We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Swords And Stories a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Swords, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Along with the many renaissance faires and shows we perform throughout the year, our outreach and charity work are one of the primary focuses of Swords and Stories as a team. We started planning in 2016 and launched Swords and Stories in 2017 with the goal to reintroduce the world to the precepts of knighthood and chivalry. Our creative direction is based off Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queen, which focuses on the knightly virtues and how to embrace them in our everyday lives.

As knightly performers, giving back to the community through our charity works is just as important as prowess on the battlefield. Through the last three years, we have raised thousands of dollars to assist multiple charities such as RESCU, The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Anthony Albanese (49) – With over 25 years of stage combat and theatrical stage experience, Anthony is motivated to take the experiences that he has learned to grow a new generation in the knightly arts. With a military (Army) background as well as a certified fitness educator/personal trainer, Anthony looks not only to raise the potential of aspiring performers both physically and artistically, but raise the attention of others to one of the main points of chivalry – which is charity.

Vincent Smith (41) – As well as over 20 years of medieval reenactment and historical combat experience, Vincent also brings a background in marketing and visual storytelling to the Swords and Stories mission. He has always strived to help evolve the idea of knighthood beyond the current and popular media representation.

Together, Anthony and Vincent collaborate to create a new era where performers go further than their character.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Anthony – Working with new performers and helping them to visualize and achieve their goals through hard work and educating themselves both theatrically, and within our outreach programs. To continue to help raise individuals to their full potential both in the knightly martial sciences and the science of human generosity.

Vincent – Utilizing marketing and social media as our sword and shield to help visually draw audiences to our brand. By drawing them in to our stories and our mission equally, we can then inspire them to take action outside of just applauding our performances by supporting each other.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We started out like most small businesses by utilizing Facebook as our main advertising tool. The ability to connect with your audience individually is a great asset to build the foundation and introduce our mission statement via social media. However, Facebook’s free reach can quickly become very limited.. To counter that, we felt it best to create a more interactive and inclusive community that is open to all like-minded individuals who share our passions towards theatre and chivalry. Thus was the Citadel of Virtues Facebook group created. This community page gave us an open forum to discuss all topics, both historical/theatrical and outreach.

We also realized that having our Citadel connected to an outside website was necessary to leverage our business and build our mission further. So we built our business website (www.swordsandstories.com) to give those viewing our page a high-level understanding of all the aspects of our business, including:

– Theatrical Stage Combat Renaissance Faire Shows
– Squire Training Shows for kids
– Charity and Outreach Programs
– Medieval-style Boot Camps
– Personalized Merchandise Offerings
– Public and Private Event Performances (Birthdays, Scout Dinners, etc.)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.swordsandstories.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swordsandstories/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swordsandstories
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@swordsandstories

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Photography by Michael Ulrich