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.

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.

Impression Sheet Template

From Chapter 13. 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: ________________________________

Reading the Guest, At a Glance

From Chapter 10. 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

The Five-Step Opening

From Chapter 10. 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.

Anachronism Response Menu

From Chapter 10. 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

Indentured Servitude vs. Chattel Slavery, At a Glance

From Chapter 8. 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

Hospitality Quick Lines

From Chapter 9. The Art of Hospitality: Invitation, Etiquette, and the Language of Welcome: The Art of Hospitality.

Greeting a social superior: "Madam, you're most welcome. I trust the day finds you in good health."
Greeting from a lower station: "I thank you, madam. The morning is vastly improved by your kind reception."
Extending an invitation: "Sir, if it pleases you, I would be honored by your company for tea this Thursday at four."
Accepting an invitation: "The honor is entirely mine. I accept with gratitude and shall attend at the appointed hour."
Declining an invitation gracefully: "I am deeply obliged by your kindness. Regrettably, a prior engagement prevents my attendance, though I remain your humble servant."
Polite refusal of refreshment: "You are most generous, but I must decline for the moment — yet I thank you sincerely for your courtesy."

When to Break Character

From Chapter 11. 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.

Clean Break-and-Return Method

From Chapter 11. 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.

Recurring Hard Questions Checklist

From Chapter 12. 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?

Rehearsal Drills

From Chapter 13. 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.

Business Basics, At a Glance

From Chapter 15. The Business of Living History: Gigs, Marketing, and Getting Paid: The Business of Living History.

Three venue tiers: the venues you'd expect (festivals, historical societies, libraries); the venues you develop (pitching your specific trade into an unexpected context); the venues you could never imagine (case by case — say yes or no on the merits).
Rough pricing benchmarks (venue-dependent, not fixed rules): regional interpreter, ~$500/day and up; nationally recognized traveling persona, ~$1,000/day and up; recurring local venue gig, ~$600–700/night; corporate events often much higher. Price travel and lodging separately from your fee.
Terminology: search terms people actually use ("historical impersonator") aren't always the terms you'd prefer ("historical interpreter") — meet people in their own vocabulary before correcting it.
Value over discount: add value (an autograph signing, a companion persona) rather than lowering your price when a client pushes back.

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

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