Flash Company, Thank you. You've got something there. I like those ideas. I could use the same format of one to one encounter then a reprise for the other Merry Men too. I'll take a look at 'The Sporting Races of Galway' and other bragging songs. I have re-written some songs as parodies for other bits of the play.

Little John, Will Scarlet and Much the Miller's Son are the Merry Men of the earliest ballads. The other Merry Men came later. I'm thinking of having Little John as the first one to be gathered.
The stories about the gathering of the Men is to be told around a camp fire - in flash-back. This way the whole cast is there, even the Sheriff of Nottingham who is paying for the feast as usual. I'm doing it rather like the way the parables are told in "Godspell" - in mime and a few words, using a narrator.
The stream will be lengths of blue and green gauze held by some of the cast. There is a lot of interchange between the cast and the audience. (I was greatly influenced by Pantomime as a child) Thanks again FC. I'll be interested in seeing what develops. Cheers, Joy