I think the idea of "living history" as performance is an interesting concept. I have been to several different historical sites and witnessed people dressed in the costumes of the time and "performing" different acts of what people did in that time period. For example, in historic Williamsville in Virginia, there was a man who, dressed in revolutionary style garments, was making rings for the spectators out of horse shoe nails. We stood there watching him, amazed!
Another time, at the Magnolia Mound plantation in Baton Rouge, I was a witness to several women in "Civil War" dress greeting visitors, making bread, and roasting chicken in the outdoor kitchen as they explained how women cooked during that time. They remained in character during the whole process.
Carlson discusses similar cases in his article. He describes an activity at Fort Ross in Northern California about a husband and wife dressing in costumes of the 1830s. They are greeting visitors as they come in. She plays the piano, but stops because she doesn't feel that she is good enough to perform. However, she and her husband are still performing because they are in the "character" of the people they are portraying just like the man making the rings out of horse shoe nails and the women greeting visitors and cooking at Magnolia Mound.
When my kids were in Boy Scouts, I worked at a leader training called "Powder Horn." On the first day, we had to dress in the costumes of South Louisiana in 1819. One time, I ran the trading post during a Cub Scout summer camp. Our theme was "Pirates." I played the part of a "Wench" and was in costume. I even got "robbed" by the other youth leaders several times. The cub scouts loved watching our "performances!" It made their time at camp entertaining, so in that sense, we were "performing."
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