Chapter 13: Quick-Reference Appendix
This appendix collects the templates, checklists, and quick decision aids from earlier chapters in one place. It isn't meant to teach anything new — see the chapters themselves for explanation and context.
13.1 Persona Biography Template
From Chapter 2. Building a Persona from the Ground Up.
- Name, age, birthplace: ________________________________
- Station, trade, free or unfree status: ________________________________
- Family (living, dead, nearby, far away): ________________________________
- How she learned her trade or came to her current situation: ________________________________
- One conviction she holds strongly: ________________________________
- One thing she's anxious about this week: ________________________________
- Primary sources this is grounded in (letter, runaway notice, inventory, court, parish, or tax record): ________________________________
- Documented facts vs. plausible extrapolation — mark each item above accordingly, so you know where more research would pay off first.
13.2 Impression Sheet Template
From Chapter 11. Rehearsal, Feedback, and Building Your Impression. Keep this one on you.
- Persona summary (one line): ________________________________
- Voice feature sheet (4–5 habits — see the companion book's own template): ________________________________
- Two or three possessions you can discuss in depth: ________________________________
- Today's task, and what it connects to: ________________________________
- Three prepared positions (politics; station/bondage; trade or region): ________________________________
- One opening question requiring no historical knowledge to answer: ________________________________
13.3 Reading the Guest, At a Glance
From Chapter 8. In the Field: Improvisation and the Unscripted Guest: In the Field.
| Guest type | Best opening move |
|---|---|
| Eager engager | Direct opening question, let it run |
| Cautious observer | Passing comment or narrated task, not direct address |
| Rushed guest | Short, self-contained, memorable line |
| Tester | Confident, specific, on-the-merits answer |
| Specialized/expert guest | Precise answer, or an honest redirect if you don't know |
13.4 The Five-Step Opening
From Chapter 8. In the Field: Improvisation and the Unscripted Guest: In the Field.
- Identify a relatable human trait — pride, curiosity, fairness — not historical knowledge.
- Greet and supply context immediately; don't wait in silence.
- Ask an opinion-based question anyone can answer.
- Layer in more information gradually.
- Follow up based on what the guest showed interest in.
13.5 Anachronism Response Menu
From Chapter 8. In the Field: Improvisation and the Unscripted Guest: In the Field. Vary these — don't default to only one.
| Situation | Technique |
|---|---|
| Object anachronism (phone, car) | Genuine in-character confusion, or a redirect through a related period concept |
| Future-knowledge question | Play real period uncertainty straight — your persona genuinely doesn't know how it turns out |
| Meta-question about the performance itself | Brief, clean break in character, then re-anchor and resume |
| Guest clearly wants a real historical answer | Brief, clean break in character, then re-anchor and resume |
13.6 Indentured Servitude vs. Chattel Slavery, At a Glance
From Chapter 7. Portraying Across Station, Race, and Bondage. Never conflate the two.
| Indentured servitude | Chattel slavery | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Fixed term (typically 4–7 years) | Lifelong |
| Hereditary | No | Yes, through the mother |
| Legal status | Contract, however coercive | Property |
| End of term | Freedom, often with freedom dues | None |
13.7 When to Break Character
From Chapter 9. Breaking Frame Responsibly. Always, no exceptions:
- Physical safety, medical need, or genuine distress
- A guest who doesn't understand this is a performance and is being harmed by the confusion
- A scene sliding from productive discomfort into real harm
- Harassment or clear bad faith
Usually stay in character for:
- Sharp disagreement with a period opinion, argued in good faith
- A hard question your persona can genuinely answer from inside the frame
- A guest testing whether you'll "crack"
Try de-escalating in character first (slow down, acknowledge the guest's point, redirect, hand off to a colleague) before a full break.
13.8 Clean Break-and-Return Method
From Chapter 9. Breaking Frame Responsibly.
- Signal the shift clearly (posture, tone, or a direct line).
- Say only what's needed to address the situation.
- Re-anchor with a short beat before returning.
- Re-enter by resuming your task or referencing the moment before the break.
13.9 Recurring Hard Questions Checklist
From Chapter 10. Working a Crowd: Groups, Children, and Hard Questions: Working a Crowd. Have a real, thought-through answer ready for each:
- Do you own slaves? What do you think about slavery?
- What do you think of the King / of independence?
- Aren't you hot/cold in that?
- Didn't everyone just die young back then?
- What's a phone / a car / the internet?
- Is this real? Is this actually happening?
13.10 Rehearsal Drills
From Chapter 11. Rehearsal, Feedback, and Building Your Impression.
- Sentence conversion — modern sentence to period voice, on the spot, with a situational twist.
- Cold-open drill — an unbriefed colleague approaches with no warm-up.
- Anachronism relay — practice all three response techniques deliberately.
- Hard-question gauntlet — rapid-fire, out of order.
- Group-scenario role-play — one engaged, one quiet, one performative guest.
- Task-interruption drill — answer mid-task, then resume convincingly.
- Solo alternatives: recorded sentence conversion, mirror work, imagined-guest cards, in-character voice-memo journaling.
13.11 Further Reading, At a Glance
See Chapter 12. Finding Your Community and Going Further for full context, links, and training/certification pathways (NAI, IMTAL, AAM).
| Source | Best for |
|---|---|
| Townsends' Living History Personas | First persona, civilian roles |
| 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center | Dress and object research |
| Passion for the Past | Seasonal, task-based interpretation |
| K. Walters at the Sign of the Gray Horse | Open-hearth cookery, domestic life |
| Two Nerdy History Girls | Object-and-document micro-history |
| Journal of the American Revolution | Working-class and military primary sources |
| Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage | Interpretive theory, foundational |
| Stacy F. Roth, Past into Present | First-person technique, in depth |
| Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone | Slavery's history and variation |
| Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater | Improv training |
| Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart | Emotional labor and interpreter wellbeing |
| 18th Century English for History Interpreters | Period voice, grammar, and register |