For These Franklin Residents, a Labour of Love
By J.D. O’Gara
Fall is upon us. Time for harvests, leaves changing color, cool temps, and in this neck of the woods, King Richard’s Faire. The annual interactive event in Carver, Mass. is New England’s largest and longest-running Renaissance Faire, and it will run weekends and Monday holidays this year through October 22nd. From eight stages, featuring hundreds of performers, from brave knights battling in the jousting tournament, bawdy beggars in the Mud Pit, frolicking faeries dancing through the forest, and villagers, from bawdy beggars to lords and ladies, two actors, Franklin residents Jamie Dellorco Hanley and Ryan Hanley, have created their own fairy tale.
“During the final song of revels, they kind of set it up, (Ryan) pulled me forward and asked me to marry him,” says Jamie, who, like her father and grandmother before her, grew up in town. She and Ryan, now parents to two-year-old son, Rocco, are raising their family in Franklin, while still performing at King Richard’s Faire.
Jamie has acted all her life, a student at the Franklin School for the Performing Arts all through her high school career at Bishop Feehan. She received her BA in Musical Theatre from Rhode Island College and was a member of Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre and children’s band Rock-n-Railroad while she lived in New York. She was first introduced to King Richard’s Faire in 2010 when she stood in for a friend at a children’s trunk show at the fair.
“There’s a big trunk on stage, and you bring up kids to play all the characters,” says Jamie. “I had never performed at a renaissance fair before, and I had so much fun, I auditioned the next year for the main cast.” That audition cast her as a member of King Richard’s Court, and she’s played “Princess Snow, of Weisenheim,” sister to the Queen, since 2014.
Ryan, a Cranston, RI native, is a union rep for the Actor’s Equity Association by day.
He has an MFA in theatre from Rhode Island College, with an undergraduate degree in Fine Performing Arts from the Mass. College of Liberal Arts. Versed in community theatre and improvisation theatre, he spent time working with Speed of Thought Players, originally based in North Attleboro, and then, while in New York, he trained with the Upright Citizens Brigade to hone his craft.
Ryan joined King Richard’s troupe, in part, to see Jamie.
“I auditioned in 2012, because I would never get to see her in the fall,” he laughs. “I think one of the special things about it, from a professional standpoint, is it’s a place we’ve been given the opportunity to grow as performers,” says Ryan, who started off working the pickle booth, developing his improv character into Piers the Pickle Purveyor, who would sing Shakespearean-style parody songs. Adding to that role, Ryan served as various characters on the court, as well as the town crier. Later, he was offered the position of Director in the village program, and he’s also been host of biannual pub crawls for the fair.
“From a more personal standpoint, the relationships that both Jamie and I have built at the festival just get better and better. Everyone that takes part in this festival is passionate about that work. They have a solid understanding of just how special that festival is for a lot of patrons, and many of us have had experience as a patron. We all really take seriously the responsibility of creating that magic.”
“It’s a magical place,” says Jamie. She paraphrases one of the previous queens in the show who’s passed on, “We’re ‘the childhood memories of tomorrow’s adults.’ That’s why I do it. I love to make magic, especially for the kids. I love to be part of that.”
For more information on King Richard’s Faire, visit
