I'm back everyone! I apologize that I've taken such an extended hiatus from posting but I'm back just in time for the start of the summer re-enacting season and felt that this post would be extremely relevant to the types of events that typically occur in the summer months. It is a post I've been tossing around in my head since I started this blog but unfortunately life outside of re-enacting got in the way and sidetracked me as well as the development of a new impression, but with the extended holiday weekend here in the USA and riding a high from a fun event last weekend it was the perfect opportunity for me to put my thoughts down into words. This post will be a little longer than my past ones but it's some great information I really hope will help you.
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| Last weekend's event, Warbird Over the Beach in VA Beach |
Why am I writing this topic now? As a woman in the hobby the majority of the events we attend are Living History events, true we do, on occasion, attend tactical's but even some of the topics I'll discuss may also benefit you when you attend tactical's. Also let's be honest without the guests attending these events, paying admission fees, providing donations, or investing in the events by other means half the events that are put on wouldn't be feasible. A great example is D-Day Ohio which I referenced in a previous post. This event is put on solely by donations from the public and without that we wouldn't have the opportunity to bring the history we love alive to so many members of the public each year at this event. Because of this it is our responsibility at these events to create and maintain positive interactions with these guests so they come back year after year and so we also have the opportunity to participate in these events too year after year.
What makes you an expert?
I'll be honest I don't consider myself an expert by any means on the topic of public interactions and engagement. There are still many times I get incredibly nervous about talking to people I don't know and putting myself out there, but fortunately I have had the opportunity to learn from some incredible teachers over the years in my other time periods which have prepared me and taught me some great concepts that I've been able to carry over to WW2 re-enacting as well.
In my introductory post, I mentioned I have performed at the Bristol Renaissance Faire for the last six years. As part of our performance training we participate in the Bristol Academy of Performing Arts (BAPA), through this academy we have the opportunity to learn from locally and nationally renown educators in the areas of improv, environmental theatre, and first person historical interpretation. Every year I continue to learn more and more through ongoing education associated with this program and apply it to all the time periods I participate in. I won't be going into intricate detail as this post would be way too long but instead have picked 3 of the most important topics I feel will benefit you in your impressions and interactions with guests.
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| Conversing with a fellow actor while still staying open to include guests |
The topics I'm going to go over here are all covered in the book, "Easy Street" written by the brilliant Ann-Elizabeth Shapera. "Easy Street" is described as a guide for players in improvised interactive environmental performance, walkaround entertainment, and first person historical interpretation. If you truly want to take your impressions up a level in terms of connecting with the public and talking with them or even develop your impressions into more of a first person interpretation versus a third person I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. I'll post a link to it at the end of the blog. One caveat I will forewarn you about, when reading the book you will have find a balance with some of the topics to not take your impressions too far into the entertainment or comic aspect and away from representing the true history accurately. Remember I mentioned what might be applicable when you participate in tacticals? This book has chapters focused on first person interpretations which can be invaluable when you are at a tactical and trying to become a particular soldaten, nurse, or other persona for the duration of the event.
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| Easy Street by Ann-Elizabeth Shapera |
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| Jane the Phoole as portrayed by A-E Shapera, photo taken by John Karpinsky |
Reflect again on why you have chosen to pursue the WW2 hobby or any re-enacting. We all have our own reasons as to why we chose to pursue it but one that A-E discusses is the idea of "Making it worth it," if you can find a way to incorporate this you will have the most rewarding experience in the hobby and will incorporate all the other reasons you've chosen this time period as well.
Making it worth it benefits everyone associated with the hobby; event organizers, guests, your fellow re-enactors, and most importantly yourself. The following concepts are from Chapter 1 of Easy Street.
Make It Worth It for guests and patrons who travel for hours and spend large amounts to experience the history we represent.
Make It Worth It for your fellow re-enactors to invest their life force in building a great escape for guests and other re-enactors.
Make It Worth It for yourself to ensure you are getting the reward you want from the hobby
Make It Worth It for the event's management to ask you to continue to represent and participate in their endeavor.
Make It Worth It for guests, new and die-hard alike to invest themselves in coming back for more and maybe even pursuing the hobby themselves.
Aligning all of these will help you get the most reward from within the hobby itself.
It Only Takes a Moment
Chapter 9 of Easy Street is titled "It only takes a moment." Truthfully at events you only ever have a moment to meet a guest and make a lasting impression and let's be honest a moment is not very long at all. During the moment the guest doesn't need to know the entire backstory on your impressions or why you do that impression or even that you've been doing the hobby for 17 years and spent countless hours researching information. What they do need to know is what your impression is and what you are doing or how you fit in with the event. Your uniform/clothes, body, walk, and physical attitude can do a great deal of work in this regard. Another way to do this is to develop a standard introduction for your impression.
Since most of us still practice third person interpretations at Living History events we can use a plethora of modern personal introductions to develop and apply at events. If you have a background in business or customer-service this concept will come pretty naturally to you that you might think you're doing it wrong. But in actuality it should be easy!
Never discount how a smile and a simple "Hello" greeting along with a "How is your day going?" may be all you need to capture that opportunity to expand the moment with the guest and even open it up for a more in depth interaction where you can discuss even more details of your impression and the history behind it. Understand not everyone wants to be engaged either, they just want to walk by and observe, but for those few that do the successfully connecting with them in the moment will be incredibly rewarding. You will most likely be pleasantly surprised at how many guest actually welcome the engagement too.
Include and Elevate
So here's the concept I find most important we embrace as re-enactors at Living History events. A-E Shapera and many other teachers in environmental interactions will stress this as a key pillar to master in order to be successful. The idea of "Include and Elevate" our guests during the event and not exclude them. Include them by bringing them into our world and elevate them by making them feel valued in their attendance at the event or expanding their knowledge of history. There is a reason it's called living history, we aren't wax figures sitting behind velvet ropes, instead we immerse ourselves in our impressions and in turn should invite the guests to do the same. We've all heard the question at events when we're eating, "Is that real food?" As annoying as that can be, instead of brushing the question off take advantage of the guest's question to include and elevate them on the encounter and engage them in a positive explanation to their question. Questions like that can really be a guests way of reaching out asking to be engaged more.
A caveat I will put on this is that there are times at event we do have to "exclude" guests from immersing themselves because of safety constraints in certain areas of our displays. This includes times when preparations are underway for field battles or other training exercises are going on. In this case you can still include and elevate the guest by stepping outside the closed off area if you aren't an active participant in the exercise and explain to the guest what is going on and possibly the reason why they need to keep a safe distance in a friendly and cordial manner. A recent experience at an event reinforced the idea of doing this even when guests need to be excluded from a certain area of an event as there is no excuse to ever be curt or rude to a guest.
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| FJ Jump Tower training, an example where the public needs to be kept at a safe distance but you can then go among them to explain the exercise to still include and elevate. |
I was sitting at camp with this friend, who at the time was doing a FJ impression, and he was in the process of shaving for the day when a family comes strolling into camp. I look up from my sewing and greet them. When they look over and see my friend shaving one of them actually speaks up and asks, "Are you actually shaving?" This engagement from the guests received the "moment" I mentioned above for initial connection and welcomed the expansion of further interaction. Now my friend could have simply replied with a "Yes" and continued on but instead he chose to include and elevate this group. He started explaining that German soldiers were supposed to be clean shaven and the way they were able to maintain this in the field but that wasn't enough. He then invited one of the younger boys in the group to sit down in the chair and he took out the german shaving cream he had, lathered the kid up and demonstrated how he would properly shave in the field stopping just short of actually shaving him. As an onlooker I saw how much the family enjoyed it with their smiles, laughs, and ongoing questions and how they truly felt included in our camp setup and display we represent. In the end when the family decided to continue on it was clearly visible that this interaction was one of the highlights of their day and my friend had exceeded their expectations by including and elevating them in their interaction.
This brief example shows exactly how we move beyond simply showing guests our world but including them or even immersing them in it.
Information Overload
At this point I'm sure you're completely overwhelmed with all of this information and hopefully you're not completely second guessing everything that you do at events. I promise that if you have even one positive interaction with a guest at an event you are applying these concepts correctly and successfully. You're not going to have success with every single interaction, no one ever does no matter how long you've been in the hobby but set the goal of one each day of an event and you will find the reward more than you can imagine.
The last thing I want to touch on is why you should consider using any of these tools at an event. We all know we have our own reasons to go to events, whether it's to teach about history, hang out with friends, or escape from the modern world. For those that want to just hang out with friends or escape the modern world and will adamantly say they have no interest or desire to engage the public or "include and elevate" them I have one thing to ask. How did exactly did you get into the hobby? Did you go to an event and meet someone who eventually welcomed you in to their unit. Did you have a friend who invited you to join and helped you build your impression? Was it a veteran that you connected with and they drew you in by sharing their stories and experiences? Whatever your response I would wager that 99% of the time however you started out those people you initially met in the hobby employed one of the topics above to help you become successful. So next time you say "I don't need to acknowledge or talk to the public" pause and think that it just takes a few seconds with that man, woman, boy, or girl that walk by to positively impact them and you never know if they might turn into the next FJ to join your unit, the next GI to join your unit, or the next civilian impression to join your group. Pay it forward and that'll be how we sustain this hobby and ensure the history is kept alive for future generations to learn from.
If you're interested in learning more about the topics I discussed above, please pick up a copy of "Easy Street." A-E Shapera goes into much more detail than I could ever do on a blog post. I also must give her all the credit for inspiring this and sharing this information with people like me so I can in turn share it with you.
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Street-Environmental-Entertainment-Interpretation/dp/110554351X
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