The year, Queen Elizabeth II commemorates 70 years on the throne with a Platinum Jubilee. Did you know North Texas also has royalty marking a milestone anniversary this year? Well sort of…
Janna Zepp, the actor who portrays Queen Margaret of Scotland and the Isles at Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, celebrates her 25th anniversary playing Henry VIII’s favorite sister.
Zepp is part of the Scarborough Academy of Performing Arts, the non-profit performing company that trains the actors who portray the Royal Court, villagers, and peasants. These actors step off the stage to perform and interact with visitors throughout the grounds.
Zepp is free of her tiara and queenly duties Monday through Friday so we seized the opportunity to ask her about this lesser-known Tudor and what Queen Margaret would have thought of the 21st Century.
What’s a fun fact about Margaret Tudor?
She was married three times and she probably would have been married more had she not died when she did. She had the Tutor temper and died of a stroke at the age of 51 in the middle of writing a letter to the Pope to request a second divorce from her third husband.
I can just imagine her being absolutely frothing at the mouth, angry at Henry Stewart, Lord Methven, her third husband, writing this letter to the Pope and keeling over dead because she's worked herself into a dither over yet another man who's ticked her off.
What’s the strangest thing that's ever happened at the fair?
Oh, my goodness. Well, there are lots of strange ones. I think one of my favorite things that happened when I first started playing the character. I was talking to a group and standing a little too close to the elephant ride. I'm doing wild hand gestures and things like that, and all of a sudden, Paige the elephant puts her trunk down my dress looking for peanuts. I've learned to tighten my bodice better since then.
Speaking of costumes. Just how authentic are they? And does wearing them present certain issues?
We try to stay true to the costuming and make them look as much like the portraits as possible. We strive for authenticity. But when the authenticity is not practical for our outdoor venue or the way we're performing, we fudge a little.
There’s a challenge using the restroom. You've got to get used to hiking skirts up over your head. My friend and performance partner Becky, who designs my costuming has been doing this a long time. She’s a farm girl like me and she ordered--I kid you not--bovine gynecological gloves. They’re those veterinary gloves the farmers use when they examine the cow before it goes into labor. We put those on to protect our clothing while we lift our muddy skirts up. You don't want to put your muddy skirts against your beautiful sleeves, so we use veterinary gloves. They go all the way up to your shoulder so they are a godsend.
Why did you choose Queen Margaret? Why not Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, or even Anne Boleyn?
I did not choose her. She chose me.
I had just finished reading Margaret George's book, The Autobiography of Henry VIII, and I didn't know he had sisters until I read that book. And there was a description of Margaret Tudor, and I thought, “This woman is a nut job. I would love to play this character just for the shock value and the fun I can have with her. But that'll probably be ten years down the line.” So, I closed the book and put it on a shelf.
Then the scenario writer called and said, “Have you chosen the character for the season?” And I said, “No.”
She said, “I want you to put in a proposal for Margaret Tudor.”
Here’s the reason why.
The year before, Shannon Hopps (Anne Boleyn) and Richard Patterson (Henry VIII) had been confronted by an angry mob of festival guests portraying Scots who demanded the freedom of Scotland.
And Richard very wisely said, “You all need to read a history book because James IV and Margaret Tudor reign over Scotland. I have nothing to do with it.”
And I thought, “Oh, my God, they're going to kill our actors.”
And the next thing I knew, we had Queen Margaret. They needed a figure for Scottish-play guests to rally around.
She's been a choice role. She really has. You know, being the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Tudor ancestor of the current queen, she's very important in history. I don't understand why she's been ignored hitherto, probably because she was something of a pro-feminist before that was acceptable. I just really bonded with her because she never took crap off a man. And I like that. [laughs]
You’re playing someone from the 1500s, but you're interacting with fairgoers from 2022. Has there ever been a time when you found it challenging to stay in character? And what did you do to handle it?
Invariably, every performance day, there's someone who wants to drag you into the 21st century in conversation. I've been doing this for so long that I can take anything and turn it into the 16th century. We have a term called “Character Lite.” Which is, you are still in character, but you're acknowledging what this person is saying and you acknowledge that you know what they're talking about, but you're also not going to engage that. It's a very diplomatic way of saying, I'm not going to go there.
I've been asked, what do you really do?
And I say, “Well, I rise with the sun and I get up and I get dressed, which takes about two and a half hours, depending on which helpers help me get dressed. And then I go about my day. I break my fast and I write letters. You know, I do a lot of discussion about the border situation with England.”
And finally, they're like, “No, no, no. What do you do in real life?”
And I reply, “There is no other life but being the Queen of Scotland. You know there’s all the time you spend waving at people, supermarket openings. Your time just isn’t your own.”
They eventually give up and walk away.
If you found yourself in 16th century England, which historical figure would be the most fun to hang out with?
There is a character --a very obscure one--who was an Italian con artist. His Anglicized name was John Damian. And he made his way through the courts of Europe conning monarchs and the other nobility into believing that he really was this brilliant scientist or doctor.
So, he arrived at the Scottish Court of James IV. Now, James IV was a true Renaissance prince, and like Henry VIII, had all sorts of artists and scholars, intellectuals, and scientists at his court. And so, John Damien comes to court. And is quite the showman. And James takes it all in. One of the things that John Damian said he's going to do is to master flight for humans. So he creates these bird wings out of feathers. He goes to the battlements at Sterling Castle--the whole Court’s there to see this miracle fight--and John Damian's convinced he's going to fly so he jumps off the side of the battlements, takes two flaps and falls smack into a trash pile and breaks a leg.
He’s lying there broken on this heap and says, “I should have known better than to construct my wings of chicken feathers because chickens are automatically attracted to dung heaps.”
If there was ever a more human experience in history, that was it. There’s classic comedy, a con man who just showed his backside, and of course, he disappears shortly after that because I'm sure he made somebody angry with a con.
We don't know what happened to John Damian, but I would love to hang with him for a little while and see what it was like to con some very intelligent people.
What do you think Queen Margaret would have to say about the 21st century?
I think she would look back at it and say, “You know, there's a lot right here, but there's a lot wrong. You have all these miracles to save your lives, and all the science to prove how to eradicate disease, and yet you still want to believe there's something wrong with it. I don't understand that.” I think that would be her take on it. I think she would take every advantage of what the 21st century has to offer and leave the 16th behind. I really do.
She was a very pragmatic, practical woman. She wasn't an altruist by any stretch. She had the Tudor pragmatism. But what she lacked in education she made up for in street smarts. And I think the 21st century would be very intriguing. I think she'd love smartphones.
What's the best part of being a Renaissance Festival queen?
When the little kids come running up and they think you're really a queen. You can see it in their eyes that they know they are meeting a bona fide queen. That's a lot of responsibility for the actor, and that's my favorite part because you give them this moment of magic that they'll have the rest of their lives.
Another Renaissance Festival queen that went before me at other festivals whose name was Barbara “Bodge” Burinski-Shelton said, “We are the childhood memories of tomorrow's adults.” That's gospel for me.
Janna Zepp is holding court as Queen Margaret of Scotland and the Isles at Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, weekends through Memorial Day.
In Good Question, we're getting to know movers and shakers in the arts a little bit better with a few quirky and thought-provoking questions. Who should we talk to next? E-mail me at tpowell@kera.org.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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