The Excellent Company of Ravenrook Ltd.
Below are listed the performers and musicians, seamstresses and chefs who comprise the lifeblood of Ravenrook Ltd. Many of them are available for independent engagements and you may contact them directly should it better suit your needs.

Anna Mansbridge, the Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, has taught and performed baroque dance throughout the U.K. and in Sweden, Norway, America, and Australia. She received her first degree in teacher training as a Dance Specialist from Bedford College, U.K., and then went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography and Performance at Mills College, CA. She is a founding member of Footwork OffLimits, a UK dance company. Since moving to Seattle in 1998 she has worked on numerous projects, including The Fairy Queen with Ballet Bellevue, Dance Royale with Gallery Concerts, and Monteverdi's Balo dello Ingrate at Town Hall.

Our nightingale, Carol Monahan, is dedicated to singing beautiful songs and wearing beautiful dresses. She began performing more than 20 years ago (as a mere child!), singing Gregorian chant and other liturgical music at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and Our Lady Assumed into Heaven in Galway, Ireland. She studied Opera for 3 years while attending university, where she also performed Medieval and Renaissance music with the Collegium Musicum. After graduation, she continued formal vocal studies for another 5 years. She began performing with Blood, Love & Rhetoric in 2000. She has a keen interest in the everyday life of the Renaissance, and has made a particular study of Renaissance clothing and needlework.

Cecil Longino, self-professed lout and ne'er-do-well, esteems himself far more disreputable than his misdeeds bear out. He has been enticing modern audiences with his direction and performance of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays for more than a decade. With a BA in Dramatic Literature focusing on Elizabethan works and a minor in history, he has squandered his time in the most agreeable fashion imaginable, the production of almost all of Christopher Marlowe's plays. On a dark and stormy night in the heart of Florida back in 1993, he founded Blood, Love & Rhetoric as a literary magazine but has since enjoyed many permutations to bring it to the stature it enjoys today. In addition he plays music upon the stately Viola da Gamba and founded the Academia della Spada where he holds the office of Maestro and professes both the Noble Art of Fence and roguery.

Ravenrook chatelaine Cynthia Madsen started training as a chef at the age of 8. She took a BS in Enology (winemaking) with a minor in food service management from UC Davis and went on to produce sparkling wine in Sonoma County for 15 years. Turning her eye to the sea, she sailed the Carribean for a year before taking a post as hotel manager of an eco-tourism cruise line. All the while there smoldered within her a keen interest in fabric, textiles and clothing which burst into flame with the kindling of Medieval and Renaissance history. Today she is equally content researching and preparing the recipes of ancient banquets, recreating the cut of courtly clothing, and savoring the bouquet of someone else's champagne.

Jack of all Trades, masters in literature, Nathan Barnett spent his formative years studying Old English and Renaissance literarture and a variety of musical instruments including guitar, recorder and string bass. In 1999 his musical interests turned to the Arts of the Renaissance. He has since focused on voice and the lute, queen of instruments. In addition to musical pursuits, he is the Usher of Academia della Spada, has professed literature and linguistics at universities and colleges, appeared in a variety of plays, and won the heart of a fair lady. Since 2001 he has been a member of Blood, Love & Rhetoric with whom he has danced, wooed, spoken and bled.

If amusement had a name it would be Payne — Master Payne that is. A Purveyor of Japes, Cheap Tricks and Minor Miracles, Master Payne has been presenting his Thematic Thaumaturgy for over a quarter century in locales as far afield as the Great Halls of England and the Pacific Isles. Young and old alike will be amazed and amused by the quips and tricks of this roguish juglar. A Washington State native, Payne has been performing magic in one form or another most of his life. He has won awards for both his close up and stage magic and has received the accolades of his peers for both originality and unique performing style.

Shulamit Kleinerman plays Renaissance violin, dances, writes about music, and teaches arts and cultural education. While majoring in music and English at UC Berkeley, she received a fellowship to study historical violin performance with Monica Huggett in London, where Shula played with the Linden Baroque Orchestra and Charivari Agréable. In Seattle, she performs with Seattle Early Dance and Blood, Love, and Rhetoric. Shula enjoys teaching preschool, and she offers enrichment projects at other schools and classes for older children in history and the arts. Her articles on music history and performance appear in the Early Music America Magazine.

'We praise not the nightingale for her plumage nor the peacock for his voice, but each in its way contributes to the beauty of God's creation.' So likewise, although for fencing Toivo Rovainen should employ Cobb's Traverse and for singing should listen to his betters, all courts need footmen. For fanning and fetching, and for wearing his superiors' outmoded doublets with gratitude, Toivo's your boy.

A history and arts enthusiast, Victoria Dzenis has had more than 10 years' experience educating people using performance and living-history. While in New Jersey she was Education Director at Historic Allaire Village, an outdoor museum. In Seattle, she has held the position of Operations Supervisor for Museum Education at Pacific Science Center. She holds a BA in Anthropology. She has been singing the harmonies of the Alto for as long as she can remember, and as it happens her favorite music to sing is that of the Renaissance. Other favorite pastimes include Renaissance courtly dances and Renaissance fencing techniques. She has also been known to dabble with the hurdy-gurdy from time to time. She moved to Seattle in 1994 and in 1997 she joined Blood, Love & Rhetoric and the Academia della Spada as one of its founding members.