Pirates Set Sail for the Cavern City Renaissance Festival

By Misty Cryer

As adventure seekers gather at the Fifth Annual Cavern City Renaissance Festival, they will experience enchantment and revelry with bountiful food and drink, captivating music, master artisans, roaming and stage performers, and unique experiences like the armored combat tournament.

The festival will be held on Friday, September 25, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, September 26, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Lake Carlsbad Beach Park area.

Returning for the fifth year, Brethren of the Sunken Skull is setting their sails and dropping anchor in Carlsbad. Erin Baker and her husband, James War, both perform in the family-friendly, pirate comedy performance troupe.

“We do most of the Ren faires in New Mexico. We do a couple here in West Texas, and this year, we will do the first one here in El Paso,” said Erin.

The troupe is made up of various performers. “James and I are the core two,” said Erin, adding that they have people from El Paso, Albuquerque, and Colorado Springs who join them.

“We average roughly about a dozen members on a good show, but we can do one show with four if we have to,” said James.

Some of the main characters include Erin as Lady Captain Erin of the Isles, the Mermaid Hunter. “I do play with the mermaids a lot that come to Cavern City; they know me really well,” said Erin. “We’ll sit there and have fake battles together.”

Erin said her character is very eccentric. Jaden’s character is the calm to her storm as Quartermaster Jaine. “She’s kind of the serious one of the group.”

Jaden’s husband, Paul, plays Master Gunner Powderkeg Pablo. “He’s kind of like Lady Erin; he’s kind of eccentric, likes to blow things up,” said Erin.

Longtime member Justin plays Mute Murphy. “He actually doesn’t speak at all, but he has a little chalkboard that he writes on, and he writes all kinds of funny things on there during the shows. He also holds up all of our signs,” said Erin.

Shawn plays Helmsman Edward Suspicious Britches. “Our helmsman is the one that steers the ship, so every time we crash and we shipwreck, we blame him,” said Erin.

“Our first gunner’s mate is played by our member in Colorado Springs,” said Erin. His name is Brendan, and his character is named Marbles. “Cuz he’s always losing his marbles,” she said.

Doctor Astra Blacktongue is played by Suzannah. Her husband, Zach, plays the sail master, who Erin described as the most experienced sailor on the ship and in charge of all the sails and the rigging. “His character name is The Mast because he is very tall.”

Hectic Hazel is played by Hannah. “Also a crazy character, never knows where she really is, but she’s our navigator,” said Erin.

Eric said James “plays our ship’s fool, also our carpenter, and his character’s name is Jas Jackle.”

James said, “I usually provide all the childish and humorous actions, like at one point in time they’re trying to teach me how to shoot a musket, and I’m shaking like a chihuahua because I don’t know what I’m doing, and they’ve already scared the daylights out of me.” He said he’s the one that always makes “Don Knott” faces.

James said his favorite part of performing is “the chance to escape who I actually am. I get to get on stage and act like a complete fool and have fun doing it.” He said it is a time when he doesn’t have to take himself seriously, and nobody else does either.

“I enjoy performing; I have been in theater since I was a little kid. I have a degree in theater and screenwriting, so it just gives me another opportunity to do something that I always loved doing,” said Erin.

When not on stage, James said they do a lot of lane work—interacting with faire guests between shows.

“Our youngest daughter does the Scurvy Pickle, Pickle Cart. She yells, and she sells her pickles. Our oldest daughter usually runs the merch booth for us,” said Erin. “We also do, like, a treasure dig for the kids, which is a lot of fun and is always real popular.”

Originally meeting Shay Gregory (co-founder of the local festival) at Eric Vigil’s New Mexico Renaissance Celtic Festival in Edgewood, NM, Erin said, “When he decided he wanted to start up his own faire, we were one of the first people he called.”

She said Shay is great, and Carlsbad is one of their favorite faires because everyone is so nice and inviting.

James added, “We have nothing but compliments for the people of Carlsbad because we have yet to have a bad experience there.”