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Milwaukee Common Council Elects Municipal Jester

MILWAUKEE, WI — September 21, 2004 — By unanimous vote, the Common Council of Milwaukee has declared Bay View resident Ann-Elizabeth Shapera as Milwaukee’s “Municipal Jester.”

Ms Shapera is an actor, singer, writer, storyteller, director, producer, teacher and funny-face maker – but she never imagined she’d actually attain her lifelong dream of becoming an actual official jester. Common Council members Tony Zielinski and Michael J. Murphy introduced the resolution appointing her to the newly-created position, making a dream into reality.

“I have an absurd assortment of skills that really only qualify me for one thing, and this is it,” laughs Shapera, who juggles, speaks Italian and French, knows hundreds of groaner one-liners, plays a variety of musical instruments, and designs and sews her own costumes.

Shapera’s alter ego, “Jane the Phoole,” has long been an audience favorite at the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Shapera has performed since 1990, playing Jane since 1993. Shapera is also Bristol’s Director of Street Theatre, and she trains cast members in comic, interactive, iprovisational “street” performance.

Shapera’s character is a theatrical treatment of an actual, historical court jester -- Born Jane Beddes or Jane Bede, and also sometimes called "Jane the Bald," "Jeanne la Folle" and "Jeanne Hir Fole", Jane the Phoole was a "natural" fool who served two royal courts.

Originally, Jane was fool to Mary "Bloody Mary" Tudor; she was given over to Elizabeth Tudor's household late in Mary's ill-fated reign. Jane juggled, told stories, played games, helped create court masques, drew pictures on her bald head to suit the season and the occasion, and blurted out wildly inappropriate things that made everyone laugh.

Jane the Phoole married Sir Nicholas "Xit" le Grande, a two-foot-tall French dwarf who had been court jester to Edward VI, and, oddly enough, they had a son who grew to be nearly seven feet tall. History's account of Jane ends there.

To build a career out of “fooling around,” Shapera had to undertake years of serious study. At Northern Illinois University, she studied performance, British history, art history and Italian. She has been trained in the Linklater vocal technique, and she studied physical comedy, fencing, stage combat, and movement with the legendary Bill Lengfelder.

More information about Ms Shapera and Jane the Phoole is available at Jane’s web site, www.phoole.com.

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