisition, which were, in some cases meticulously kept – including transcriptions of interrogations. These documents reveal a lot of insight Into attitudes and beliefs about the natural world at the time.
The entire panel, along with all the panels from that weekend, is on YouTube. http://youtu.be/DV_6ZIkCTZM