Arnold Couple Brings Merriment To Annual Renaissance Festival

Mary Ann Jung portrayed Captain Jean the Pirate Queen and Tom Plott played Sheriff Drake Mansworth during a previous Maryland Renaissance Festival. They were joined by former cast member Scott Sophos.

Photo courtesy of Tammy Jett-Parmer

Posted Thursday, August 8, 2024 12:00 am

Meet The Actors

Mary Ann Jung and Tom Plott are both full-time actors. Jung has been with the Maryland Renaissance Festival for 45 years, which includes two years when the festival was held in Columbia, Maryland. Plott is the “rookie,” entering his 37th year with the festival. Jung is the actor behind History Alive, performing portraits of famous women in history. Plott is the manager of character interpretation at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

By Judy Tacyn

Love certainly wasn’t in the England air during the 16th century. King Henry VIII had beheaded at least one wife, and Catholics and Protestants were at war. When the Maryland Renaissance Festival begins its 48th season later this month, the events of the period will come to life by professional actors.

For two Arnold performers, Mary Ann Jung and her husband, Tom Plott, the festival is a much more joyful time than 1537, the year the festival will portray this year. The two professional, full-time actors met at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in 1987 while Jung was playing Lettice Knollys as countess of Leicester, and Plott playing Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester. In the case of art imitating life, Jung and Plott, and Lettice and Robert, met, fell madly in love and were soon married.

“On our first day of rehearsals, the first day I met Tom, my first words to him were sarcastic,” Jung said. “I walked up to him and said in the snarkiest voice I could muster, ‘I’m in love!’”

Jung laughed as she recalled the tone she used with Plott, who could only admire how beautiful his real life wife-to-be looked.

The performers married in 1996, but not at the festival and not in costume. “So many people ask us, ‘Did you get married at Renn Fest?’” said Plott, recalling a particular conversation with a nurse friend of his. “‘Oh, did you get married at the hospital?’”

Crownsville romances aside, Jung and Plott said there is a lot going on behind the scenes to prepare for the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The festival covers 1,176,120 square feet, the size of roughly 20 football fields, and in every area, there is something going on. There are 10 stages for live shows, pathway performances, jousting, live music, 140 one-of-a-kind artisan vendors, and food galore (42 food and beverage vendors); there is truly something for everyone.

Every season, a different year during the Renaissance period is chosen to be depicted. Entertainment Director Carolyn Spedden is tasked with coming up with the scripts and character biographies for the more than 200 professional performers. Starting with the well-documented people of the time (King Henry VII and Jane Seymour as examples), Spedden then creates a supporting cast. The mayor, each individual villager, the woman who does the king’s laundry, and every possible detail are included to bring the real-life historical soap opera to life.

“Carolyn does a tremendous amount of research all year to accurately depict and create even those most minute details of the year we are performing,” Jung said.

Actors reaudition every spring and are given their characters in June.

“Carolyn’s character bios are extremely detailed and well thought out, but the performers are expected to also know the history so that those characters can come to life,” Jung said. “She gives us the diving-off point to really make those characters our own within the historical context.”

Jung added that all performers can speak in Shakespearian language with a British accent.

All stage performances – except for the hired professional acts – are scripted by Spedden, as well as the 20 five-minute pathways performances, which are interactive performances done with festival attendees on the pathway grounds. Guests are invited to talk to the performers and ask them questions about the characters they are playing.

Jung and Plott have played dozens of characters from servants to royalty over the years at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. They and the other actors appreciate the time and energy that Spedden and others put into making each year unique.

“By changing the historical timeline every year, creating new scripts, new shows, and casting actors in different roles, Carolyn keeps the professional actors fresh,” Jung said. “That’s something that makes this festival the best in the business.”

The festival opens August 24 and runs Saturdays and Sundays and Labor Day Monday through October 20 for nine weekends in Crownsville. For more information, visit www.rennfest.com.