Challenges
The purpose of the challenges is to encourage participants' creativity and artistic growth.
They are not meant to be competitions - everyone who takes part can consider themselves a winner.
It is our wish to create a "bardic safe zone" - a friendly place to feel free to experiment, stretch yourself, and try new things.
If you are a new to bardic and performing arts, recently returning, or an experienced performer with new material;
You'll be hard pressed to find a friendlier and more supportive audience. (See below for general rules!)
Challenges
Math is odd. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19… and so forth. This is the start of the never ending sequence of prime numbers – those that are evenly divisible only by themselves and one. Centuries of mathematical effort have gone into determining a formula for identifying all the primes. All to no avail. This year we celebrate the weird world of those quirky primes.
First the Fyt - Prime is the Time
Pass the Tale:
All those who wish to participate get up together, and tell a tale from beginning to end. The challenge's patron will 'conduct' by pointing to the person whose turn it is to continue the tale, and deciding when it is time to end.
There’s a First Time for Everything:
Everything was new once. No matter what we’re doing, there was an initial stab at it. Tell us in song, story, or poem about such a beginning.
Numeric and Cadence:
Madness here is based on primes
Use some numbers now in rhymes.
Share a piece that somehow uses numbers. Bonus points if you can march to it.
Second Fyt
Follow the Leader:
Sing along with Snorri. Perform a work containing a chorus or refrain that will have the whole room singing merrily along.
Topsy-Turvy and 2nd Chances:
Never let a traditional ending stand in the way of a good story. Present a new take or altered ending on a well known story or song. Choose your own or pick one from the list provided.
Room for One More (no 2nd fiddles):
Perform a sung or spoken piece accompanied with the addition of instruments and/or in multiple voices.
Third Fyt
Indivisible-Even Odds:
Sometimes it takes Esprit de Corps. Tell us in song, story, or poem of such a time where togetherness is most important.
Form Challenge - Triolets:
The triolet is a period French verse form dating back to the thirteenth century. It consists of an eight line stanza with 2 repeated lines (the rhyme scheme is shown below), and can be used singly or as part of a cycle. Try your hand at writing one.
8 lines, 8 syllables Lines 1 & 4 & 7, and 2 & 8 are the same. ABAA|ABAB Rhyme Scheme
Period Piece:
Perform a documentably period piece of music, story, or song (poetry, prose, and so forth are good too). Dig out those reference books, blow off the dust (try not to sneeze), and see what wonderful and magical treasures you can find in them. There is a staggering amount of fantastic material out there. Find something, be it silly or sublime, and amaze us with it.
(Concert)
Fourth Fyt
Toasting & Boasting:
Feast time is traditionally when we raise our glasses on high to honor the crown and other deserving individuals.
Given a topic or person at random, create an appropriate toast or boast for them.
Bard Scribe Illuminator:
Given a subject in the morning, compose, calligraph, and illuminate a text on that subject. This may be done individually or as a team.
Blow Someone Else’s Horn:
Perform the work of some other SCAdian. Extra applause for memorizing and for doing something that is not well-known.
We’ll have a special chair up front for the author of your piece, if they are in attendance, to be recognized for their work.
Challenge General Rules
Challenges are not contests. You win by entering and striving to do the best you can.
Challenges are designed to encourage you to try your hand at something new, to stretch yourself, to enjoy, and celebrate the creative spirit.
Read the guidelines for the challenges carefully, like most exercises, they are designed to help you develop in specific areas.
Try to follow them as closely as you can, but stretching them in unexpected directions is good too.
Individuals are welcome and encouraged to give recognition to those performers whom they especially enjoy.
In order to allow the largest number of people to participate, challenge entries shall be limited to 3-5 minutes or less for Poems and Songs, 5-7 minutes or less for stories - including any introduction or set up.
Each person may enter a maximum of one piece in each challenge and a maximum of four challenges, including the concert.
(At the end of a challenge, sometimes time is available and extra performers are called; these do not count towards the four.)
Groups of 2,3 or more performing together can appear together in up 4 challenges, including the concert.
Individuals who participate in both group and solo performances are asked to use your best courtesy selecting challenges.