Jake Otteson

In January of 2018, I was living in Portland, Oregon, and it was raining.

I'm on my way to a job I don't particularly care about, and I'm feeling...

really like disconnected from my creativity.

See, I'd come to Portland a couple of years before that because, well, I'm an actor and a theater maker and I had heard that Portland is a place you can go to find inspiration.

All those creative weirdos that have wound up in the Pacific Northwest.

Sounded like a great idea and I was sort of burnt out on New York City, but now I was feeling burnt out in Portland and

I was thinking, when was a time when I really felt inspired, like when I was connected, when I felt like I could bring all of myself to my work?

And I knew the answer right away.

Renaissance Festival.

Oh yeah, that's right.

For four summers out of college, I was an actor at the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

Now, for the uninitiated, a Renaissance Festival is basically like a giant carnival if that carnival took place in 1585 Elizabethan England and the Queen of England herself is coming to town.

You walk in through those front gates and it's like a wooded wonderland, a Renaissance village brimming with excitement and entertainment.

You look over here and there's a juggler swallowing swords and over there, there's a tavern with raucous music and there's folks dressed all in Renaissance garb while the pirates sing sea shanties and you just get to wander through, grab your giant turkey leg and your mug of mead, bring out your inner child and have the best day ever.

And it was part of my job as one of the actors to make the place feel even more immersive.

For example, one year I played a thief character and you would find me off to the side of the road with my band of thieves loudly arguing about who stole the best thing that day.

And then I'd see you and I'd say, oh, God's my life.

I do recognize thee.

Thou art the most famed thief in all of England.

Do come here.