August Prompt: Summer Theater

2. Mages are part of Ivras and its history, and should as such be present in art and culture as well, good or bad.

The arrival of summer brought with it a flood of parchment posters tacked to every available vertical surface in the public squares of Namarast. Announcements of gatherings, festivals, shows, traveling bands—any event that could possibly gain the attention of the mages of the Order were pasted to the wall in high-traffic areas, hoping to attract the attention of whoever might be passing through. For Arianwyn, most of the advertisements were easily ignorable. She had no interest in attending the 57th annual porridge eating competition, no matter how many great prizes the oversized poster boasted one could win. Nor did she care much about the traveling tavern band notorious for its unique choice to have every musician play the accordion—she had had the misfortune of merely walking past the tavern they played at the previous year, and still heard the cacophony of that band in her nightmares.

No, Arianwyn’s taste tended towards the classier performances, the summer theater. Every year, the spotted mare anxiously awaited the announcement of the shows that would play on Namarast’s many stages. For weeks leading up the start of the theater season, she would check every day for new postings, determined to find out what stories she would hear on the stage this year. She had always been fascinated with the theater as a medium for stories; more potent than words, acted out with such flare and poise that one couldn’t help but be drawn into the unfolding tale. As a youth, she had once told her caretakers that she wished to learn to be an actress rather than enter the academy for mages after watching a particularly moving play about a young princess’s first adventure outside of the castle. She had longed so much for what the talented actors had portrayed: their longing, the action, the cheers of the crowd. While she had ultimately grown away from the path of the arts towards an academic career, she still thrived on the summer theater offerings, and would be certain to attend every single one.

Out of all the shows, the ones Arianwyn adored the most were those that told the legends of Ivras’s most influential mages. She adored the tale of heroics that came so naturally through those stories, and could see no better way of honoring the great champions of their land’s history than through acting. Through the theater, she could live and breath the great tales of past mages. One day, she dreamt, her tale would be told. Actors would depict her legend, share stories of her greatest achievements to others. If she could live up to the heroics of her parents, she would sure, one day, her tale would be told.

For now, though, she could only train, and wait for the summer theater season to begin anew. The day the first poster was tacked up in the square, she would have the announcement committed to memory, excitedly anticipating the arrival of the show. She simply could not wait for the curtain to rise.