How to go
What: Ohio Renaissance Festival with nearly 100 shows, more than 135 shops, food and drink and games.
Where: 10542 E. Ohio 73, Waynesville
When: 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays through Oct. 19
Cost: $18.95 adults, $8.95 children (age 5-12)
More info: 513-897-7000 or www.renfestival.com
A single woman reigns over the thousands of lords and ladies who travel back in time to 16th century England at the Ohio Renaissance Festival.
During the week, she is Connie Pfeiffer of Lebanon, but on the weekends, Aug. 30 through Oct. 19, she is Queen Elizabeth I in the fictional village of Willy Nilly-on-the-Wash.
Wearing pounds of royal ruffles and petticoats, Pfeiffer’s goal is to make guests “feel special and experience the magic of the festival.”
“I love when I can bless engaged couples, babies and pregnant women; when I can help a child feel like a princess or a knight; visiting and talking with schools about the history of the Tudors (from the Henrys on down to Elizabeth),” she said.
This year marks the 25th year of the festival and fourth year of Pfeiffer’s reign. She hit the books to prepare for her regal role.
“I studied up on English history, which is already very interesting to me. I’ve been to England a few times — long before I got this role — and visited several of the castles Elizabeth stopped at while on Progress,” she said. “The cast has rehearsals for seven weeks before the festival starts, and it’s there that I had to get used to people reverancing (bowing or curtsying) to me. It’s not something that came easily to me.”
It was while enjoying the festival’s hearty food and drink, swashbuckling entertainment and unique artisans with her family that Pfeiffer got the Renaissance bug.
“I had gone as a patron with my family, and my son (Robert) was especially taken with the magic of the festival,” she recalled. “I asked my son if he would like to audition, and he said he would. I had to drive him there, and while I waited for him, another cast member asked me why I wasn’t auditioning. I didn’t want to horn in on my son’s audition, but he said he’d be glad if I did make it on cast. So I auditioned and played the Lord Mayor’s mother.”
The next year she was asked to play the queen. Her son also earned a part in the cast.
After she hangs up her crown, Pfeiffer enjoys teaching Pilates and other fitness classes, volunteering at Southbrook Christian Church, acting in the children’s ministry, making prayer shawls for the Cancer Hope ministry and tailoring. She has participated in several mission trips to Swaziland, Africa.
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