Whitman College’s 44th Annual Renaissance Faire will take place this Saturday, April 26 and will last from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the lawn in front of Memorial Hall.

A highlight of the events the faire offers are the comedy sketches. Since 2000 the skits have satirized politics, poking fun at pop culture and entertaining the faire-goers. According to junior Lydia Loopesko, one of the main organizers of the faire, there will be two plays this year.

“The first is about a crusade to Crimea to save it from the Russian occupation. The second is about burning witches to solve the problem of global cooling … The conflicts brought up in both these skits are then resolved by the king and queen at the Noon Court,” Loopesko stated in an email interview. “We also have performances of ‘Reduced Hamlet’ and ‘Verily a New Hope,’ a Shakespearean adaptation of ‘Star Wars.'”

The plays are 100 percent student produced. The Renaissance Faire group sits down and decides what the theme should be, and then the script chairs write up a skit. All the characters are played by students, except for the roles of queen and king, which are always given to faculty.

This year’s queen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy Cassie Fallscheer, is very excited to take part in the faire. While Fallscheer suspects that she may have been chosen because of her lack of prior knowledge of the responsibilities that came along with being the queen, she admitted that she will doubtless have a great time doing it anyway.

“I think I was selected because there is a strong contingent of astronomy majors who are in the faire, and they thought ‘Oh, we have a willing and unknowing person we can ask to be the queen.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I don’t know, I’m pretty much up for anything,” said Fallscheer.

Fallscheer also expressed her excitement at experiencing the Renaissance Faire for the first time.

“Having never experienced it before, I am really excited to attend and see what it’s all about. It sounds like it’s going to be an absolute hoot,” she said.

The two skits will take place at noon and 2:30 p.m. on the main stage.

Junior Jessica Sutter, one of the organizers of the faire, also listed the other various fun events and activities that will be available for faire-goers.

“We have performances throughout the day, we have a new magician this year, … dancers, T-tones, all that kind of stuff. [There will be] merchants––there’s a lot of people selling jewelry. We have a new woman coming this year … who sells vintage clothes out of her trailer …. It’ll be a fun place to stop by. A lot of fun all day long,” she said.