Behind-the-Scenes with the Talented Cast of the Dickens Fair

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Holiday Market is a massive immersive theatrical experience. It’s made possible by hundreds of actors, musicians, artists, cooks, cleaners, carpenters, and chestnut roasters. Here is a smattering of just a few of these fine individuals, and how you may experience their talents beyond the holiday.

The Ghost of Christmas Present by Mark Montgomery French

The Dickens Fair is based primarily on the works of Charles Dickens. Along with Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, one of the other most recognizable characters is played by Mark Montgomery French.

“I’m the Ghost of Christmas Present,” says French. “I did Ren Fair in the ‘80s, which made joining this troop easier, because I knew people.”

At the Ren Fairs, French played nobles and a Moorish guard, amongst other roles. The mention of the Moors sparks thoughts of Othello, which prompts me to question whether his African American heritage has had an affect on his role. Turns out there was a boycott several years ago, regarding a lack of representation. So the fair producers chose to switch things up.

“I was told, ‘If you did this role, you’d be part of that change,’” says French, whose stature and magnanimous aura certainly suit the role of the joyful spirit. 

When he’s not guiding Scrooge through the golden days of youth, French can be found playing electric bass in the band Mr. Cindy and the Smokers, which he likens to George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. They’ll be playing the Makeout Room on December 21 and the Ivy Room on January 23.

On top of that, French is also the Director of Audio-Visual Ministries at Glide Memorial, helping to craft immersive light and sound experiences. As if that all weren’t enough, he is also a music historian, and recently gave a presentation in Berkeley titled, “Black Country Before Beyonce.”

“My goal,” says French, “Is I want art in every part of my life – and I finally got it!”

You can check out more of his works at Beacons.ai/mmfrench, including a presentation from the San Francisco Public Library on the one-and-only most Purple-est of musicians.

Oscar Wilde as depicted by Sean Owens

A tall man, wearing a wide brimmed hat and a bush of brown hair, strolls through the streets of London, quipping quotes and passing out business cards that read:

Oscar Wilde

Playwright, Poet, Author

The pleasure was entirely yours.

“My work here is to make them feel like they’re really seeing that wit reflected off of what they’ve said,” says Sean Owens. “This is only my second year playing him at Dickens Fair, but I’ve been playing Oscar Wilde for 20 years. The Dickens Faire lets me show Wilde at the height of his happiness, with no shadow on him.”

Wilde was known, somewhat scandalously, to live one life in the country with his wife and family, and quite a different life while in the city. (Not unlike his play, “The Importance of Being Ernest.”)

Owens was drawn towards Wilde from a young age, for his queerness and dandyism. He was also enamored with other, off-straight celebrities like Paul Lynde and Rip Taylor. Owens describes them as communicating on a second level, in a sort of code, to folks that understood their lifestyles.

“There was something about them, that people said, ‘I don’t know what it is – but I like it!’” Says Owens.

Kinda like how my grandmother thought Liberace was just, well, you know, theatrical? “Yes, they were not making any claims they couldn’t keep, they were living life in full view. And that fascinated me.”

So Owens leans into the more City-styled Oscar Wilde.

In addition to playing Wilde, Owens is also a playwright, and producer. Amongst the many irons he has in the fire, he’s developing a new work called, “The Bitter Fruit.” It’s a kind of 1950s psychological thriller, like the “Bad Seed,” starring an innocent-seeming, young, blonde, and freakishly tall woman. Working with composer Josh Pollock, he says, “The veneer is camp, the center is genuine horror.”

Owens can be found on instagram, as well as at Crooner’s at Stookey’s Club Moderne (every 4th Sunday), where he most regularly collaborates with Polly Amber Ross (a.k.a. Chris Steele, a.k.a. Mad Sal, a.k.a. just awesome) and Brenden Getzell (more on their collaborations to follow).

Which brings us to…

Polly Amber Ross as Mad Sal

While many of the characters at the fair have been sourced from Dickens’ famous tales, almost everyone present has a character that’s been created just for the fair. Mad Sal is one of these.

“For me it feels a little bit like being one of those characters at Disneyland that aren’t in the movies, they’re like, for Disneyland,” Says Actor, singer, and writer, Polly Amber Ross. “So people go to the parks to meet those characters. There’s this character at the Animal Kingdom in Florida called DiVine who’s this fully floral, vine, stilt-walker lady. 

“There are characters like that,” says Ross. “Where you’re a part of the world but you’re not a movie character. Which gives me more leeway to play – nobody expects me to be any specific thing. But also, it’s interesting having built-in relationships with people because they have relationships with the character. And it being explicitly trans and explicitly queer – and seeing what that has meant to people – is really lovely.” 

Yes, in addition to taking care to include people of color, the fair producers have also taken steps to create a safe place for the LGBTQ+ community.

“After the pandemic, coming out of some of the internal work that they were doing, they really wanted a queer person, ideally a trans woman, in the role,” says Ross. “And I was just sort of lucky to be in the right room at the right time.”

Polly Amber Ross can be found on Instagram, as well as in Wigged (a Wicked drag parody). Ross is also working on a drag vampire show, titled “Dragula.” It has 1980s goth elements and the whole thing will be done in greyscale, just like an old, black and white film. And let’s not forget that she’ll be part of Crooner’s on Sunday, December 22 at Stookey’s. Hosted by her drag husband, Chester Vanderbox, it will also feature Kat Robichaud, Afrika America, EnSean Té, and Mr. Brendan Getzell on the keys.

And that would bring us to…

Brendan Getzell as the Piano Player at Mad Sals’ Dockside Alehouse

If you’ve attended the Open Mic at the Historic Hotel Utah, chances are you’ve seen Brendan Getzell. He’s been hosting the mic since 2011. He’s the musical director for Kat Robichaud’s Misfit Cabaret. But this is his first year doing DIckens Fair, replacing longtime pianist Win Meyerson.

“It is really amazing!” Says Getzell. “It keeps me on my toes because there’s a lot of genre overlap with the songs. What that means is a lot of it is ‘boom bap boom bap boom bap.’ So, what’s going to set the songs apart isn’t the actual music of it – which is that oom-pa-pa waltz and stuff. But it’s the different performances and characters, and knowing that when I’m playing, it’s not just me accompanying with block chords. It is thinking about the beats and rhythms, and each individual character and where they’re going with it, and having a little fun and making each performance, one week over the other, more playful. And making sure everyone’s comfortable throughout that.”

Getzell was brought into the Dickens fold by Owens and Ross.

“Yeah, I’ve know Brenden for a minute,” says Ross. “He does incredible work with a bunch of my favorite performing troops across the city. And this year we started a live singing, drag cabaret at Stooky’s, downtown. And Sean and I, and Chester, my Drag husband, co-produce that and we needed a really talented musician. It’s easy to find an accompanist, and not easy to find someone who is themselves a musician, a performer and a storyteller. So once Brendan was in that loop, we were kind of stuck working together as long as possible.”

You can find Getzell on Instagram, Spotify, at the Hotel Utah Open Mic every ding-dang Monday night, with Kat Robichaud’s Misfit Cabaret (next at the Great American Music Hall on December 27, as well as at Crooners. Did we mention Crooners? Crooners.)

Lee Presson as Edgar Allen Poe

If you lived in the Bay Area during the 90s swing music resurgence, chances are you remember the fabulously entertaining Lee Presson and the Nails.

“I’ve been playing Edgar Allen Poe longer than I’ve been Lee Presson,” says Presson (whose real name remains shrouded in mystery. “I began playing Poe at Dickens Fair in 1988. I’m their first and only Poe.”

In much the same way that Patrick Stewart was urged to play Charles Xavier, Presson was told that he resembled the author. The suggestion was made by none other than the mother of Autumn Addame, who is herself the Corset Queen of San Francisco. Presson came to learn a great deal about Poe, and informs us that while there’s no historic record of Poe visit London, Dickens and Poe did exchange letters and consider one-another friends.

So do you recall his fantastic swing band? Or perhaps you swooned at some point for his lovely female companion, Leslie Presley? Sad to say, The Nails have all been pulled out. 

“We’ve played our last show, but we’re still making youtube videos,” says Presson.

They just released a new video on Friday the 13th, in fact!

Presson will likely continue to perform for the rest of his life.

“My father was a stage manager,” he says. “So I have a very strong show business ethos. I’ve put my life and my health on stage and it’s why I walk with a cane now. I’m very proud of that injury. It’s a badge of courage.”

Watching Presson as Poe is remarkable. He puts in so much emotion and flare that, with the makeup, it really feels like the true, Edgar Allen is standing there, reciting the Tell Tale Heart.

Check him out on youtube, and some of us will just hope that the Nails’ final show turns out to be like the many “final” shows of several other groups.

Kerri Jones as Teaonna Cake

Get it? Tea on a cake? It went right past me several times…

Like many members of the Dickens cast, Kerri Jones was first involved with the Nor Cal Renaissance Fair. She still works with Kraken Whip leather, helping to sell their wares at the fairs. When she began doing Dickens Fair a couple years back, she worked for Cuthbert’s Tea House at first. She heard about an opportunity to audition, and is now singing and dancing with The Merry Tarts. 

When not singing bawdy songs at Mad Sal’s Dockside Alehouse, Jones can be found playing music with her brother at Eli’s in Oakland on Monday nights. When I mention that Eli’s used to be all soul and blues, but has turned pretty hard rock, she explains that her grandfather is Ziggy Modeliste, from The Meters. “And he has a lot of friends that still come around, so there’s still plenty of soul and blues.”

Touché, touché. I can’t make this shit up. And truly, there is a heavy reputation for Monday Blues nights at Eli’s.

Also, if you don’t know who The Meters are, stop reading this article and go check them out. Seriously. You can thank later.

Besides music and leatherwork, Jones is getting ready to do custom parasols. “If you want it to look like a 1920’s Gatsby Lamp, I can do that,” she says. “I work with a variety of materials, glues, fabrics, scraps.”

Like other Dickensian artists explained, for Jones, way has led on to way, collaboration to idea, and idea to idea. “I can never center my art,” she says. “Because the theme is always, ‘What if?’”

Oscar’s Meat Pies

What trip to London would be complete without a good meat pie? I don’t know and I’m not keen to learn, so thank goodness for Oscar’s Meat Pies!

“It’s a culture thing,” says Oscar Dike, who resides near San Diego but is originally from South Africa. “We couldn’t get meat pies in America that were decent, so I started making my own as a hobby.” 

When he decided to go pro, he got things rolling by selling at rugby matches, where there’s no shortage of meat pie aficionados. “It’s the best comfort food in the world,” he says. “It’s what we grew up on.” 

Today, with Chef Jason Murray from New Zealand, they stay busy all year long, working Renaissance Fairs, Dickens, and the Scottish Games in Pleasanton on Labor Day Weekend. 

You can learn more about them at Oscarsmeatpies.com and this recent article in the Vista Press. Oh, and try a beef sausage roll, too. They’re delectible.

Jason Adajian as Bruno, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer of the Pipe & Drum Morris Dancers

Bruno is another character that is, like Mad Sal, a part of the world, but not plucked from any novel. He leads the Pipe & Bowl Morris Dancers, who bang sticks, wear bells, sing, and spin around whilst twiddling handkerchiefs. Their group has been going steadily for 50 years, and Jason Adajian has been with them for 40 of that. He says there are traditions of similar dance forms in numerous places around Europe.

“It’s done to bring in the barley crop for bread and beer,” says Adajian. “We’re wheat dancers.”

Ok, but why is it called Morris Dancing?

“It’s so weird and old that nobody knows,” says Adajian.

Yes, a cursory web search turns up possible origins: sounding like Latin roots or attributed as a Moorish dance. Nothing definitive, though. 

Though he may not be writing, producing, and performing events like some other Dickensian characters, Adajian has helped keep the lamps of culture burning in perhaps one of the most underrated ways: by working at the Oakland Public Library for 35 years. He’s edging into retirement but still handles special projects.

“I don’t want to move 10,000 books by myself again, so I go in and teach other people how to do what I do, so moving 20,000 books. I can look at it and say, ‘Yeah, that will work,’ or, ‘No, there’s no way that’s happening.’”

The Pipe & Bowl Morris Dancers can be found at the Dickens Fair and sporadically at a Renaissance Fair near you.

Jennifer Hennig as Justin Thyme, purveyor of Live Clay

Just next to the Victoria and Albert Bijou Music Hall, is Hennig Family Ceramics, also known as Live Clay. Their ceramics are almost all imbued with the features of animals. The faces of cats, frogs, elephants, and pelicans gaze out from all around their bright yellow shop.

Jennifer is married to Iver Hennig, the son of Laurie and Dan Hennig.

“I was going to be an environmental lawyer,” Says Jennifer. But then she met Iver and went to check out the family ceramics studio. “I was totally taken away by the funny faces and characters they were making.”

The family became involved with the Dickens Fair, like many, by first being involved with the Northern California Renaissance Fair. Despite having gone down a different path in life, Jennifer is still environmentally conscious. 

“Dickens Fair is fun,” she says, explaining why they do the fair. “But it’s also imparting the wisdom that these creatures are important and might otherwise be overlooked.”

Some of the family’s works can be found at the Pence Gallery in Davis, Ca, and at the Gardino Gallery in Portland, OR. They can also be found on Instagram, Etsy, and at hennigstudios.com and iverhennig.com

And now, last but certainly not least…

Rydell Downward as Mr. Charles Dickens

Charles DIckens has been portrayed by Rydell Downward for the last three years.

“But I’ve been performing with the Dickens Fair since 1979,” Says Downward. “Truly, I was a lad. For many years I trained our interactive street performers.”

Those aptly-called “interactive street performances” are one of the best things about the Dickens Fair – or at least one of my favorites. They blur the line between well-dressed participants and roving, but real, paid performers. One can never be too sure if they’re getting a paid actor or a well dressed attendee that’s simply decided to volunteer a bit of character.

But there used to be a street performance each year, just about an hour before the fair would close for the day, in which the nefarious Bill Sikes, from “Great Expectations,” would be chased down and arrested. It was a real hullabaloo. But it has been absent of late.

“We have attempted to soften some of the performances,” says Rydell, quite diplomatically. “The world gives us too many opportunities to feel fearful, angry, and hurt. We are creating a safe place to play. We try to celebrate the best of Dickens London, as we like to say, without the child prostitution and the cholera.”

When not playing the ingenious author, Rydell Downward is a stage actor and a trainer of actors for The Guild of St George. “We teach history through Interactive theater,” he says. “With a concentration on Queen Elizebeth I and her royal court at historically-themed festivals and other events.”

They may be found, acting out period correct pieces of pageantry, at the Folsom, South Lake Tahoe, and San Luis Obispo Renaissance Fairs.

And one little bonus…

The Salvation Army Brass Band as the Salvation Army Brass Band

The first musicians that you’re likely to encounter when visiting Dickens is a group of horn players in vaguely military garb. They play Christmas carols, and they’ve been doing it since the 1878 – outside the Dickens Fair cut off of 1863. But the fair has a bit of a spectrum, in quite the same way that the ’80s bled into the early 90s.

“We’re here to play a bit and raise awareness,” says Captain Chris Wikle. “The Salvation Army Brass Band has an interesting history. It was started in England, so this is sort of going back to our roots.”

They play splendid, booming versions of Christmas classics like “Jingle Bells,” “What Child is This,” “Away in a Manager,” “Greensleeves,” “Gloria (in Excelsis Deo),” and “the First Noel” (amongst others). They can be found all around the world, playing in different groups throughout the Holiday season, raising money towards Toys for Tots and recovery programs. Here in the Bay Area, Union Square is likely to be your best bet at catching them.

---

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!