Friend a Day – Nan Miller

I don’t know how long I’ve known Nan.  We’ve both been with the Renaissance Festival for a long time now.

Nan is the director of the Court Revelers at the festival and the amount of work she must put into that job is amazing.  They are a large ensemble and their cast changes every year.  Just the idea of needing to train in new members every single season gives me nightmares.

That the revelers have been able to maintain a very high standard with that turnover is a credit to all of them but especially the leadership Nan provides.  She has very high standards but it still looks like they are having fun when they perform.

She also does many of the arrangements of their music, which impresses me because I don’t read music and because of that, it seems like it must be incredibly difficult.  I’m pretty sure it actually is incredibly difficult.

She’s got a commitment to performing that, I think, echoes my own.  We both believe that we are out at the festival to entertain and that means we are on stage when the cannon goes off in the morning and we are still there when it goes off in the evening.  That is the deal and it is a deal she keeps that deal each day of the season.

Nan has been one of my regular Sunday night dinner companions for the last several seasons.  We get together and laugh at the stories from the weekend while ignoring how tired and sore we all look and feel.

Every one of the people who take part in that ritual are special.  The weekend doesn’t feel over until we all recap it over dinner.  There is a lot more laughter than anything else.

The Renaissance Festival has shaped most of my friendships for the last thirty years.  I’m pleased that Nan is one of those friendships.