Theater of Confused Arts
This is a novelty among the population and visitors alike. It is a freeform entertainment where those in the audience have the opportunity to get up on the stage and be an actor for the night. This has brought many would be actors who are trying to get hired by practicing their skills here. Entrance fees are larger than average but the entertainment is well worth it.
Description
The theater of confused arts is not just a hall built to bring entertainment to the populace. It is also a guild of artists, singers, play writes, among other talented individuals. The actual physical theater is an open amphitheatre with a stone tiered seating system. The stone seats are actually set in a semi circle around the actual stage of the theater. The entrance into the seating are is near the top, the theater having been dug down to the pit like stage. The stage itself has an actual building on the stage made from stone and columned in the same architecture of the Kingdom of Rhomas. Its many columns front with fluted arched windows is a sight to see even without the entertainers who use it.
The events that are held here vary and are as diverse as the people who come to watch the spectacles. Plays of drama, tragedy, and comedy fill the audience with laughter and sorrow. Many troupes come from the larger cities from around the world to entertain here. Once a year there is an event held that pits entertainer troupes against one another from different locations. This event is called the Stone Gate Troupe Festival and is a four day event that begins with a special opening by the King. These troupes are supposedly the best, the elite that performs in front of nobles and kings and the only time that the public can see them. The prize for winning this event are more for reputation than anything, but the invites for personal events and parties increase with every win at the single four day event. Other than reputation they receive a coin winnings as well as a golden plaque. This event is celebrated in the streets by dancing, drinking, and noise making.
Other shows held at the theater are a brand of short, interactive comedy. The ‘comic’ performs in front of the audience and tells them funny stories to lighten their day and make them laugh. Some of the later shows can be more rich and bawdy with language which attracts its own type of crowd, the tavern hoppers.
The choruses are also very good. Symphonies come to play their music, from haunting to lovely, from sad to energetic; the music played comes from all around the kingdom. From the ballads of the ball rooms, to the twang of the folklore, nothing is passed up for a chance at the theater. Similar to the Stone Gate Troupe Festival event, this single event held only a month after the troupe festival and is an entire week long. It is not sanctioned by the crown but the results are the same from the event. Some coin winnings, a golden plaque and the reputation as being the best offers many an invitation to play at events both public and private.
One of the most entertaining acts done at the theater is the reenactments done. The play troupes take actual events that happened both in the past as well as recent and turn them into a spectacle. Famous battles, coups, and other real life events all are fair game within the theater. Done for both a dramatic and comedic effect, the reenactments bring all kinds of watchers, from the beggars who can sneak in to the nobles who have private sections reserved with cushions of silk and down.
Additional Information
The real guise of the theater is not for entertainment but for a darker more nefarious reason. The Theater of Confused Arts is a guild front for the Jongleurs Sanguine, a guild of highly infamous and skilled death cult. Painted in white masks and other caricatures, they deal out their commissioned acts with mute silence, often leaving a calling card of singular meaning. A white rose or white silken scarf are among the more common items left behind.
They are contacted in odd manners, one of which is to leave a dead fish on the steps of an abandoned warehouse, and another is to drop alms to a beggar in the market district. None of which goes directly to a member of the guild, but someone watching those locations, and others, then follows the person to see if they are legitimate. Those leaving the alms know to arrive at the theater within a few days and they will get their chance to plead their case to the guild of assassins. When they are contacted they are usually pulled on stage in front of the entire audience to join in the fun of the skit or comedic event, most of the time at their expense. They are then told to go to a specific location while being escorted back to their seat after the show or during a certain day and time. It is then that the contracts are agreed to and payment is given.
They are very cautious and thorough in the trailing would be moles. To this day every single watchman, guardsman, hire or secret police sent in to hire the guild has come away with nothing.
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? Responses (9)
And any police spies have probebly been murdered too. Orginal.
Well, it feels like I read half of a post. The introduction is well presented though the ampitheatre felt too close to its Grevo-Roman counterparts with the comedies, tragedies and dramas. Then we are introduced to this entire thing being a facade for an assassins guild.
Okay
Then nothing comes up on the Guild. No players, nothing besides how to contact them and their calling card signature. I would like to know more about the guild, its structure, and what sets them apart from every other assassins guild out there.
This wasn't set up as a submission for the guild, just for the theater. I added the guild right at the end to let it be known that the theater is something else entirely, but it is still a theater and guild of the arts. It just has a secret. The guild is coming.
Still, a very nice post all around. I like the good descriptive elements. I like the public service of that the guild can provide, and the other services it provides. It would of worked better had the other post been either first or simultaneous. (Don't feel bad, I had the same problem with The Hand and the Silver Stars 1225 and 1227).
It happens... :)
Since I know your editing a bit, I'll hold off on vote. As mentioned in chat, I'm getting a whole Grand Guignol thing here! Good concept.
Actually it wil lbe a seperate submission outside fo this only linked back to it. The theater is in and of itself seperate from the Jongleurs Sanguine.
An interesting location to toss into a bland partially developed city in a publiched setting, and added a bit of uniquity. (With it being dug donwards I would guess there's a capable drainage system running underneath the theatre as well to prevent flooding, which could have a few points of interest all its own, especially after/during a hard rain.)
I like the idea to a point - the use of a fixed point to contact customers will only last so long as no concerted intelligent effort is made to ferret them out. Just Cause is a fairly recent control over law enforcement.
