Photograph by George Sakkestad
For Los Gatan Kerri Dillon and friend Ole Olausson, the Renaissance is more than history; it's a way of life.
Renaissance Woman
'Mistress Kerri' makes history come vibrantly alive
By Shari Kaplan
For Lady Susanna Shakespeare, all the world is truly a stage. As if being the eldest daughter of the Bard weren't illustrious enough, Lady Susanna maintains a social slate full of engagements with patrons who desire her acting, speaking, poetic and comedic skills. Traveling about the shire in fine fripperies, she is as easy to spot as she is to approach--a loquacious lady eager to share her contagious love of the Renaissance with others.
When not decked out in Elizabethan garb, this colorful character leads a life as disparate as the warring Montagues and Capulets. In "real life," Lady Susanna is Kerri Dillon, a Los Gatan who lives on a quiet residential street with her two cats and has spent the last 21 years in a job as anonymous and uncreative as she is extroverted and theatrical--a telephone information operator.
Dillon, who enjoys calling herself "Mistress Kerri of Making Merry," grew up in New Jersey, one of eight sisters and brothers. She lived in Orange County for many years before moving to Los Gatos in the 1990s. Her penchant for all things Renaissance developed in 1978 as the only good result of a blind date. After would-be suitor Hugh took Dillon to the Southern California Renaissance Faire, then held in Agoura Hills and now in the San Bernardino mountains, Dillon was hooked--but not on Hugh.
Photograph by Mike Lariche
The life, times and writings of William Shakespeare have always been close to Kerri Dillon's heart.
"My love affair with him only lasted about two weeks," she recalls, grinning. "But my love affair with the Faire has lasted over 20 years. It was like someone lit a fire under my rear end!"
Not one to do anything half-heartedly, Dillon went out that same year and bought her own Renaissance garb, so she would never again have to borrow clothing. Incidentally, Dillon says, the term "garb" is preferred over "costume" because of the "cheesy" connotations she feels the latter word carries.
And Dillon's clothing is far from costumery. Evolving over the years, her wardrobe has grown to include three royal courtier gowns as well as some peasant trappings--for when she feels like dressing down. Her noble outfits include all the accouterments, such as fancy hats, fur stoles and bejeweled rings, pins and necklaces.
Although she didn't awaken to her love for the Renaissance until attending a Faire, the propensity had been latent since her eighth- grade year, when, as part of a unit in Shakespeare, Dillon participated in a skit from Romeo and Juliet. "That's when the light went on for me," she says of what would become a growing interest in literature, theater and acting.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Kerri Dillon doesn't require Elizabethan garb to launch into a dramatic soliloquy--but it sure doesn't hurt!
As an adult at Faires, she could--and did--combine all these attributes so enthusiastically that she quickly made many friends with similar interests. Eventually, they formed a Renaissance re-enactor's group called the Guild of St. Olaf, run by her friend Ole Olausson of Whittier.
"We were always interacting with each other and playing around. People would come up and say, 'You guys are great! What group are you in?'" Dillon recalls. Before moving to the Bay Area, Dillon attended many Faires with Olausson's guild and never tired of the pomp and circumstance it entailed.
It was a good match, as Olausson loves it too--and for good reason. He is a descendent of the royal Wasa dynasty that once ruled Sweden, although he remained unaware of that fact for more than 20 years of portraying various European royals at the Faire. Coincidence or destiny?
Dillon thinks if there is such a thing as past lives, she and Olausson must have lived at least one together in England at the time of the Renaissance, which would explain their almost instant camaraderie as well as their enduring love for the time period. Taking her love of the Renaissance one step further, Dillon became a volunteer with the late actor/director Sam Wanamaker's long-running effort to renovate London's old Globe Theater, where plays were held during Shakespeare's time.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Ole Olausson and Kerri Dillon perform for St. Mary's School 7th grade class.
In 1993, Dillon traveled to England and attended a performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor in the nearly completed Globe. Other highlights of the trip included meeting Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, attending Shakespeare's Sunday birthday service in Stratford-upon-Avon at Trinity Church and visiting the graves of William and Susanna Shakespeare. She even wrote a sonnet for the occasion, which she left in the graveyard. She is working on a book of photography, poetry and sonnets, titled Reincarnate Elizabethan Love Fires, due out in 2000. A romantic poet at heart, Dillon says she is even known to jot down poetry while at work, sitting at her phone bank between callers.
"It was awesome. It was complete Elizabethan déjà vu. It was very resonant for me," she adds of her experiences in England. "Being in complete Elizabethan court garb there was just magic. It wasn't magic that you try to make; it was magic that you allow to happen to you and through you."
The fact that Dillon is working on a book at all is a testament to her ability to do many things--not to mention be many people--at once. Never one to sit still, Dillon formed her own guild, The Players of Lady Shakespeare, in 1996.
Her group is smaller than the standard Renaissance re-enactors' guild, but it also serves a different purpose. While a guild like St. Olaf's makes its presence known at Faires with a historically accurate encampment, royal stage gigs and other activities, the Players of Lady Shakespeare focus more on presentations at schools, company functions, weddings, dinner parties or anything else clients want to book them for. Sometimes they also convene and travel to Southern California to perform with Olausson's guild. And sometimes Olausson comes here.
Among the Players of Lady Shakespeare who appeared recently at Lupin Lodge are Ole Olausson, Kerri Dillon, Tara Dillon and Cecilia DeRico.
Two such mutual engagements occurred recently in Los Gatos. Earlier this year, Dillon and 13 other players put on a Renaissance repast with all the trimmings at Lupin naturist lodge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The evening included food, drinks, music and comedy. And yes--all the performers were clothed and in costume. In fact, most of the audience donned costumes, too.
In mid-May, Dillon and Olausson put in an appearance at St. Mary's School in Los Gatos, where they provided a lively lesson on Renaissance history, mores and customs, not to mention some interesting bits of trivia and a lot of improvisational humor based on students' questions.
"Kerri is just dynamic. I have a guild of 40 people but none of them holds a candle to Kerri!" Olausson states emphatically. "She and I are like two kindred souls. Whenever we're doing a speech or gig and I forget something, she's right there and fills in just the right words."
"She recites and writes beautifully. She's also very good at improv. I can throw anything at her and she comes back at me with something that feeds me. And she has an answer for everything students might say," he adds with a chuckle, recalling how at their high school engagements, sometimes students try to get their goats by inquiring about the more intimate aspects of Elizabethan life and times.
"Kerri has a glowing, vibrant countenance. She is warm and radiant; she captures her audience's interest and gets them really involved," agrees Oakland resident Margaret Davis, who with husband Kristoph Klover perform with the Celtic band Avalon Rising and are new members of The Players of Lady Shakespeare.
And that's the one aspect of Dillon that is never mere acting. Whether portraying Lady Susanna Shakespeare, a courtier or a wench, Dillon's interest in both the Renaissance and her audience is as authentic as is her painstakingly recreated Elizabethan garb.
"The more violent and more icky modern life gets, the more it seems people are reaching into their past. This can awaken their interest. I love doing this. It's not even about money. We [Renaissance re-enactors] have been living it all this while, and the movies and theater are just now catching up," she says with a knowing smile.
The Players of Lady Shakespeare can be reached at 354-4542.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
