The following is taken from "Living History Tips" prepared by Richard A. Cheatham, 1984, of Living History Associates Ltd. in Richmond, Va.
1. Living History is not acting. Actors and actresses learn and rehearse specific lines and have a limited and temporary interest in the period. Those doing Living History must necessarily have a broader knowledge of the
period, as they are subject to be asked anything by the visitor.
2. You needn't know everything. Though the more you know about the life of the period the better off you'll be, the person you are portraying wouldn't have known everything. Don't hesitate to claim ignorance on any appropriate subject. That can also communicate an accurate bit of the past. When you do impart information, make sure it's accurate.
3. Determine who you are and your relationship with the visitor. You can't explain your special perspective on life if you don't have one. Determine who you are. This includes social class, occupation, education and many
other variables. Also, assign a role to the visitor so that you might properly relate to him or her.
4. Be yourself. Even though you will be portraying a different person in a different time, don't attempt, at least in the beginning, to adopt a character so radically different from your own that you can't relate to or sympathize with it. Keep your own personality and adopt new social attitudes, dress, aesthetics and appropriate knowledge of the world around you. Many who try to change too radically come across as either to "stagey" and fales, or they are so uncomfortable they simply can't function at all.
5. Be conversational. You are not "just an actor" delivering a set of lines. Visitors have the opportunity to converse with someone from the past through you. Speak with them, not to them.
6. Communicate visually. The information you are transmitting to the visitor isn't limited to what you are saying. Your posture, your gesticulatiions and movement, your bows and curtseys and certainly your appearance all convey information about the period. Keep all of these elements as accurate as possible. Accept them and let them become natural and comfortable.
First Person Interpretation Some principles and guidelines Richard A. Cheatham, Living History Associates, Ltd.
1. Try to avoid static situations. Stroll, carve wood, play cards, read period newspapers, etc.
2. Continually seek out new historical information to use in informal conversation with visitors between scheduled talks. Living history interpreters are responsible for maintaining an ongoing first-person portrayal throughout the day, not just during formal talks.
3. Avoid going inside the visitor center or other modern interiors during visitor hours as much as possible. Living history interpreters who place themselves before the public in 20th Century (sic) surroundings compromise
their 19th-century identity and credibility.
4. Attempt first-person interpretation during initial contact with every visitor. Begin with simple topics, such as where they are from, etc. Ease them into a period conversation. Give visitors more than one opportunity to
catch on.
5. If two or more interpreters are within hearing distance of each other and one is engaged in first-person conversation, the other should not simultaneously engage in third-person conversation with other visitors or
members of the park staff.
6. If, when speaking informally to a mixed group of visitors, some of them are ready and willing to receive first person interpretation while others are not, stay in character and play to those who understand the situation.
Usually the others can eventually be drawn in.
7. Minor verbal sips by interpreters or modern comments made in passing by visitors can usually be ignored and passed over in order to maintain a first-person conversation overall.
8. Utilize the restored village environment, period objects and appropriate personal activities as tools to establish your character's historical integrity. Build up from these tools to a larger understanding of the park's overall historical themes.
9. Utilize other living history interpreters as backup support to maintain your character's sense of historical time and place.
10. Take your historical characterization seriously and live the part. If you don't take your character seriously, then the visitors won't either, and a unique interpretive opportunity is unnecessarily lost.
