Using Social Media to Create Cohesion Before a Living History Event

This post will focus on how to use social media, and other digital media, to create cohesion between groups and individual participants before one-weekend living history events. I will also be talking about how we can reach out to the public to help them feel comfortable engaging when they walk through the gate. These strategies should apply whether you are working in a first-person or third-person environment. 

The Problem
There are some living history events and groups which are able to meet regularly to rehearse. Events which run for several weekends in a row, such as The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, will rehearse for several weeks leading up to the run. This creates group cohesion and helps to keep everyone lined up with the goals of the event or site.

But what do you do when everyone involved can't get together ahead of time? Many living history events are only one weekend. They typically consist of several independent groups and individuals which come together for the weekend, and then go their separate ways. These folks may live several hours apart, making any kind of physical group rehearsal impossible.

If your group meets regularly to rehearse, drill, etc., you may have excellent internal cohesion, but you may still face challenges interacting with other groups for the weekend. It can be too easy to remain in an insular group with the people you know all weekend, instead of cross-pollinating with other participants.

"Who the heck are those people over there? Do they bite? Am I allowed to go talk to them? I better just stay over here where it's safe...."

Sometimes this can even be a matter of fear, or intimidation- we think 'Oh, So- and -So is so cool, they couldn't want to talk to me!", etc.  Of course this is usually not true, but it is still a perfectly understandable reaction around people you may not know very well yet.


So, What to do?
This is where our modern communications tools, including social media, can be extremely helpful. Facebook, for all its many troubles, is a good meeting ground for reenactors and living historians. You tend to find active groups with lots of people there. Instagram could be a good place to start too, to get the word out about what you are doing and how others can come interact with you, though it may not foster the same kind of interactive discussion.

I was actually inspired to write this post by watching my friends in the Guild of St. George, Inc., prepare for the San Jose Renaissance Faire. The theme for the event is fairies, and the Guild has chosen a scenario to support this where they are putting on a court masque based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I know this from 2,300 miles away, because I've seen Rydell posting this EVERYWHERE the last few days. As Guildmaster, he's been using social media to explain what his group is doing, and invite folks from other groups to come and interact with them. This way St. George is supporting the theme of the event, and encouraging interaction between participants, to create a better immersive experience for attendees.

Members of other guilds came to perform for the Queen.
Photo by Angelica Roque

Readers of this blog may have also noticed several posts leading up to the Jane Austen Festival.  At the event, I was running an environmental area where festival goers were invited to come, sit, and enjoy some Regency-era hospitality. However, this is not the only such area at the event. Carol Jarboe also runs a wonderful salon as Caroline, Lady Linnington. My goal was to add something to the event which complimented what she was doing, but did not copy it. I think of us as the Longbourn to her Rosings.

So I reached out to Carol on Facebook, and we talked about what she was doing, and how I could be sure to add something different. It turns out that Lady Caroline does not enjoy games of cards in her parlour, so cards became a major feature in our area. By coordinating this way, Carol and I made sure that we weren't stepping on each other's toes, and that festival goers would have a broader immersive experience by visiting each of us.

Lady Linnington would prefer that her guests attention be focused on her, not whatever ace they may be holding.
Photo by Jen Jarboe

It is very easy for us to forget how overwhelming it can be for people to walk through the gate and into our world. Members of the public who come visit may not know how to approach living history performers. Remember, these good souls are the ones who keep the playground alive by showing up!

In the particular case of the Jane Austen Festival, there is less of a divide between "public" and "participants" than at many other events. The festival has a particularly active following on social media, including a very large Facebook group. This made it possible to reach out directly to attendees prior to the event by putting my blog posts up in the group. I was able to use this to invite festival goers to come and interact with us, and tell them how to do so. I even included a link to a Whist tutorial, and was extremely gratified when a few ladies showed up having practiced!

Some delightful, well-mannered company, at a game of whist. 

Photo by Janet Abell

However, it is rare for event goers to be conveniently herded into a Facebook group heading into an event like that. More of the time, I have found that Facebook events can be very good for recruiting and coordinating participants, but they are not ideal for promoting the event to the public. The event planners themselves may wish to incorporate what you are doing into their promotion, which is why it's important for group leaders and event coordinators to stay in close contact. 

In the old days, where event advertising was limited to costly print media, it could be hard do much about this. However in this brave new world of nearly limitless, often free, media leading up to an event, we can get really specific telling people what they are able to do, and how they can go about making it happen.  The organizing body may wish to share blog posts you have written. Or they may prefer to put up easier-to-digest graphics with quick blurbs, telling visitors how they can interact with you, "You may present yourself to the Queen!" or "Lady Caroline would love you to introduce yourself!", or "Don't forget to check the schedule to see where and when to sign your kids up for militia drill!"  If possible, it is also a good idea to include specific times and places to direct visitors to.

Kids militia drill, being lead by a visiting reenactor at Locust Grove's 18th Century Market Fair. Photo courtesy of Historic Locust Grove.

I always want to support the theme and goals of any living history event, while creating an immersive environment for our guests.  All of these things are possible when we take the time and initiative to reach out and communicate with each other and with the hardworking folks who organize and produce these events.

Living History Theatre Pt III: Process and Technique

I must acknowledge, as much as I can, the great debt I owe to Therese Porter and Rydell Downward for all of the years of training they gave me in rehearsals for the Great Dickens Christmas Fair and the Guild of St. George, Inc. Many of the techniques I am discussing here came directly from them, as well as any idea I may have about what I am doing. 

This post is dedicated to some very important places where the theatre side of things will really help create a quality living history experience. For more please see Part I and Part II in this series.

Auditions

Most living history ventures I have been involved in involve an audition, just like any other theatrical endeavor. Often they are working off of set cast lists meaning that there are actually a limited number of spots. At Locust Grove, we limit the cast to members of the Clark and Croghan families and their friends whom we can document to have been in Louisville in the year 1816. Therefore we audition prospective members for specific parts.

At Locust Grove, our auditions go something like this. When someone signs up for a slot, we send them out a prepared monologue, which is a slightly altered version of a letter from the family. They will read for a three person panel including myself, Brian Cushing (who is the Program Director for Locust Grove), and another volunteer, usually our AD, but sometimes a member of the volunteer steering committee.

At this point, we are looking at a couple of things; first of all, how much work someone has put into preparing, but also how they are able to take the words from a primary source and bring them to life. I will often give people feedback and direction, and ask them to read again. At this point I am looking to see how well they take direction.

After that, we will ask them to do some improv, where a member of our panel will pretend to be a member of the public. We tell them that this is the only time they are allowed to completely make it all up. This is not a history test, we are just looking to see how comfortable they are speaking to the public.

We don't actually photograph this process, but here is a similar exercise from a rehearsal.
Courtesy of Fox & Rose Photography. 

After that, time permitting, we like to chat with them and get to know them a little. We make sure they understand how the program works, and just what will be asked of them if they join. The reality is that they are signing up for a very specific project which involves a lot of time and hard work. It's not for everyone, and we'd rather they run away now rather then then later.

There are a number of advantages to this approach. First of all, while it may sound exclusionary, this can actually be a very good way to recruit new members. Promoting auditions raises the profile for your group, while directing people to a certain time and place to come if they are interested. Even if you are not working with a limited cast of characters, this approach may be helpful.

Conversely however, this does actually provide a barrier to participation. And I argue that that is a good thing for several reasons. This entire approach to living history is based on the idea that it is not a free-for-all. A successful living history performance is well directed, well planned, and well rehearsed. That starts with choosing the right people to be involved, and being sure that those people take this seriously and are willing to put in the work. Having to audition instead of just show up will make people value their place in your cast. And we would always rather have a few really wonderful people who are on task, than a lot of people who are not.


The Script, or, "It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere"

There's a scene in The Great Muppet Caper where Lady Holiday, played by Diana Rigg,tells Miss Piggy, whom she has just met, all about her ne'er do well brother who she barely trusts but can't help clinging to. Piggy looks at her in a very confused voice and says 'Um, why are you telling me all this?', to which Lady Holiday responds, in a very matter of fact tone, "It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere."

"Um, why are you telling me all this?"

 "It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere"

When I'm trying to recruit someone new to this endeavor, they will often ask me 'well, do you have a script?". The answer is yes and no. This is an improvisational performance, between you, your fellow performers, and the public who come to interact with you. So no, not a lot of what we do involves a traditional script. But there is material.

We have research (or in some cases, like the Dickens Fair, we have literature).  The art is in taking that information and having it come out of your mouth in a way that seems natural in an improvisational performance. I recommend everyone keep a running list of 'talking points' they are comfortable working with. It's a good idea to review these before an event and go in with a couple of nuggets you are really up on and keen to discuss that day. (If you see me in my car talking to myself on the way to the Grove, that's *probably* me practicing what I want to talk about that day.....probably.)

If you are part of a group, it's a good idea to decide on a few talking points and overall theme ahead of time for specific events, so that you are all on the same page.

The Audience, aka, the Public 

Always remember, that without the public, the playground goes away. With a few exceptions, most living history venues are being run by a site or production company which needs to meet certain goals in order to keep doing this. Frequently this is a matter of money, but not always. Museums or other historic sites may be more interested in counting the number of boots on the ground for mission centered programming than the actual dollar amounts raised (sometimes these numbers can translate into funding through grants and other donations).

Courtesy of Fox & Rose Photography

Unlike a traditional play, however, the goal here is to bring your audience into the action with you. The photograph above is from the Sleepy Hollow event at Historic Tunnel Mill in 2014. The story played out for the public that day, with Ichabod attempting to eat his own body weight while Katrina van Tassel coyly lead him on to tease Brom Bones.

At one point a little girl who had been watching all of this stomped up to me as Katrina demanding an an answer to the love triangle she had been witnessing all day. "OK!" she said "So do you like Ichabod? Because, he. likes. YOU!" In that moment, that child was not just watching the story, she was living it, like any other little gossiping neighbor in Sleepy Hollow. It was magical.

Cheating out/Playing to your audience
Members of the public who come to a living history event may be unsure of their role. They may feel uncomfortable approaching a performer, and be unsure of who they are supposed to talk to and how. We must extend our hands to guide them in and make them feel welcome.

In order to pull your audience in, one of the most important things is to think about your sight lines. Can the public see you? Can they see the display you are setting up? Do you look accessible and approachable? Look around and make sure that there is a clear line of sight to where you are sitting. Think about cheating out- meaning that your front is facing your audience and they feel invited in.

Al Capone and henchman (Troy and Brandon) at a recent 1920's event at the Grove. Notice how they are talking to each other, but only occupying half the table so they are visible and approachable. 

Courtesy of Fox and Rose Photography 

This will sometimes mean standing in a way that does not feel natural, meaning that you may not be directly facing the other performer you are talking to. Practice will make this feel more natural, I promise.

Try to think about not blocking your fellow performers as well. If they are facing the audience,  but your back is in the way, all their hard work is in vain (reeanctors will sometimes refer to a 'circle-jerk', meaning that a bunch of folks are standing around in a circle so that only their backs can be seen).

Notice how Miss Bullitt is sitting next to Mr. Clarke, but not blocking him or stealing focus from what he is doing. 

Courtesy of Fox & Rose photography. 

If someone has set up a table as a demonstration area for the public, do not, please, I beg you , DO NOT stand in front of it. If you do this, then instead of the nice display they have worked so hard on, the public just sees your butt. And they will be much less likely to come over and talk to said demonstrator if it looks like they are just engaged in conversation with you. Instead, come around behind said table and talk to your friend so that you are both facing out.

Be aware of where the audience is at all times, and play out to them. If you are engaged in a scene with another performer, keep paying attention to where the public is standing and be sure you are playing to them. Move with them, and face them instead of your partner. Getting too close to each other and directly facing each other will frequently mean that your words get lost and the audience is not pulled in to what you are doing. After enough training, this will begin to become a habit, and eventually almost a sixth sense.

A hapless newsboy runs afoul of  'Bats'. 

Notice where the audience is in this picture, and how well the actors have positioned themselves to be seen by the crowd. 

Courtesy of Fox and Rose Photography

I know I've said it in other places, but even if you are not comfortable directly interacting with the public, still try to think about how you can contribute to the overall scene. If you are working on a period skill, or even taking a nap, think about how you can be seen and how you are adding to the overall experience.


Rehearsal

Interacting with the public, and your fellow performers, WILL go more smoothly if you have practiced all of these skills together. No one would dream of putting on a play without first rehearsing, and living history theatre is no different. Rehearsals give you a time to get to know your fellow performers and to practice your improvisational techniques. You can do this through general improvisational exercises, or through training for a specific event.

At Locust Grove rehearsals, we will often have some of our performers pretend to be members of the public. This serves two functions; those in character can practice engaging and talking with visitors, and the others remember what it is like to be in the visitor's shoes.

Everyone had a lot of fun asking *those* questions 

Courtesy of Fox & Rose Photography

At a recent Grove rehearsal, we planned for the Fourth of July. This is a free day at the Grove, and the crowds usually come out in droves. At this particular rehearsals, we planned and practiced giving toasts. Toasts were a very common pastime in early America. From a theatrical perspective, they also provide an excellent way to get that plot exposition in there!  Heather, one of our most gifted researchers, found several period toasts that had been printed in the newspapers. These were mostly very short, simply 'To General Washington!', etc.

In order to get the plot exposition in there, she suggested first giving a speech about why the person to be toasted deserved the honor, and then giving the formal toast. We found this worked very well. We went around the circle, and each person got to get up and practice giving a toast.

Noah, as Charles Croghan, practices giving a toast to his brother, George Croghan 

Courtesy of  Fox and Rose Photography

This rehearsal was a wonderful example of planning and execution. We used primary source documents for our inspiration and discussed how to best use it to introduce important historical information to our guests.

It can be all too easy to have some great stuff happen in rehearsal, but never take that lovely scene out before your public. These toasts, I am happy to say, made it out before the crowds who came to join us on that wet Independence Day.

Noah in action on the day, describing  George Croghan at the Battle of Fort Stephenson before officially toasting him. 

Courtesy of Fox and Rose Photography

It is crucial that you create a safe space in your rehearsals.  A place where everyone can get up and fail miserably in front of their comrades, and we will cheer them on. Some of our folks are seasoned performers, whereas others walk completely different paths in life and are doing this to challenge themselves. I assure you, both groups get stage-fright sometimes. Being able to practice ahead of time in a safe space gives everyone the confidence to go out there and shine, knowing that they will be supported by their cast mates should anything go awry.


Teach 'em how to say goodbye.....
As I discussed in my last entry, some reenactors struggle with how and when to let the public go. I have heard real complaints from members of the public at more than one historic site when a performer or third person interpreter simply would not let the conversation end.  And honestly, I *totally* get it- you  have put in so, SO much time and energy into your research, you want to share it. But you have got to learn to read your audience and see when they want to leave.

This is a place where improvisational theatrical training can really help. Think of every interaction you have with a member of the public as its own improvisational scene- and every scene must have an end.

Excuse us! Sir?! We're not done with our bit yet! We promise you'll love it! GET BACK HERE!!! 

Photo by Terry Perkins

In your rehearsals, practice running theatrical interactions where the scene has to end, meaning someone must find the 'out'.  A really great exercise for this, which I learned from Therese and Rydell is 'Two In/One Out'. The rehearsing parties get together in a circle, with two folks in the center. The two in the center will interact, until a third is sent in. Whichever of the two has been in the longest must then find a reason to leave- so there will once again only be two in.

Skills like this will help your performers to carry on scenes with each other, but will also help you to read cues from the public when they are ready to end your little improvisational moment together, and it may be time to send them on their merry way.


What techniques have you found for recruiting and preparing that you rely on? Let me know in the comments below!

Living History Theatre Pt. II: Pitfalls and Issues

This is the second part to a series of posts on this topic- see PT I here.

For all my love of living history theatre, it is not without its issues. This entry is devoted to looking under those rocks and talking about how to address some common issues.

You don't know something

There are a few layers to this one. Sometimes you are researching a specific individual and you have limited details about their lives (and let's face it, ladies, we tend to get the shaft on this one). One way to come at this is to research their world- what did someone of their age, income level, gender, etc, usually have in the way of education, clothing, etc. What was the common curriculum when they were at school, what basic skills would they have known? There is a lot of good information out there that people want to know.

Other times, you are really stumped. You cannot think of a good answer, and you don't want to lie and miseducate, so what do you do? I would suggest neither- just tell them that you don't know in character. Think about it, how much information have you forgotten in your life? How much do you not know about current events, modern technology, etc? The other day when I was talking about the shirt I was making in character someone asked me a *very* minute question about a particular stage of flax production and I just said 'Oh, I don't know, I'm not involved in that part!".

On what date exactly did your father first decide he wanted to come to Norther America? What was he wearing that day? How many buttons did the coat have......? What *is* the velocity of an unladen swallow...?

Photo by Fox & Rose Photography

This is also where your fellow performers can come in very handy, especially if you have all rehearsed enough to be comfortable playing off each other. "Oh my now, Cousin Charles, how many British regulars was it your brother faced off against in the war? My word, that many!"

In Locust Grove first person interpreter rehearsals, we will practice telling a story together so that we are prepared for this situation. A game of 'yes and' around the circle is very good for this- each person tells one small bit of the story, and then the next person takes it up beginning with 'yes, and....'. Practicing these skills in rehearsal helps you help each other when you hit dirt.

A game of 'yes and' around the circle at a recent Locust Grove rehearsal

Photo by Fox & Rose Photography

You shouldn't know something/Out of period information

Trades  and other Demos 
I know a lot of people who do demonstrations of period crafts like to use third person so that they can talk more freely with the audience. This is an especially useful way to discuss the sources you have put into your work. And I think this is a totally valid method. Again, there really is no one right way.

However, from the other side, learning and incorporating a period skill can be an invaluable tool as a first person performer. And I would challenge you to at least consider trying this out. Even if you feel uncomfortable with first person interpretation, you would be surprised how much easier it is when you are doing something. People are much more likely to come up and start asking you questions which you can use to guide your interaction with them in character.

If someone asks you what you are doing, explain it as you would have at the time. You can give your knowledge of the skill and talk about how it fits into your life. My 'green umbrella' as Emelia Clarke has become my sewing basket, and I will happily sit there chatting away with visitors about the shirt I am making for my husband and how it protects his nicer clothes the tailor made.

Giving a sewing lesson to a young visitor. 

Photo by Hannah Zimmerman

If you are someone who just *really* does not want to talk to the public, sitting there quietly performing a period skill is also a wonderful way to add to the atmosphere without saying a word. Think about finding a spot where you can be clearly seen, but perhaps off the main pathway so folks are less likely to talk to you directly, and you can do wonders to fill out the whole scene and experience.

Is this furniture original?
Sometimes in a museum setting you will get questions about the collections that are difficult to answer in character. If you are going to do first person, you have to do it. Falling in and out of character just cheapens the whole thing and makes you look foolish. You can frequently refer a visitor to a docent or nearby text board with more information. Since the docents at Locust Grove wear badges, we will frequently tell guests 'my friend with the interesting brooch can tell you more about that'.

This does mean that you need to build a good working relationship with your docents. One thing we realized at Locust Grove was that many of our docents were not sure of how to interact with interpreters. They needed to be invited in to play. We were able to host a great workshop last summer on working with interpreters which has really grown our relationship by leaps and bounds.

Having good docents makes things sooooooo much easier! 

Photo courtesy of Historic Locust Grove 

Once they felt invited into the process and were given tips on working with the folks in character, many of them really jumped in and have had a great time with it. They are even getting very good at helping out with that *one* member of the public, which has earned them the eternal devotion of our interpreters.

This can also be a great role for folks who have just joined your group but don't have their clothes together yet. We've been calling these folks 'Time Ambassadors' at the Grove- people who are specifically there in modern clothes with a name tag to be intermediaries between the guests and the interpreters. This is a really good way for someone to get their feet wet. They can see the veterans in action, and learn some of the questions they are likely to encounter.

The 'half-drop'
When you really feel in a jam, I'ma big fan of what I call the 'half-drop'. This is where you may blur the lines a bit, without completely dropping character. If a guest asks me if the furniture in the house is right for the time period, and I just can't find a docent, I may tell them 'Everything you see is correct, madam'. This conveys the important information, without completely dropping character and breaking the spell.

This is especially important when someone asks you where the bathrooms are. For heavens sake, do NOT take this as a time to act cute and say 'oh, I don't know what you're talking about!". That's just wrong. If you do not wish to use the term 'bathroom', you could try 'oh, the facilities are around the corner, ma'am', or just say  'around the corner'. Trust me, they won't want to stick around and press the issue.

International symbol for 'not a good time to jerk me around'

In Jokes

Since living history theatre is mostly improvisational, performers are not adhering to a certain script. It is an ongoing interaction between members of a cast who may know each other for months into many, many years. As such, we frequently develop jokes 'in character' which may not make any sense to the audience. Sometimes these are just wrong, and based on bad history. They may arise from a wisecrack someone made that gets repeated till it becomes gospel.

This is why it is so important to keep going back to your source material and checking your history before you go on. Myths can get started very easily just from something getting repeated enough. This is a good reason to have regular notes and other feedback to your group from a director.

Other times, the history may be good, but it is going over the heads of your audience because they lack the background necessary to understand it. One of the cardinal points of living history theatre is that this is a product aimed at your audience. You are using theatre as an educational tool- and any good teacher knows that their personal understanding of a topic is only important in as much as it gets their students to understand.

For example, if I were to say 'oh dear, Cousin George is coming! Be sure not to mention Mackinac Island!', anyone from Locust Grove might burst out laughing.

But the rest of you are probably pretty lost until I stop and explain that this was a battle were Col. George Croghan got his clock cleaned during the War of 1812. "My cousin would much rather we talk of his victory at Fort Stephenson, you see, and just possibly forget there was anymore war after that!'. From there another performer may come in with 'Oh, have you not heard of Mackinac, well....." and proceed to tell the whole story of brother George's less than successful assault on the island.

You will notice that this way instead of a one liner, you have a whole conversation's worth of material with your guests.

George 'Did I hear you say, FORT 'STEPHENSON?!' Croghan

They just don't get it

Sometimes the member of the public you are interacting with just doesn't get what you are doing and keeps trying to talk to you in a modern way.

One useful thing I have figured out is throwing what year it is into conversation very early. I say 'oh, yes, how long ago was that now? Well, let's see, that was 1806, and this is 1816, so oh my, that's 10 years ago now! Can you imagine!".

For very little children I will sometimes take this further. "What year do you think it is? 2016?! My word! Well, for me, it is 1816'. At which point their parents are usually able to jump in and help explain that 'this is how they dressed in the olden days', etc .

Now, ultimately, there may be someone who just really isn't going to get it. And that's ok. Just let them go.

Which leads us to....

Being too Aggressive 

This issue is probably definitely not exclusive to first person interpretation. Sometimes, the guest just doesn't want to talk to you. Or they have talked to you, but they want to go now.  And you just need to let it, and them, go. Don't chase after the with your whole prepared gig, just let them go.

This is another place where training in improvisational theatre can come in really handy- the more you work on these skills, the more you learn to read other people. Whey then want to interact, and when they do not. I tell our guys to think of it like you're running a three card monty table- you gotta learn to read people and spot a good mark. As folks walk by, try giving them each a period greeting 'Good day, sir!', etc. From there, you can read who is interested in more interaction with you and pull them in. Even those who just move on have had an immersive experience from your greeting, so it's hardly lost effort.

Sensitive Topics

This one time, at Ren Faire....my beloved director Rydell once sat down and calmly proceeded to torture me by describing that beloved sixteenth century game of Cat in a Bag in detail (you put a cat in a bag and shoot arrows at it. People are, and historically have been, horrible). He knew I loved animals and kitties in particular, but that in character I would have to find this normal. (For anyone reading this who didn't know about Rydell's puckish side, oh..... it's there....)

HRH is NOT amused....

One of the goals of living history theatre is to personalize history, and bring home the way people lived and discussed the things we read about after the fact in books. However sensibilities change, and what was once a normal topic of discussion can become potentially extremely offensive to your audience (or heck, even to us). So you don't want to insult your audience, but then if you leave it all out, are you warping the past?

The biggest place where I run into this is the issue of slavery at Locust Grove. Slavery was a part of life on the farm, and we cannot be true to the history by literally white washing it. There are a couple issues here: for starters, there is the actual interpretation of the enslaved population.  People don't line up to volunteer to be slaves (I know, weird, right?).

The site is actually currently working on a very cool project working with multiple departments at the University of Louisville to try and fill this hole in the interpretation.  In the meantime, our volunteer performers still struggle with how to discuss this topic in a way which is truthful but does not offend or turn off museum goers.

Even this super idealized picture of Mt. Vernon is incomplete without the folks actually doing the work. 

I'm not going to even pretend like I have all the answers on this one.  I will tell you that you are far, FAR more likely to offend someone by leaving it out. Anyone who knows what to look for will feel lied to, and rightfully so. It's a really, really hard thing to deal with, but generally people seem pleased that you're at least not trying ignore it.

In an ideal world, you would always have a skilled docent there who can swoop in and help guide the conversation from a third person academic perspective. I have told our interpreters that if something does really go badly and a guest seems genuinely upset they are allowed to break character over this one, because it is just so loaded. So far it's only happened once, with my friend Brandon. He made a point of coming around the building from another direction, clearly having broken the earlier scene, and then having a follow up out of character chat with the guests.

Another memorable incident happened to my friend Keith,when a gentleman took him by the hand and said 'Sir, you used to own my great grandfather'. At that point Keith just took his hand and told him it was an honor.

My ideal for this topic is for it to come up after I've been chatting with folks for awhile and they think I'm charming and lovely, but then have to be reminded that slavery is also part of the history that I am portraying. As a performer, it's important to remember that you are far more likely to offend someone by pretending the issue doesn't exist, than by meeting it head on.

I can definitely include a  DON'T for this one-  do NOT pretend you are a slave if you are not African American. Just.DON'T. 

Some performers may try to take on the identity of an indentured servant or free white servant when performing period work.  This can work well in some situations, but in others it can also mask the real presence of slavery, if that is who actually did the work you are portraying in the past. 

Kids, let's talk about who actually did this work....

For these reasons, I actually will drop character, or do 'third person', when I work in the kitchen at Locust Grove, because in the time and place we are portraying, that work was done by an enslaved African American woman. Dropping character gives me a good chance to talk about the history of slavery instead of hiding it.

I have also found that if there are interpreters in character on the grounds I can serve as a good intermediary by explaining to guests the differences between what they are doing and what I am doing and why. I still interact with them with period manners, and watching me do so helps the guests cue into what is going on.

For some further reading, here's a really great article how Plymouth Plantation has been thriving by, among other things, incorporating the difficult history with the Wampanog Indians into their programming.


In academic parlance, we talk about 'problematizing' history. It's when you look under the rocks of what you loved and see the other sides of it- which, as luck would have it, gives you an entirely new angle to write a paper on. From a performance and interpretation standpoint, it does also give you more to work with.

Living History Theatre: Why and Wherefore*

So, before I go further, let me say that in all my years of living history, I have become increasingly convinced that there is no one way to do this. What I am going to be talking about here is what is sometimes referred to as a 'first person' impression, or as I originally learned it, 'living history theatre'. I understand that, this being the internet, someone will probably decide I have called them out for offense, however that is not my intention. What I am trying to do here is make the case for the way I like to do these things, and put forward some good reasons for doing so. In a future entry I will discuss some of the issues that often arise with such methods.

Many, many moons ago, I was a theatre kid. The drama department gave me my home in high school and my first two years of college. The theatre was my life, and I had youthful dreams of going pro. Which is why I love to say that instead I chose to do something sensible, like get a history degree and become an academic. However I did not have to completely abandon my first love. Instead, I found a wonderful world where both of my passions could come together.

Midsummer Night's Dream 2002- Use me but as your spaniel!

When I was 18, I wandered into the Great Dickens Christmas Fair. I have never in my life been so instantly at home. All around me were the sights and sounds of Victorian London. I went dancing at Fezziwig's party. I saw Scrooge in the gaslight, and Punch and Judy. I smelt roasting chestnuts and went down to the dockside to see the dancing girls.

Scrooge and the first spirit glide past visitors on the street.

I came out determined to be a part of this. And the next year I was back, as Miss Agnes Wickfield from David Copperfield. As a performer, I had found a truly amazing gift. Suddenly, there really WERE no small parts. I had 8 hours of all the audience I could muster. I went up to people, told them about David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Aunt Betsy, and all of the other characters Charles Dickens had written into Agnes' world. I acted out her tortured secret love for David and her determined devotion to her troubled father for all who would listen. We brought Dickens' characters and world to life in 360 degrees and it was glorious.

Miss Agnes Wickfield being escorted by Mr. Eugene Wrayburn 

(Yes, the outfit was dreadful- but I didn't know that yet)

At about the same time I was giving up theater and transferring to UC Davis to do my upper division work in History, I also joined the Guild of St. George, Inc. Northern California chapter. St. George portrays the members of the Elizabethan court in the 1570s and 80s. Now instead of literature, the script was history. I looked at how large scale events like the Protestant Reformation had personally affected the life of a little known maid of honor unto Her Grace.


During the week, I read about these things at school. On the weekends, I went to rehearsals where I studied how the people who lived those events spoke. What they ate, how they dressed, what dances and other entertainments were popular at the time,  and so many other things. In our rehearsals, we would practice talking about these events as they would have effected us as individuals.

Performing a mask for the court with my friend Josh

To me, living history was always synonymous with improvisational theatre. It fed my creative soul, and still does. But that's not separate from a serious interest in history.

It was really shocking to me to learn that there were people who did living history without taking on an historical persona. Even more so, when I realized that some of them saw all the theatre I am talking about as being somehow a facade, and somehow less realistic. I have heard some people who do living history scoff at those who want to be 'in character', as though that is somehow a separate realm of make-believe.

The language itself is the biggest issue to me. To me, that is just as important as the clothing. None of us actually live in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth century, etc. However we have gone to an exceptional amount of work to recreate the garments they wore and many of the items they used on a daily basis. To me it is jarring to put those clothes on and then come up and speak to one another in our modern dialects about modern topics.

So......how 'bout them Niners? Been to the movies lately?

Photo by Krossel Kreek Photography

Those speech patterns are just as worthy of study and recreation. They are just as much, if not more so, a part of daily life in the past.In St. George rehearsals, we studied Early Modern English as a dialect- running verb drills so that we could properly conjugate for 'thee/thou,'** and incorporating other relevant vocabulary.

Manners follow closely behind language. Forms of address, proper introductions, standing and making a courtesy when appropriate, all of these were part of the rhythm of life in the periods we are trying to recreate.

From there follow common topics of conversation- who the president or monarch currently is, the price of bread, scandals from the gossip sheets, etc. We will never be able to find every little thought that occupied every moment of the past, just as so much about clothing and other material culture is lost to us. However trying to piece together the topics of conversation seems as relevant to me as the pottery and the clothes (and I'm a big fan of both of those other things, so that's saying a lot).

This man got pulled right into the conversation!

Photo by Fox & Rose Photography

What I am getting at is this- though I know some re-enactors have told me that they feel that being 'in character' or doing 'first person' feels artificial to them, it feels artificial to me not to. Or rather, flat. Or incomplete. If I am going to go to all the effort with the clothes and artifacts, it feels strange to me to not keep going with language, manners, topics of conversation, pastimes,etc.

Coming at living history as a performance also helps to make it an immersive and educational experience for our visitors. An actor must always keep his audience in mind- can they see me? Can they hear me? Am I getting through to them? When you come at living history from this mindset you are very focused getting your material through to your visitors and making sure that they walk away having gotten something out of their experience with you.

Notice how they are standing so that  a passerby can see them all?

 Yeah, that's not a coincidence

If you are running an event or historic site, you know that for the gates to stay open, the public needs to show up. And for that to keep happening, they need to have a good experience while they are there so that they want to come back and so that they will tell others to go as well. Adding the 'theatre' to 'living history' puts the visitors experience at the forefront and helps keep the playground open.

This woman had a wonderful time catching up with Mrs. Taylor.

Photo by Fox & Rose photography

I passionately believe in interactive theatre as an educational device. I'm never going to convince most academic historians of this, and that's fine. However more and more museums and K-12 educators are coming around to this way of seeing things. Interactivity is the order of the day, and what better way than having a conversation with the past?

William Croghan, Jr. teaches young visitors how to write with a quill

Photo by Fox & Rose Photography

Of course, such methods have pitfalls- you aren't really talking to George Washington or Master Smith. I will address some of these foibles in a follow up post, so for right now I will laud the benefits. This approach can really humanize history for people. When you find a way to take the information off the text board and put it out in a conversational, natural way, it can help people to understand that this was lived through by real people. That they experienced the big events minute by minute, in real time, instead of as a forgone conclusion. And that all of the smaller things were the taken-for-granted fabric of their daily lives.



And I'm not gonna lie- It's also just a whole LOT of fun :-)


* I am a theatre nerd with two history degrees- you do not need to tell me that the 'wherefore' is technically redundant after 'why'. This will be a test to see who read to the end ;-) 

**This was actually a personal form of address, such as the 'tu' in Spanish' or 'du' in Italian, which English later dropped, so the verb must be conjugated differently- I do, thou dost, etc.

Summer Sewing Projects cont'd

So, going along with the 'I totally actually do things" track (which, ironically, helps distract me from actually doing things....like school...la la la!), this was the summer of handwork. See, one advantage to having previously mentioned handsome young man live two thousand freakin' miles away, and having to spend all of your couple time on skype, is that you have lots of time to work on those projects you would otherwise never get to. Like

Couching the grommets on a dress you made two years ago

Maybe next I'll get crazy and finish the inside of the arm holes :-p

and that blackwork project you've been meaning to get going forever

ok, this one actually came to faire too 

Photo by Laurie Tavan

So, there ya go. I do, in fact, do things.....now to stop blogging, get off the internet and actually go do some more of them :-P

Because we all start somewhere...

I give you the very first thing I ever made for my very first year of Dickens...

There you have it, folks- a 'Victorian' dress.. out of cotton broadcloth (in maroon of course- what else!) from a Butterick pattern which has been thankfully discontinued and was long ago ruled unacceptable by the Costume Dept. Hastily assembled in the week before open with the help of Sharon Collier- the first of many, many projects I have laid out on her table- and the patient encouragement of Alexandria Volk. When I told Alexandria this was my first sewing project I still recall her chuckling and saying 'well, you've certainly chosen baptism by fire". I had a bunch of fun in that dress...may it never see the light of day again....

Also featuring the old bonnet of doom....as much lace and holly as I could possibly hot glue on in the time allowed!

Must get back on track......

I need to get my ass in gear on all my summer projects. I have approximately two months before I go back to school, and six weeks before I head out to TN. Sooooo many things that I want to do, that sometimes it holds me back. because i am human. so I get overwhelmed and just stare at fb. THIS MUST STOP.

Books

My big summer project was IS supposed to be the reading lists for my MA exam next fall. Basically, instead of a thesis, I spend an entire semester with a ridiculously rigorous reading list assigned by a committee of three professors whom I meet with throughout the semester. Then the week after Thanksgiving, I take a four hour comprehensive exam answering questions they come up with. It's largely historiographical in nature- i.e., I need to know who said what in the field of European History in the last 50 years or so and why it's important. Of the three professors who are on my exam I managed to get a final list from one before we let out, a preliminary from another, and last year's unconfirmed list from someone who had had the third one on their committee this year. :-p And when school let out, I made this big whole stink about how I was gonna be *smart*, and get started during summer, and knock like half of those damn books out! HA! HOW I LAUGH AT MY OWN FOOLISH PRIDE.

 At the honors banquet at the end of this semester I was looking at the few folks who got the highest honors on the exam and talking to some friends, saying 'ok, that's the goal'....and then our professor was like 'oh, um, yeah...those were Americanists. You know, those folks with only 200 years of history in one country....Europeanists pretty much never get that...but hey, good luck!"   Soo... there's that :-p

I am just gonna set myself a goal of two books a week for the next 8 weeks. That is 16 books. And frankly, two books per week is not as quick as I will need to go once the semester starts.

Sewing

This popped up when I typed 'sewing' into google images......

this chick looks waaay too calm and put together ...just sayin' 

Here I give you my beginning of the summer, aren't I awesome and waaaay to enthusiastic and don't I want to do everything list, paired down to reality and priority.

• Andrew's Doublet- DONE!!!
• Xander's doublet- Edit: SHARON IS AWESOME!!!!
• Re-dye Nobles- need to touch base with Mackenzie, gonna go over to Vallejo at some point and try and breath some new life into the old jaquard. 
• My livery- probably gonna be put off again, though I do now have the fabric and the Tudor Tailor. Would be nice to at least get the kirtle and a coif done by the end of the season.
• Various blackwork projects- probably no time soon. 
• Regency outfit for TN, including stays- PRIORITY
• Extra livery cloak for St. George- not hard, just you know, another project. 
• New Victoria ballgown for PEERS Steampunktoberfest- PRIORITY after TN- will go fabric shopping when Laura and I hit the garment district at Costume College. 
• Fix hem on Mrs. Oakley's dress- will get done before Dickens.

So um, yeah.... maybe I should get off my blog, and like, get to it......

Look What I Did!

Ok, so the doublet is now 99% finished! Which makes the whole outfit like 99.99% finished....and it only took me two years! All that is left to do is sew loops onto the sleeves to hook over the buttons. Also, I think after this weekend I will re-sew the snap tape (yes, snap tape, whaddya got to say about it?!) holding the front together, because it is showing just that teeny tiny bit that will drive me mad. HOWEVER, mostly, it is DONE. Here are some badly lit apartment shots, to be replaced by better in action shots over the weekend.

Master Thomas Gryphon. 

Wearing the livery of the Lord Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. 

This was the first set of boys clothes I had ever made. Having gone through it, I don't feel like it was too difficult. Of course when I look at the whole thing, I now see a million things I would now change, since I know better. However putting the crazy inner critic aside, I daresay he looks like a finely outfitted fellow, and I am rather damned proud of myself :-)

Doublet Update

The doublet looks ever more doublet-like. It has shoulder seams and  treatments and trim and everything now! The sleeves are also sewn together, though I haven't sewn up the ends yet- still debating how to attach them to the doublet. The pattern calls for the usual D rings and ties, but to my knowledge this has since been declared a fair-ism and is not St. George approve-able. 

The only real issue I have had so far is the collar. The back of it is part of the back piece of the doublet,  and then you are supposed to add two bits on the front sides. All of this rather than just make one piece and sew it on. I think it's way more period this way, since I know those Elizabethans loved to  make the most of every piece. And hell, it seemed easy enough...in theory....

 Several ripped and resewn seams later, I declared victory;

Well, I vanquished it, anyway. 

I don't think they're gonna kick him out if his collar is one single sewn on piece........

For those of you keeping track from my last entry, I have so far typed a grand total of 3 pages on my total.  I REGRET NOTHING!!!!!!!

Sleeeeeeve

Ok, the lovely colors are totally not coming out in this picture, but man oh man does the Dudley livery look great  :-D

Grey and burgundy, baby!

Time to stop hiding from my blog

So I started this thing to try and keep track of the things I was doing, but it turns out, I do a lot of things.And if I had to actually blog them all, I probably would do less of them. So instead this blog kind of joined the box full of scrapbooking supplies I've been hiding from for years, while the list of things to include just got longer and longer.....

Among other things, this blog was supposed to detail the things I sewed, but then I haven't been doing too much of that. But then I got this

I'm debating taking my old one out into a field and re-enacting Office Space

I know, BEST THING EVER, right? A machine that can handle more than two layers of quilter's cotton without the tension going all to hell sending me into a psychotic rage. (Which is good, cause I can really only handle like one or two of those an afternoon.) She's a Bernina in case you couldn't read it.


And then I started working on the long needed doublet to go with Andrew's slops, which reminded me why I sew in the first place (ok, actually that's because I don't wanna pay someone else, but this next part is a close second). Stepping away from my usual school, work etc and focusing on a nice little project is calming and and makes me feel like I can accomplish things. It enhances  my calm.

Using the same Margo Anderson pattern as for the pants, a few things are clear to me- mostly the fact that she was totally not prepared for someone with Andrew's broad Norwegian shoulders who wasn't also morbidly obese. However three mock-ups and absolutely *no*-panic-attacks-thank-you-very-much-later (really!), I seem to have a nice fitting pattern.

...I also may have learned I *probably* shouldn't do a fitting on my second Sunday bloody mary....but that's neither here nor there.....

Anyway,once I had it fitted, the pieces pretty much came nicely together into this

Doublet-y goodness

Those are sleeves and shoulder treatments hiding in the back there

Just need to sew on the trim, sew the shoulder seams, cut out the lining for the sleeves and sew those together, add trim to that, attach the collar, cutout the peplum, sew the lining into that, attach it, add trim to all that, attach the sleeves, figure out how I'm gonna do the front closures, sew on buttons, and probably add some more trim to something else I haven't mentioned......so practically finished   :-P