Costumed Interpretation: an interview with Bill Weldon (Colonial Williamsburg)

In yesterday’s blog post on Colonial Williamsburg I mentioned some of the challenges of designing costumed interpretation which told a range of well-known and hidden stories. While I was over there I was lucky enough to meet with Bill Weldon (Creative Director, Revolutionary City, Colonial Williamsburg) who was a great help in shaping our Performing the Past Summer School. I wanted to find out a bit more about how you get into this slightly unusual line of work so I posed some questions:

Reading the Declaration of Independence

One of the CWF team performing the daily reading the Declaration of Independence

·     Bill, how did you get into costumed interpretation?

I began acting in high school, and majored in theatre in college, but decided not to pursue a career as an actor.  I did continue to perform as a folk singer and guitar player.  When I began working at Colonial Williamsburg, my love of acting returned as there were bountiful opportunities to portray historical characters.

·      Which character do you enjoy playing the most?

While I have had the good fortune to portray a diverse group of historical figures, the portrayal that has meant the most to me by far is that of Patrick Henry, Virginia’s legendary orator and statesman.  Henry’s declaration, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” on March 23, 1775 motivated his countrymen to take up arms and seek independence from Great Britain.  That was but one of many epic speeches and seminal events that Henry was a central figure in during the American Revolution, and the formative years of the early republic.  He is a delight to portray because he was such a “lightning rod” figure, people tended to love him or hate him.  After Patrick Henry, I am most fond of portraying William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean, 1804-1806.

·         Do you have a favourite venue to perform at?

I have never met a venue I didn’t think was workable, but the best of course are the actual historic sites where the characters operated, the places  that they are associated with.  For me, nothing matches portraying Patrick Henry in the restored and reconstructed environs of Williamsburg, on the ground where he made history.  I feel the same about the opportunities that I had to portray William Clark at the reconstructed site at Fort Clatsop near the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific, the expedition’s winter camp at the terminus of their exploration of the American west. 

·         Which event are you most proud of organising?

I am most proud of my role as one of the creators and the artistic director for Revolutionary City, Colonial Williamsburg’s outdoor drama that ran from March through November, 2006 through  2013.  Revolutionary City consisted of a series of scenes that revealed and interpreted actual events that occurred in Williamsburg from the spring of 1774 through September of 1781, the years of political and social upheaval and the war for American independence.  (For commentary on the outdoor drama please see: here and here)

·         How important is training and research to costumed interpretation?

Research is the bedrock for legitimate costumed interpretation.  All historical interpretation must be built on a foundation of well researched documentation.  Otherwise it has no validity as an instrument for education and social provocation.  There are so many elements necessary to the creation of effective interpretation; research (including language use, deportment, social norms and habits, etc) performing skills,  narrative construction, etc. These can only be accomplished through comprehensive training process.

·         What one last piece of advice would you give to anybody thinking about getting into costumed interpretation?

Make an honest assessment of your skill sets and sensibilities to determine how you can best contribute to the field of historical interpretation, and thereby realize the greatest degree of self-realization and fulfillment.  Ask yourself if you possess the passion that will motivate you to commit to the research, training, and rigors of daily public engagement that are essential to succeeding as an interpreter.

Bill as Patrick Henry

Bill as Patrick Henry

If you want to find out more about costumed interpretation (and the Colonial Williamsburg perspective) look into joining our Summer School Performing the Past

Colonial Williamsburg

In case the last post about my trip to the CZAP Project excavation in Kurdistan didn’t make you jealous enough, this post deals with a trip to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, USA. I was invited over to discuss our exciting new collaboration on the Performing the Past Summer School which teaches the basics of costumed interpretation.

After the crowds had gone home

After the crowds had gone home

As I mentioned in last year’s postcard, Colonial Williamsburg is a hard place to get your head around due to the sheer range of facilities. This time I was staying right in the heart of the Historic Area for two weeks and I got to see the full scope of what Williamburg has to offer.

The Governor's mansion

The Governor’s mansion

Firstly the site has it’s own state of the art museum and stores which hold both examples of furnishings and objects from the period and the wonderful Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. Behind the scenes its educational facilities are also top notch and include a TV studio where they film footage for their Electronic Field Trips.

The new-old tinsmith's shop

The new-old tinsmith’s shop

The Foundation also oversees the original and reconstructed buildings which are furnished to the standards of the time. In these buildings you may find costumed guides giving tours or the craftspeople and apprentices who form Williamsburg’s ‘trades’ department. With everything from baskets to wig making going on you can spend days just walking around talking to these extremely knowledgeable individuals. However, I was there for two reasons 1) to look at the live interpretation and (2) to explore my research into the reintroduction of ‘hidden’ or ‘silenced’ voices at heritage sites.

Great Hope Plantations

Great Hopes Plantation

On the second point, as Gable and Handler (1997)‘s study of the site makes clear, Williamsburg has always had trouble reconciling the nostalgic elements of its reconstruction with the less palatable aspects of its past. Since 1979 the site has had an African American programme which tells the stories of these enslaved and freed people who made up half of the population of the city. I attended an incredibly moving workshop called ‘Workin’ the Soil, Healing the Soul’ which was delivered in third person and took visitors through the experiences of enslaved people at a plantation site. It’s easy to miss Great Hopes if you jump on the bus to the Historic Area but I would urge visitors to take time to talk with these incredible interpreters. It is challenging but you need to experience it.

'The Hated Spy'

‘The Hated Spy’

The challenges of telling the whole story of Williamsburg can also be witnessed in the Historic Area where staff are constantly discussing and debating how programmes such as ‘Revolution in the Streets’ can convey the full range of historical lived experiences. Watching ‘The Hated Spy’ or ‘Jumpin’ the Broom’ made it hard, for me at least, to simply tune out and enjoy the beauty of the place and forced me to engage with these complex and contradictory aspects of the past. As I was over there on a research grant I got to talk to the team behind this research and interpretation. Williamsburg as an organisation, and individual interpreters, sometimes ‘get flack’ for their depiction of the past but it’s clear that they’re tough on themselves and are always trying to improve what they do. It’ll be interesting to see how the site develops over the next couple of years and I’m really looking forward to welcoming some of their team on ‘Performing the Past’ this summer.

The fife and drums

The Fifes and Drums

Central Zagros Archaeological Project Bestansur

If the blog has seemed quiet for a little while it’s because Museum Studies at Reading went international during the Easter vacation. The first trip was with the Department of Archaeology’s Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP). As you’ll see Kurdistan is beautiful in the spring and the people were extremely welcoming. I was over there to give some advice on the ‘public archaeology’ side of things and to explore the potential to develop some interpretation with and for local people.

The fields around Bestansur

The fields around Bestansur

The CZAP project focuses on the Central Zagros region of west Iran and east Iraq and explores the beginnings of the Neolithic. The project combines techniques from archaeological science and social archaeology to understand the move to farming in this area of the Fertile Crescent. Some of the earliest layers are 9700 years old so specialists are looking for tiny traces of past activity using techniques such as micro-morphology.

The team getting ready to dig first thing in the morning

The team getting ready to dig first thing in the morning

One of our students Mat sieving for tiny fragments

One of our students Mat sieving for tiny fragments

This kind of project difficult to explain to non-specialists. One of my dissertation students Mat Britten (pictured above) was also on the trip as part of his research into public understanding of archaeological science – specifically micro-morphology. He is lucky to have micro-morph expert Dr Wendy Matthews as his other supervisor. She is extremely well versed in trying to explain this process to archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike.

With Mat and the rest of the team helping I tried to see what we could do on the interpretation front. The local city of Sulaimaniyah (you’ll find lots of spellings and pronunciations of this) has a fantastic museum which recently received UNESCO funding for some refurbishment. We worked with their staff to bring in teachers and create resources in Kurdish.

Slemani Museum

Slemani Museum

In the UK something like this would probably take years to organise but the Director of Education for the region managed to get 28 teachers and 5 regional supervisors to the site only 4 days after we approached him with the idea. It was really impressive to see this level of commitment to archaeology, and the teachers seemed as interested in the behind the scenes science labs as they were in the site itself.

Mat explaining micro-morphology to teachers back at the labs

Mat explaining micro-morphology to teachers back at the labs

Later in the season the chemistry teachers in the region also visited to find out more about the scientific processes being undertaken by specialists on site. Mat and another member of the team Hawar managed to put together a simple but effective flyer explaining the site in English and Kurdish for the second visit which can be used again in the future.

Teachers on site

Teachers on site

I had a wonderful time in Bestansur. The Reading and the local team were extremely welcoming and the site itself was fascinating. From interviewing local workers we found that there is a great deal of regional pride in the results of this excavation. As the dig went on more and more people came to visit. The region is focusing a lot of energy on its archaeology and history at the moment. It will be interesting to see how the site develops over the next few years.