The largest and oldest of the RMC’s events, the Annual Picnic and Charades combines community fellowship, theatrical creativity, enjoyment of the outdoors and fun for all ages. Join the audience in Mossy Glen on the third Saturday of August, or join the volunteers who plan and perform the “charade” skits that entertain us every year. This one-of-a-kind event celebrated its centennial in 2013, and it faithfully continues the RMC’s distinct picnic-and-performance traditions, in all their quirky detail.
The main feature is the Charades, where groups from different parts of Randolph take turns presenting original skits and scenes, with spoken dialogue, costumes, props, and occasionally music and special effects. Each group’s presentation is based on a secret word, whose syllables are hinted at in the initial scenes, followed by a final scene representing the whole word, and then the audience must try to guess the word. Puns, wordplay, topical humor and Randolph current events appear reliably in each year’s performances.
Our Picnic traditions are older than anyone now alive in Randolph. The groups of presenters were established early in the twentieth century, when summer social life was centered in three of the major hotels in town (where mail was also delivered), and they have now outlasted the hotels by many decades. The Valley (Ravine House) includes mostly Durand Road residents; the Midlands (Mountain View House) is residents of the lower part of Randolph Hill Road, and the Hill (Mt. Crescent House) is residents of the upper part. More recently at the Picnic, the Mountain (RMC camp and trail crew employees and alumni) have also presented a charade. After the charade performances the entire audience is led in singing of rounds, and at the end all stand and join hands to sing “Auld Lang Syne”.
Weather permitting, the Picnic is held outdoors at the Mossy Glen amphitheater, a site along Carlton Brook that can be reached by the RMC’s Groveway path, as well as by an unmarked access road. The amphitheater, located on land owned by the Horton family, is just below the Town-owned scenic area of Mossy Glen and the Nepalese Bridge where the Groveway crosses the brook. The seating terraces and performance area were constructed for the RMC in the 1960s, after the Picnic’s longtime site next to Cold Brook was rendered unusable by the construction of U.S. Route 2.
Come be part of the Picnic and Charades! The event is open to all, and many volunteers are needed to make it all happen: charade leaders, performers, prop and costume makers, punch servers, song leaders and an annual clean-up team to get the amphitheater ready. If you’d like to help, please contact the Events Chair [link] and watch the [calendar / blog posts] and the Randolph Weekly for charade rehearsal meetings earlier in the summer.
