Colonial Williamsburg's newest field trip, "Making History Live" has been a wonderful experience!  (Thanks to Homeschool Buyer's Co-op, these are now made available to homeschoolers at a reasonable price!) While we were in Colonial Williamsburg experiencing Revolutionary City last summer, we spent a lot of time asking questions amongst ourselves, wishing we could ask the actor/interpreters:  What is their background?  Actor...historian..both?  How many parts DO they portray?  How do they remember all of their lines for multiple character portrayals?  How long have they been doing this?  "Making History Live" allowed us at a peak behind the scenes! 

     "Making History Live" teaches first person interpretation through the African American history program at Colonial Williamsburg.  We began the week by listening to this week's podcast about the African American evening music program.  This was extremely interesting, learning about the importance of music to the enslaved, and how they used it to communicate messages secretly to one another.  Because we are currently studying an era of history that includes American slavery, this information has been timely to our studies.  

     After listening to the podcast, we previewed the movie, "Making History Live."  This was almost like a stroll down memory lane, since we got to meet some of these people during Revolutionary City last summer. 

     We learned not only about the music of the slaves, but also how the actor/interpreters prepare for a performance.  We got to go behind the scenes and see the development of the scripts for Revolutionary City!  We got to see various types of rehearsals.  Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse was the message that we got.  That was great because I am often reminding my kids of the actor/interpreters when they have to study, study, study!  Now they know I'm not making this up!  ;) We also got a peek into the costume department, which helps to bring a character to life.  We were taken into the library, where actor/interpreters choose specific books to help them further their research into their character.  Obviously, this accounts for why the characters are able to answer the vast variety of questions we ask as visitors!  It also reflects how they can portray their characters with great depth.  Previewing the movie was a terrific opportunity, because I was able to pause the video when needed, to help the kids capture details that they were missing.  This was great preparation for the live broadcast that would be aired on Thursday.  

     Then the kids did a terrific on-line activity.  There were three puzzles, one for Thomas Jefferson and two for two different slaves.  Each puzzle piece was a either a primary source or a secondary source relevant to that person. 

The kids had to read that portion of the document and answer the question related to it. In essence, they were learning how clues can be gleaned for the actor/interpreters from these documents.

If they answered the question correctly, the puzzle piece went to the correct place in the puzzle.  After the puzzle was complete, the puzzle came to life! My husband was really intrigued by this when the kids told him and he had to check it out for himself!    

      The next day we compared third person interpretation with first person interpretation.  My kids thought they understood the difference, until I asked them to give me an example of each from our recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg.  My son thought that when Lafayette talked about George Washington, that was third person.  I can see how he would think that, but no.  Lafayette was still in first person when he talked about George Washington, because the actor was talking about George Washington as if he was Lafayette. 

Third person interpretation is typically what happens in the trades, when the tradespeople, though dressed in 18th century costume, talk to us in knowledge of the 21st century. 

     Next, the kids took the interactive tour of Colonial Williamsburg.  Even though they've been there before, I knew they would learn a few new things by researching the town.  After all, actor/interpreters need to know the setting for their characterization.  After spending some time at the site, each of the kids gave a tour of their favorite location.  My dd chose the beautiful Governor's Palace

 whereas my son chose the noisy Magazine.  And of course, the web site had a noisy cannon there, which he loved!

     At this point, I pulled up a podcast from July 7, 2005, "Instructor of Interpreters."  I thought it would be helpful, even inspiring to the kids, to hear how the actor/interpreters go to a 10 day school at CW to learn to engage with the audience and do first person interpretation.  I really wanted the kids to understand that the actor/interpreters put a lot of time into preparation before they go on stage.  

     Next, the kids began their task of creating their own first person interpretation, using some of the same methods used by the actor/interpreters of Colonial Williamsburg!  There were several pairs of biography cards to choose from.  My daughter decided to be Ann Wager and my son decided to portray Robert Carter Nicholas.  The first step was to study their own card, and then to introduce themselves, as their characters, to each other. This sort of confused my kids at first, since they expected to jump right in to the first person interpretation immediately.  I like the fact that this complex process was broken down into manageable steps.  This gave them an opportunity to learn the basic facts of their character and practice verbalizing that on a small scale.  

     The next step was to study the two pages provided in the teacher's packet on the King's English. 

 Some of these we were familiar with, from our previous visit. The kids thought it funny that they would be expected to incorporate some of this into their presentation.  However, this is culturally relevant to their character portrayals.  After reviewing and studying the page, they once again role played their characters.  This time, however, they greeted each other using the King's English, then explained who they were.

     After lunch, we listened to a great podcast from November 26, 2007, "Playing the Part." This got very specific about how the actor/interpreters portraying Benjamin Franklin and John Adams for a previous Electronic Field Trip research and develop their characters.  It is so much fun to go behind the scenes.  Every time we hear about research, research, research!  My kids' *love* that!  LOL At least they know they are not alone in the research department! 

     After the podcast, I gave each of the kids worksheets from the teacher packet to develop a dialogue between their characters.  It was wonderful how the steps were broken down. First, they jotted down notes about the facts for their characters. By now, they had gotten quite familiar with the facts. 

Then they answered questions where they got to create a setting for their dialogue. This took a bit of time, as they had to create information, based on what would be historically accurate.  Then of course they had to work as a team and agree on the final decision.  We contrasted "historical context" with "historical perspective" and looked for opportunities to create perspective for their dialogue.

Then it was time for them to write the script. I had them study, once again, the King's English, to decide how to incorporate some of the phrases into their dialogue.

Finally it was time to actually write the script. They were greatly relieved when I told them I'd be their secretary.  I guided them through the dialogue, as I typed their ideas into the computer.  They basically came up with their own dialogue.  I merely asked questions to prompt and guide them through the process. We also did a little extra research on-line to develop their characters.  Then I printed out the dialogue and highlighted their parts.  Mine is on top and color coded to help me cue them as needed.   

     That evening, we read  some of the comments at the blog for the week at the EFT web site.  Some of the actor/interpreters, writers, and historians posted comments there and that was neat.  There was a great one posted by the actor/interpreter who portrays Patrick Henry, about his perspective of history as a kid!  It was a lot of fun for my kids to hear his perspectives. Like Patrick Henry, the actor/interpreter was quite inspiring! 

     Then my son left a question at the blog.  He asked what they do when the CW library gets too full from all of their resources.  He got a great answer!  Apart from the expected, "build a bigger library," he was also told how many of the primary and secondary source documents are going digital.  This is not only to make room for resources, but also to protect fragile documents from continued handling.  

     That night they e-mailed a Colonial Williamsburg perfomer.  We had no idea which one would answer, so we kept the questions generic.  My daugher asked, "For this Electronic Field Trip, I am working on a first-person interpretation for Ann Wager and my brother and I are having fun making a script for a play. This play went through many changes and rough drafts. How many rough drafts do you usually go through before saying that it's ready to go?" 

     My son asked, "Where do you get the inspiration for your first person interpretations?  I understand you put a lot of time into your research collecting facts, but what sort of ideas spark your interest, narrowing down your thesis?"      

     Before the live broadcast Thursday morning, my son got a wonderfully detailed reply from a man who portrays a British military engineer.  He is a 21st century engineer and explained how he got involved in interpretation.  It was fascinating.  He explained inspriration thoroughly from the perspective of working for a living history museum vs personal interest.  

     My son had been excitedly looking forward to the live broadcast all week! While we waited for the live broadcast to begin, my kids practiced their dialogue to memorize their lines.  Meanwhile I hooked up to the live feed and colonial Christmas music was playing.  How delightful! When the Christmas music finished, the kids excitedly took their seats to watch the live broadcast.

     There were three people available for the live Question and Answer, an actor/interpreter and two of the managers.  Each of them were featured in the "Making History Live" EFT and they performed a couple of the songs from the African American program, which was a lot of fun.The actor/interpreter answered questions as the actor and not the character, which was great!  This was a unique opportunity, because at Colonial Williamsburg, the actor/interpreters always stay in character.  Those who ask questions outside of that character usually get quite a bit of teasing!   To our surprise, my son's e-mail question was featured at the end of the morning broadcast and the actor who portrays Gowan Pamphlet answered that! 

     After the morning broadcast, we staged the dialogue in the living room.  I had them practice the courtesies that they learned when they were in CW.  

Since the kids had forgotten some of the technique, we looked up some vacation pictures to see how one of the actor/interpreters did it!

     Then the kids practiced with props.  They had memorized their lines well by that time, but the props threw them off.  That's the importance of dress rehearsal! I had them keep rehearsing with the props while I made lunch and they improved greatly in that short time!  Just like they saw in the EFT, "Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!" 

     After the afternoon live broadcast, they took their interpretations to the next level.  I gave each of them a "Character Score" sheet, which apparently the actor/interpreters at CW use to fully develop their character.  They did further research to understand and more fully develop their characters.  

     Then they wrote out an outline for a narrative, which they then wrote out as an essay.  An outline should be sufficient, but it seems to help my kids to write out their speeches, then make notecards.  The product is usually more well rounded and interesting. 

     Saturday they tied up loose ends and then rehearsed, rehearsed, and rehearsed while I ran errands.  Sunday afternoon we staged their narratives and skits in the living room and they rehearsed, rehearsed, and rehearsed some more.  They were getting better!  At one point they asked, "Can I just rehearse this one little bit, instead of all of it?"  I reminded them of how wonderful the actor/interpreters are at CW.  Do they just rehearse one portion?  No.  The kids rehearsed one more time!

     Finally, they put on their costumes from previous opportunities.  Then they called Dad in to see their interpretations and ask questions.  Now I have a disclaimer.  My kids have put this together in 7 days, from research to presentation.  We learned that the actor/interpreters at CW can have 6 months to prepare their characters, if not more.  Of course the CW actor/interpreters are incredible, whereas my kids are learning!  But isn't that fun?  Wouldn't an opportunity to interpret characters in our history classes growing up have made school more fun? I encourage everyone to try this at home. Start small.  Take it step by step.  Each time they will get better.  And I can guarantee that the entire time they will have a blast! Now let the cameras roll!   

Here is my son's narrative of Robert Carter Nicholas.

Here is my daughter's narrative of Ann Wager.

 Here is their skit.

I enjoyed listening to my husband's reaction to the presentation.  It sounded as though he was being affected by some of the things he learned!

     Although my kids have represented historical characters many times for school, they learned lots of new things.  Even professionals research and rehearse daily!  They learned to develop a thesis for their character, in order to help the audience focus.  In addition, they learned to use hidden clues from the research to find a goal or problem for the character, to help the audience ask questions or be inspired to do more research on their own.  These are only a few elements that help to make for a more interesting presentation. Hopefully the audience will be on the edge of their seats, while my kids enhance their own skills in "Making History Live!"