Just reread my posting. Of course one wants to play Henry's wives--
they wore wonderful clothing--I just thought it was a ghoulish notion
to have somebody playing one of the gals at a SHAKESPEARE evening....
--Ruth Anne
On Nov 5, 2007, at 7:13 AM, Ruth Anne Baumgartner wrote:
Some years ago I was invited to play hostess at a "Shakespeare
dinner," a fund-raiser for a nearby not-very-good-but-very-
pretentious Shakespeare theater--they wanted me to be one of Henry
VIII's wives, as if that much to do with Shakespeare and certainly
as if anybody ALIVE would want to play one of them gals. An early-
music group I costumed was performing, and I knew what they were
wearing--handsome costumes (if I say so as shouldn't) intended to
suggest a range of the couple of centuries their music is drawn
from. I asked what the other performers would be wearing and
learned that I was the ONLY "character"--everyone else who would be
working at the event would be wearing "Shakespearean" outfits they
were putting together themselves from costume shops, prom dresses,
tights, and basic Simplicity tunics. So I figured historical
accuracy was not going to be much of an issue, and since I had very
little time to get ready...
And since they were paying me $50 and I had no spare change of my
own to make a real investment...
I myself have NO really good costumes--I costume community theater,
mainly, and I'm usually the director in those situations.
So I too got a Simplicity pattern that I thought would say
"Shakespeare," bought some great fabric from the Clearance table at
a local upholstery store, and presented myself not as one of
Henry's dead dears but as the Duchess of Yore. It went over very
well, although most people didn't get the joke (maybe they thought
I'd said "York").
Anyway, that's the past to most: "yore." A mixed bag of pretty
things, odd things, big sleeves, and flat shoes.
These Hallowe'en stories have been very entertaining, but not very
surprising, since where the general public is saying "Yore," all
these specialists are saying "1482" or "1624"!
--Ruth Anne Baumgartner
scholar gypsy and amateur costumer
On Nov 5, 2007, at 4:11 AM, Kate M Bunting wrote:
Audrey Bergeron-Morin wrote :
And then there's the time I was invited to a medieval wedding...
the groom
was wearing a tricorn hat :-/
Yes, a lot of people seem to use "medieval" as a general term for
"long ago". When I do 17th century the public often refer to us as
medieval.
Here in Britain adults don't dress up for Hallowe'en, but we did
once wear costumes to work for one of those charity fundraising
days. I wore 17th century clothing, and I too felt a bit as though
I were cheating.
Kate Bunting
Librarian & 17th century reenactor.
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