ADLOCVTIO
NEWSLETTER OF THE TWENTIETH LEGION
Vol. XVIII, no. iv, April 2008


AMY HIGH EVENT

    The Amy High scholarship day is Saturday, May 10, at the Lyles Crouch School, 530 South Saint Asaph Street, Alexandria, Virginia.  The event is called Festa Romana, and it is open to the public from 11 AM to 5 PM.  The audience will include a number of high school Latin classes.  Along with our usual Legio XX displays and drills, and Asellina's Caupona, there will be activities for the kids, food vendors, merchants, and more.   Certain Legio XX members will be fulfilling particular roles during the day.  All proceeds from the event go to the Scholarship Fund.  This fund is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the memory of Amy High, a Latin language teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools.  The purpose of the organization is to send teachers and students of Latin to study the language in Rome for a summer semester.  Anything you do to participate is tax deductible, including $0.47/mile gas.

    A good turnout for this may help to turn the event into a 2-day affair next year.  Participants should try to be there by 10 AM if possible, as usual.  Please let Quintus and Richard know your plans!


POTOMAC CELTIC FESTIVAL

    Since we have moved Roman Days to September, I have accepted an invitation to the Legion to participate at the Potomac Celtic Festival on June 14 (one day only, this year at least).  The location is Morven Park in Leesburg Virginia, and the public hours are 10 AM to 7 PM.   A number of other Scottish and Irish reenactment groups have been invited, from various eras.  Since this is a well-established event with good attendance by the public, it means good exposure for us with minimal effort.  Looks like there's a lot going on!   See the Festival's website at:

http://www.pcfest.org 

      This may also go to a 2-day event next year.  Oh, and the site JUST a few miles past Roger's house, so if we get rained out we can drag all our muddy caligae across his carpets, eh?


ROMAN DAYS 2008

    The next Roman Days will be on the weekend of September 26-28, 2008 (not June!), probably in Northern Virginia.  Richard and Deb have been working in concert with the Fairfax County Latin Teachers Association, whose members are very enthusiastic about helping out with a site, funding, and more.   The discussion is on the Roman Days list, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romandays/ 



FILMING, from David Smith

Friends, Romans, "barbarians, " et al:

Salvete,

I have been in contact with a film maker who is interested in shooting a docudrama in Gettysburg-- probably the weekend AFTER Roman Days.

This film maker is interested in "fit" and "accurate" Romans and "barbarians," including some civilians.

Details about pay/legal have not been worked out, but the film maker has asked me to coordinate personnel, equipment, etc.  When I get more information, I'll start contacting unit leaders for individual talent shots and resumes. The director wants me to stress two things:
 
1) Reenactors must be fit enough to look like active legionaries;
2) Reenactors must be willing to get their equipment wet and/or dirty.

The reason this project seems especially cool is that the director is willing to shoot narration/dialogue in Latin with English subtitles, and is interested in doing some battle sequences with "barbarians. "  Also, there would be camp scenes demonstrating aspects of daily camp life.  I have already suggested that this film maker visit Roman Days, Lafe, Pompeii II, etc. to get an idea of what we Romans can do.  Let's show the shiny boys of Ermine Street Guard that we Yanks have come of age!

Since there are already Revolutionary War and American Civil War docudramas out there, why not for Rome?

Please let me know if anyone is interested. This project will involve a screening of individuals, working with the casting director, so if you have a 'talent shot,' that would be great.

Gratias,
David
dsmith7070 AT comcast DOT net



MORE DISTANT EVENTS

BATTLE FILMING from Robert Wear, Legio V Alaudae

Dear Legion Commanders,

    I’ve started working out the logistics for a massive battle film at my farm in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  I’m tentatively looking at the first weekend in June 2008 as possible dates. Roman Days used to be during that time, but is now becoming a fall event.
    This is still in the super early planning stages but everyone in the group is more excited about it than any other event idea we’ve done, so we’re going to do it.  It’s just a matter of dates now.  If we were to plan for JUNE 6-8, would we be causing problems with any other roman events in the works that you know of?
    Right now, the plan is to stay almost completely devoid of plot – just take an entire day (or two if possible) and make a friggin awesome battle scene (around 10 minutes).  Then in the following months later when we don’t need a cast of 80, we’ll worry about filling in the lead ups to the battle.  We’ve actually made lots of these in the past so I’m supremely confident I can get a great battle scene, especially now that I have actual training in production, access to good technology, and people who know how to use it.
    Our first one back in 2002 in high school we had 23 people at the high point of the film day.  Now we have more gear, know more folks, and I still have contact info on the 50 people who came to the last 4 we had and want to come again.  I think if we could get some reenactors from other groups down here, 80 or more is a perfectly possible number of extras (and would be great fun to be fighting in the midst of).
    It's also during the summer break in a tourist town.  So it would be easy to bring the whole family down.  If they don’t like roman stuff, they can go to Dollywoods or the National Park etc.

Robert Wear
LEGIO V ALAUDAE
Tennessee
rwear AT utk DOT edu
------------------------

--CASTRA ROMANA POMPEII II, THE ERUPTION CONTINUES, from Rusty Myers
September 5-7, 2008
The Discovery Place Museum
301 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
704-372-6261
Re-Enactor Contact: Rusty Myers
Phone: 843-437-5587
Email: JustusLonginus AT aol DOT com
http://www.CastraRomana-Pompeii.com 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pompeiireborn/ 



CALENDAR
   May 3-- Probably the Monthly Workshop
   May 10-- Amy High Scholarship event, bigger than last year.
   June 7-- Probably the Monthly Workshop
   June 14-- Legio XX at the Potomac Celtic Festival, Leesburg, VA

------------------------------

ADLOCVTIO is the Official Newsletter of the Twentieth Legion, supposedly published on the Ides of each month.  I am Quintus, aka Matthew Amt, the Legion's Commander and Editor of the Newsletter, matthew_amt AT yahoo DOT com, http://www.larp.com/legioxx/ .