Employee Parrrties Like It's 1699

Jacqueline Vorhies, HSS, dressed as "Regina Wentworth" in front of Black Spot Pyracy.She did not want to go to the Renaissance faire, but her cousin pushed her to do it.

Her cousin even helped her to dress up in period garb.

Twenty-six years later, Jacqueline Vorhies is “Regina Wentworth.”

“I didn’t understand why [my cousin] wanted me to dress up, but I’m glad I did,” the Human Services Specialist said of her participation in the 1990 faire. “I felt like I was part of the faire just by walking around in period clothes.”

Several years after her first taste of Renaissance culture, Jacqueline became a member of a guild of period re-enactors, along with her cousin, his wife and their three sons.

“I had been friends with the group for a few years before I joined. What drew me in was all the fun they had playing their characters and entertaining the patrons.”

Four years after joining that guild, Vorhies and her extended family left the group to form their own guild, Black Spot Pyracy, where Regina Wentworth is the tavern mistress.

Members of the Black Spot Pyracy

“Many guilds, including my own, portray fictional characters of the period and do our best to represent a character that acts and speaks of the period and has knowledge of the Golden Age,” Vorhies said. “My own character, Mistress Regina Wentworth, is saucy – prone to flirtation, silliness and random pranks.  Although Regina is quite loveable, she is fierce as well. Regina will steal your heart as easily as your gold!”

The four-and-a-half year County employee said she makes some of her own garb for the Renaissance faires, but much of it has been made by other re-enactors or even purchased at the faire in Escondido.

“When it comes to props and garb, it is easy to want or buy more than you need. Our local faire is only four days, but there are different vendors to peruse and shop from there,” she said.

Vorhies encourages people to attend the local Renaissance Faire, which ran last weekend and will again April 30—May 1 at the County’s Felicita Park in Escondido.

“Attending a Renaissance faire is an opportunity to observe a demonstration of living history.  It is an inexpensive trip to the past,” she said. “In the days of old, people would gather for seasonal markets or assemble for festivals or to take issues to magistrates as they came through town. A Renaissance faire recreates these days when people would gather for business and trade while minstrels and entertainers would perform for the crowds to earn their living.”

Jacqueline Vorhies, HSS, ECFRC as “Regina Wentworth” of Black Spot Pyracy and her nephew, Joseph Kramer, as “Atticus MacIntyre.”

At the Escondido faire, you can expect to see entertainers like the Bawdy Juggler, A Fool and His Family, Parrot Tales (trained parrots), and listen to the music of Gallows Humour. And, of course, there’s the parade of guilds that march behind Queen Elizabeth. There are plenty of meat pies and turkey legs to go around and the kids can stay busy with a treasure map.

“There are free games to play as well,” she said. “If you make it out, be sure to stop by Pirate’s Cove and say hello to Regina at the Black Spot Pyracy encampment!”

The Queen's Procession at the Escondido Renaissance Faire at Felicita County Park.