http://www.kentwell.co.uk/Re-Creations/Tudor
I met most of my best friends here including my bestest friend. I have often wondered why this is so. When I first went to Kentwell I was a teacher in charge of a small group of 10 year olds and because we were supposed to dress in a "Tudor" style and I was a bit of an exhibitionist (!!!!) I borrowed a pair of opaque tights, made myself a red felt codpiece, adapted an old fawn shirt and topped the lot off with a straw hat.
How was I to know that most other teachers just tucked their trousers into longish socks or wore a long skirt?
We passed through a dark, narrow time tunnel and emerged into what can only be described as a sensory heaven. People in russet and other muted colours drifted over lawns in front of a manor house. Everywhere was the smell of woodsmoke. A couple of pipers and a drummer were playing unrecognisable but haunting music and all was peaceful. In those days you could see nothing that wasn't authentic (such an important concept for us re-enactors!). As we progressed around the manor, through the farm, looking at and smelling smiths, charcoal makers, potters and builders, women kept on making comments like, "Fine arse!" "Well met, Fellow. Art thou in search of a wife?" etc (modesty forbids me to go on!)
Anyway after a fantastic time crowned by a wild dance to some of the most exciting music I'd heard (apart from Samba, naturally), a re-enactor came up to me and, committing the dreadful sin of coming out of role, told me how to apply to be part of it and suggest I might fit in with the 200 or so people on the manor.
So I made me a costume, went to see Patrick Phillips whose train set it was and who made sure we wouldn't break it or mess it up and the rest, as they say, is history.
So what makes us relinquish the modern world for a week or two or three in some cases, live in a tent or at best a caravan with very limited conveniences, research a role, learn to speak in a Tudorese cross between Shakespeare, the Bible, and Carry on Henry and learn skills that in most cases have been forgotten? Fun of course! And the chance to reinvent ourselves so convincingly that our best Kentwell friends may not know what we do in our other lives. (Notice I did not use the phrase, "Real World").
Patrick always says in his (long) speech to newbies that many see their Kentwell personae as their primary identities. It's a Kentwell aphorism that a gentry dustman will talk to a beggar doctor and neither knows who they "really" are.
My contention is that our education, our jobs and to a certain extent our dress are masks we have been wearing for years and that Kentwell give all of us a chance to rediscover our true selves. Patrick's genius is his ability to sum up people in a few minutes, offer them a role and allow and encourage them to develop that role whether it is a real historical gentle man, or a wandering player. We are left very much to ourselves with a bit of advice and a whole lot of peer support and somehow it all works beautifully and convincingly.
Authenticity can mean a hand sewn woollen and linen costume, a tool collection that will appear to be correct, songs which sound right or were written before the year we are re-creating. But it can also mean becoming the person you really enjoy being and who can relate to others. Kentwell not only allows that, it actively encourages it.
And there's not a sentence of writing we need to do!
(But we're not paid either!)
