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Chicago Tribune

July 17, 1994

LIVING HISTORY
RE-ENACTORS TEACH AND LEARN AT THE SAME TIME

Author: Paula Lauer. Special to the Tribune.

Edition: NORTHWEST FINAL
Section: TEMPO NORTHWEST
Page: 1

Index Terms:
SUBURB
ILLINOIS
HISTORY
INTERVIEW

Estimated printed pages: 6

Article Text:

Sitting in a Schaumburg hotel lobby one recent evening, Max Daniels seemed oblivious to the stares and double takes of passersby. Granted, at 6-foot-4 and dressed in a black three-piece suit complete with a gold watch and floppy bow tie, the 55-year-old Daniels didn't exactly blend in with the northwest suburban hotel crowd. Accessorized with a genuine beard and a stovepipe hat, Daniels finally heard the inevitable comment offered by one bold stranger.

"Ya know, you look just like Abraham Lincoln!"

Daniels is used to the attention. He and his wife, Donna, 39, have been appearing as Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln for the past eight years at schools, festivals, parades, retirement centers, Civil War re-enactments, fundraisers and dinner theaters, to name just a few. Their one-act play, "An Evening With Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln," performed for the Schaumburg chapter of the AAUW this particular evening, is one of about 200 appearances as the 16th president and First Lady the Wheaton couple will make this year

And they're not alone. No longer content to just read about history and the people who shaped it, more and more folks are taking their countless hours of research and donning period costumes in an attempt to give the rest of us a flesh-and-blood glimpse of the past.

Though a few northwest suburban residents have built a career out of it, for most it's a labor of love. If money changes hands at all, it's usually for travel expenses or a sliding scale fee-anywhere from $50 to $250.

Besides the Lincolns (at last count there were 86 Abes, 15 Mary Todds and eight separate couples in the New Jersey-based Society of Lincoln Presenters), characters range from local historical celebrities such as Elgin's Alyce "Byrdie" Byrd Potter to widely recognized personalities such as Mark Twain, Marie Curie and Harriet Tubman.

Then there's Katherine von Schlosserwald and Gavin White of Westburgh, who, along with their son, 6-year-old Gregory von Hanover, oversee the Shire of Vanished Wood (i.e., the northwest suburbs) simply because they love the romance of medieval history.

The Hanover Park family, who go by Kathy, Kevin and Adam Westburg in modern-day dealings, belongs to the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international self-educating organization devoted to re-creating life in the Middle Ages. Besides their research into medieval society, members construct replica costumes and artifacts; practice historical arts and crafts such as calligraphy and brewing; and learn to fight with a sword, shield and armor.

According to Kathy Westburg, members also embrace the ideals of chivalry, which makes society feasts, festivals and even battles "a very low-tech escape from a very high-tech life. People in the society are highly courteous and highly polite. They address you as M'Lord or M'Lady and shake your hand, or kiss your hand as the case may be. I think that's what's refreshing about it; it's incredibly old-fashioned."

It's also educational.

"I'm constantly learning," Jim Harding, 30, of Bolingbrook said while making final adjustments to his squeaking armor before a recent fighting practice in Roselle. "Everything from fighting, how to make armor, how to work metal-it was all given to me." Clanking off to spar with a fellow knight, he added, "But a lot of it is social-seeing that I'm not the only one looking for Camelot."

Although most re-enactors will agree they enjoy hunting for sometimes obscure information and the therapeutic benefits of escaping the 20th Century, a common denominator among them is also a love of history and, as Max Daniels puts it, a desire to "educate in an entertaining way."

"We enjoy making history come to life," said Donna Daniels. "For students, it sort of reinforces what they've read in books, but in general, we just think it's more interesting for people to be able to actually speak to President and Mrs. Lincoln. They have fun with it, too, but I think it makes more of an impression on people to meet Abraham Lincoln."

Jess McClain, 34, of Streamwood is a former professional actress who these days uses her singing and acting talents to portray underground railroad pioneer Harriet Tubman at Civil War encampments.

"I just feel like I become Harriet for those few minutes and bring the information to life," she said. "It's not like sitting there and reciting facts. People really seem to get involved with it and not only learn, but enjoy the experience."

Amina Dickerson, vice president of education and public programs for the Chicago Historical Society, believes it's this opportunity to enjoy history, a subject that for many prompts stifled yawns at the mere mention of the word, that has contributed to the steady growth of the society's 4-year-old Voices from History program. Last year the program, which incorporates historic characters into presentations at the museum and at schools, served about 40,000 school children and "untold thousands (of adults and families) in the galleries over the weekends.

"It's an interpretive technique that all of us are becoming more aware of and are utilizing to a greater degree because of the public's response to this," Dickerson said. "When you hear Lincoln and (Stephen) Douglas do their debates, or you hear Frederick Douglass speak out against slavery, the eloquence of those words . . . puts people in a place and time in a most immediate and direct sense. And there's a human element to it that is very important."

It's precisely that human element that an auditorium of 6th, 7th and 8th graders at Roselle Middle School were treated to when Marie Curie (played by Joan Schaeffer of Naperville) stopped by to tell her life story. In her performance, Schaeffer included not only the beakers, test tubes and the dramatic discovery of radium in Curie's life but also Curie's trauma of losing her mother, the frustrations of sexual discrimination and the heartbreak of lost love.

"It was pretty cool," said Anne Haider, 13, admitting that usually she finds history "kind of boring."

"This was more interesting because she was acting it out," said classmate Katie Spain, 13. "And it helps to see that we're just as good as the guys" when it comes to math and science.

As founder and president of Historical Perspectives for Children, Schaeffer said comments like that are music to her ears. Schaeffer, 40, has built a career out of writing and performing first-person biographies. Besides Marie Curie, her cast of characters includes Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller and Laura Ingalls Wilder. She recently added three more: Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman college in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the only black female out of the 50 officials who help write the United Nations charter; Madam C.J. Walker, America's first self-made female millionaire; and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton.

Schaeffer, who has seen demand increase from 72 bookings in 1990 to over 600 today, spends at least a year researching her characters. She said she hopes her characters will show children that, although their history books are sorely lacking in female heroes, there are plenty who "made tremendous changes in history and should never be forgotten."

That goes for local heroes, too.

Alyce "Byrdie" Byrd Potter of Elgin made national headlines in 1908 by being the first woman to travel without a male chaperone in an automobile from Chicago to New York. During a visit, Byrdie, played by Elgin Academy teacher Linda Rock of Elgin, confided to a classroom of wide-eyed 20th Century 3rd graders at Lords Park School in Elgin: "I think I kind of liked the attention, and I loved all that fame. I loved being interviewed, and I loved to be in the newspapers."

Dressed in a 19th Century duster, wide-brimmed hat, scarf and goggles, Byrdie was one of three characters the Elgin schoolchildren chatted with that morning. Rock, who is also on the board of the Elgin Historical Society, used a series of subtle but clever costume accessories to become Emeline Church Borden (1808-1890), wife of condensed milk inventor and Elgin library namesake Gail Borden, and Jennie Tazewell (1847-1923), who taught for more than 50 years in Elgin and was the city's first assistant superintendent of schools.

For Rock, 43, persistently following leads on historical accounts that are often sketchy at best is half the fun. It's those lesser known tidbits-the fact that Byrdie was the first woman car salesperson in Illinois, for example-"that make history come alive," Rock said. "Then you realize these are real human beings . . . and it's just so much fun to find out those little things that help you to connect with that person as a human being."

Samuel L. Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, a.k.a. Mike Baker of Palatine, couldn't agree more.

Decked out in a replica of Twain's trademark white three-piece suit and clutching a smoldering cigar, Baker, 46, has spent the past 26 years introducing audiences to "the other side of Mark Twain."

With minimal props, Baker paces, rocks, fiddles with his cigar and executes a non-stop 45- to 60-minute monologue as the 70-something Twain. Baker offers a glimpse of Twain's appreciation for the comedy in life, as well as his melancholy outlook.

Baker said he hopes the audience comes away with "a different perspective of the writer-they've seen more of the humanness in the man. He had pains and he had joys just like everyone else does, and he had a unique way of expressing it, which is what most people didn't realize. He could just stop and spellbind an audience for hours at a time with stories and yarns he picked up on his travels."

Like most re-enactors, Baker said he feels a real connection with his character. "He just sort of goes wherever I go," Baker said, chuckling. "He's definitely a part of my life.

"And it's funny-when I put the coat on after I spend 45 minutes to an hour getting ready, it changes everything," he added. "It transforms me. Immediately I stoop over, my shoulders get a little more rounded. I can't even walk backstage as Mike Baker. I start taking slower steps and very cautious steps, because I'm over 70. In fact, I proposed to my wife as Mr. Twain, and she's still not sure to this day who she said yes to."

While exposing audiences to the human side of history is important, the opportunity to walk a mile in someone else's moccasins, so to speak, has its own benefits, re-enactors said.

"They teach me an awful lot," Schaeffer said of her characters. "I find myself continually amazed at their forebearance and their will, and they're extremely inspirational for me."

An actor who cherishes his craft always includes a part of himself in a role, McClain said: "And often you derive knowledge and wisdom from your character. You discover different things about yourself, and you see different sides of yourself that you never thought you had.

Caption:
PHOTO (color): In costume and in character (from left): Kevin, Adam and Kathy Westburg of Hanover Park; Donna and Max Daniels of Wheaton; and Linda Rock of Elgin. Tribune photo by Bill Hogan.
PHOTO: Dressed as Abe Lincoln, Max Daniels reviews the troops at a Civil War encampment in Arlington Heights. Tribune photo by Val Mazzenga.
PHOTO: Joan Schaeffer portrays young Helen Keller for children at Sullivan School in Prospect Heights. Tribune photo by Jim Prisching
PHOTOS 3

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