Performing History

Ann E. Birney is managing partner of Ride into History and volunteer executive director of Ride into History Cultural and Educational Project, Inc. She joined the troupe in 1992, creating a composite teacher-turned suffrage-lecturer and a year later began work on her signature performance as Amelia Earhart. She researches, writes, and performs her first person narratives, which also include Rachel Carson and Julia Archibald Holmes. She has conducted, with Dr. Thierer, fifty-five one-week historical performance camps in addition to over one hundred workshops and conference sessions.Joyce M. Thierer is the author of Telling History: A Manual for Performers and Presenters of First Person Narratives. She toured as the "stand-up historian" (MC) with the Kansas Chautauqua for two summers, was on the Kansas Humanities Council's History Alive! roster since its beginning in 1992 and on the Oklahoma and Nebraska humanities council rosters, all as Calamity Jane. She is the founding partner of Ride into History, a historical performance touring troupe. Providing entertainment as well as the sound scholarship required of humanities councils, Ride into History was juried onto the Kansas Arts Commission's touring program and Mid-America Arts Alliance theatre rosters.

Performing History: How to Research, Write, Act, and Coach Historical Performances is an excellent follow-up to Telling History. Sorting through many sources of information and deciding what to use and how to use it was difficult for me as a beginner in historic interpretation. I found Chapter 2: ‘Overcoming Fear of Research with Historians’ Powerful Tools’ especially helpful in resolving these issues. Overall, the information contained in this book has given me tools to strengthen my interpreter skills.

• Chapter 1: What Does It Take to Do a Good Historical Performance?Chapter 2: Overcoming Fear of Research with Historians’ Powerful ToolsChapter 3: Designing Your PerformanceChapter 4: Performance: It’s All About the Audience When There’s No Fourth WallChapter 5: Sharing the Mantle of Authority: Young People Interpret HistoryChapter 6: Using Historical Performance Skills to Enhance Other Traditions of Costumed InterpretationChapter 7: Dreams and Plans