April 6th is Scottish Heritage Day!
We have chosen this day to honor our own Scottish Captain who is celebrating 5 years of swashbuckling silliness with Swords and Roses.

Photo courtesy of Lisa's Husband

5 years ago, Swords and Roses took a big leap as a company as it left the idea of two real sisters fighting as pirates (basing most of our comedy on many years of sibling rivalry) and it expanding the concept of the Captains versus the First Mates.
Lisa Pavia-Higel was the first actress brought on board as part of the "expansion team" and she has remained on the active duty roster.  Lisa brought her quick wit and love for creative ways to educate, which helped pave the way for better scripts for Swords and Roses. Lisa came up with the script concepts for Pirates versus Ninjas (which was responsible for bringing Ninjas to the St. Louis Pirate Fest) and Pirate Con.  Lisa is also responsible for acting as a script doctor and she doctored many of the shows including our biggest sellers The Science of Swashbuckling and In Search of Buried Treasure.  In 2013,  Lisa was given the title of Script Writer for Swords and Roses and it was the best decision Maria Romine, the owner of the company, could have made. Lisa wrote the scripts for A Ship of Dreams (our faire/festival show) and Paws Off Me Treasure, Mateys! A lot has happened in the past 5 years to Lisa personally, she is now married and is the mother of Captain Fia our next generation of Swords and Roses.  In fact you can see Captain Fia's stage debut right here...


Lisa took a few minutes to answer some questions about her experiences with Swords and Roses.

 The Honorable Mayor of Owensville backed up by her First Mate-Eveleen

What prompted you to audition for Swords and Roses?
A few things. My boyfriend (now husband) had been prodding me to get back into acting and performing, so I started trolling around on Stlauditions.com. When I saw the listing for someone willing to sing, act, dance, do comedy AND sword fight…it looked like a perfect opportunity. I have a little bit of a martial arts background so it seemed a perfect fit.  

What made you choose a Scottish character?
Maria describes her captains as feisty with a preponderance of Napoleon Complex. I’ve always thought of Scots as feisty. Maria was French and I knew from my history that all Socts were allowed French citizenship until the 1920’s or so due to a long-standing alliance. I can do a passable Scottish accent, so I finally settled on Moira Stewart.  The name came from Moira McTaggert from the X-Men comics and Stewart since my husband is related to the Stewart family.

What are the challenges you have faced as a performer for Swords and Roses?
I suffer from somewhat severe asthma and our shows are very very physical. I’ve really had to stay on top of my health to keep performing.

What is your favorite memory of a Swords and Roses show?
I have two. We were in a very small town in Illinois and a deaf child showed up. I know a little sign language so I did a little bit of the show in sign and “talked” with her afterward. She loved it and I was so happy that she felt included.

My other favorite moment probably shouldn’t be. We were rehearsing on the Renfair stage getting ready for a show. I saw a bench against what I thought was a wall and said to myself “that looks like fun to jump on in the middle of the song”. I was wrong. What I thought was a solid back piece was actually drop cloth. I flipped the bench, it tumbled backward and I shot through the drop cloth under the stage…funny as all get out. I kinda wish there would have been an audience. 

What do you like best about Swords and Roses?
Definitely the creative collaboration. We all have a hand in the development of our shows and we are given the freedom to tailor our show to the audience at hand. It gives me a great sense of pride in our work to know that we make each show unique for each audience.

I also love the message. You can be a girl, but you can also be tough, fierce and funny. I am also blessed to work with wonderfully talented ladies who are all amazing artists. Working and travelling with them has been a singular honor and a great pleasure. 

 Thank you, Lisa, for your hard work and dedication!