The Mendicant Pauper Company
Despite their name, the Mendicant Paupers are one of, if not the most, prestigious, sought-after traveling theater companies in all Europa. They are surrounded with an air of exotic mystery, because when not on stage, they travel in cloaks, hoods, and veils. The only time people see them without them, they are on stage, in costume, and often wearing masks. They only use their own company’s performers and laborers, refusing any help from the local theater world to put on their fantastic performances. Their actors are masterful, known to move even the most hard-hearted, cynical audiences, and their costumes, stages, and effects are nothing short of phenomenal. The arrival of the Mendicants in a city tends to cause a storm in the local theater community, with the local players feeling chagrin, and some envy, and the audience excited to see the production. The Mendicants do not feel the need to cater to their audiences’ preferences - they have been known to resurrect plays not seen in a hundred years or more, or to find a local playwright and buy the rights to put on their creations.
In their travels, however, once or twice a year, they choose not to stop in a major city, or if they do, they do not pick one of the larger theaters to perform. They will stop in a small village, or find a poor community playhouse in a big city, and perform there, often not charging the locals anything. (They tend to be very good at determining who is a local, and who isn’t, and have been known to demand one wealthy patron trying to sneak in with the crowd pay 10 gold to enter, while everyone around them is let in gratis.)