Maryland Renaissance

Renaissance FestivalLive the spirit and the legend of 16th-century England when the Maryland Renaissance Festival opens Saturday for a nine-weekend run in Crownsville. See a sword swallower, watch authentic jousting in full armor and listen to music and choral groups. See craftspeople's wares and feast on food ranging from steak on a stake to massive smoked turkey legs and fried cheeses. Test your skills at games of chance while children enjoy pony rides, a maze and archery. Hours are 10: 30 a.m. to 7 Saturdays, Sundays and Labor Day. Admission is $4- $13.95.

KATIE OSTROSKY, a singer from North County High School, will join the Young Actor's Ensemble, playing a variety of roles, at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in August. She was one of nine chosen from more than 100 16- to 18-year-olds who auditioned about a month ago.As a member of the ensemble, she will play a lady in waiting in the production of "The War of the Roses," sing in the Revel Grove choir, portray shepherdess Phoebe Walker as a street actor and dance the creek stomp as part of the Village Dance Ensemble's parody of Riverdance.

Rogues, wenches, monks, fair maidens, outlaws, squires, princes and princesses -- all oblivious to the heat -- sashayed about the muddy, straw-covered streets of the 16th-century Tudor English village as a group of peasants danced with abandon near the town square.Visitors to this temporary land of merriment and mayhem, re-created in Anne Arundel County, were respectfully addressed milady, milord, lass or lad yesterday -- as Maryland Renaissance Festival tradition dictates -- by decree of the king and queen.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival returns to its sylvan setting in Crownsville Saturday, set to dazzle, delight, challenge, and entertain on Saturdays, Sundays, and Labor Day through Oct. 16. Elizabethan music, crafts, imagery and history are there for the sharing, off I-97 between routes 450 and 178.Admission to the Renaissance Festival is $11.95 for adults under 62, and $9.25 for those over. Children 7 to 15 are $4.95, and those under 7 are free.Information: 266-7304, or (800) 296-7304.

If you want to watch England's King Henry VIII marry his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, you don't have to take a time machine back to the 16th century. All you have to do is drive your automobile to the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville.For the convenience of spectators, the wedding ceremony will be repeated 17 times during the course of the festival, which runs eight consecutive weekends starting next Saturday.There should be no shortage of wedding guests -- more than 200,000 visitors attend the festival each year.

Summertime and the livin' is easy. . . . About the best things ever invented are the barbecue and paper plates. I haven't been in the kitchen for a week, aside from trips for ice.Summer's about half over. You can tell, because red plaids and woolly sweaters are appearing in storefronts. What is it with these people? I've earned my summer, and I'm not going to look at anything that reminds me that this, too, shall pass.*If there is anything better than the invention of the paper plate, it's the invention of the restaurant.

These suckers are lit!" exclaims the big, bearded guy as he carries a flaming torch in the direction of a petite mime who'd scream if she could. His ale gut swaying, the big guy, named Nymblewyke, has the mime, named Mimi, in a state of silent hysteria.The audience is getting riled up, too, as this comic duo, known as Firespiel, shows off its skills at fire eating, juggling and general mischief as part of the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville.The poor little mime's face is a study in fright.

AT THE ENTRANCE to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, the sign above the gaping arches reads: "Prepare thyself for merriment." Would-be sorcerers and wizards adorned in capes, gowns and hats lose their urban identities for a day as they arrive to admire minstrels, dance in the square or try their hand at ax throwing.And this weekend, as on all others, after a day spent mingling with actors dressed as knights, ladies, lords and beggars, visitors also will pass sign that says "Until another day, fare thee well."

People are seldom at their best right after a murder, so I suppose it's only natural that no one believed I was a journalist.After a while, even I wasn't too sure, but fortunately they managed to find the killer before I confessed.The scene of the crime was the upstairs banquet room at the Middleton Tavern in Annapolis. There, a group of very talented improvisational actors known as the "Murder Upon Request Theatrical Group" has been knocking off people on a monthly basis for nearly two years.