Student  Opportunities for “Living History” Actors and Tour Guides

For the  French and Mexican encampments during the Cinco de Mayo festivities the first week of May, 2012, there are some promising “student” opportunities.

History, Language, Drama and Home Economics teachers may be interested.

French and Mexican adult re-enactor encampments will be at Camp Mabry. However, we encourage schools, scout troops and other groups to set up “living history” campsites at locations in the greater Austin area to depict - for example - life as a “soldadera,” showing how life might have looked at San Andres Chalchicomula, the Mexican Eastern Army camp headed by General Ignacio Zaragoza.

During the 2011-2012 school year, teachers could rehearse their students on what to say about the role they are playing at a particular location, such as:

• Making soap or candles
• Cooking over a fire pit
• Grooming and caring for horses
• The life of a soldadera
• Military marching and line drill

The speeches could be rehearsed in English or Spanish (or even French for the French encampment.) At the school, small posters with drawings or photographs of the campsite items they will be describing can be placed around the classroom, with fellow students acting as “visitors” and even asking questions that are most likely to come up in the real events.

Not all participants need to be in costume. Many will gladly escort small groups of visitors around an encampment, a museum, etc., and explain the various items as they come to them. Museums can be particularly helpful in the training by going to the schools and encouraging students to apply, and then by providing follow-up training for those students selected by the teachers to participate.

Teachers could arrange to bring whole classes to the campsite, dressed in period costumes and uniforms, especially if they are from area school districts where the students can easily return home. The teachers might also volunteer to serve as models and guides at the campsites, and hold “auditions” for the few selected students who will join them. Home Ec. Teachers could team-up by helping to make the costumes, or to rehearse the cooking routines, etc.

Teachers from outside the Austin area could hold auditions and select students who will be sponsored by a host organization. With the proper insurance, parental permission, waivers and other appropriate steps, local riding academies can sponsor students as costumed cavalry groomers or re-enactors.