Historical Reenactment Society Unrecognized

Mission Statement
The goal of the Historical Reenactment Society is to bring history to life in order to educate ourselves and others, inspire an appreciation of past events and lifestyles from a modern perspective, and most of all dress up in crazy costumes and have fun! We welcome anyone with an interest in history, costuming, historical literature or other media, acting and reenacting, and any other reason that might bring you to our group.

This group does not limit its scope to a single historical era nor to a single location: we strive to be diverse and inclusive in our choices of events while still respecting cultural difference. What we reenact, discuss, and learn about will be driven by members' interests and curiosities.

Meeting activities mostly consist of planning and preparation for our reenactment events, such as discussing topics for the reenactment, possible location, necessary characters, and construction of props and costumes. We will also facilitate other activities that will enrich historical knowledge including discussions, film screenings, and book club style meetings.

Check out our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182365439643

This group is dormant for the Spring 2011 semester--sorry! If you're still interested in what we do and perhaps in helping us start up again for Fall 2011, please email the signers.

Inventory
Purchased by school: none

Owned by signers and available for the group to use: sewing materials, costuming guides and photo books, history books, miscellaneous useful resources.

On-Campus Potential Plans

 * Second Annual Emergency Halloween Costume Workshop: A day or two before Hampshire Halloween, we'll host some Halloween help for anyone who's interested. We did this last year and it was great fun. Hopefully this year will be a little more organized ahead of time and we'll have more people and more fun!
 * Guy Fawkes Day: England in the year 1606 was a chaotic place, filled with religious tension, political intruige and social unrest. We'll take you back into the time of Shakespeare with a re-telling (or maybe a re-enactment) of the events of the Gunpowder Plot, possibly with excerpts from Bill Cain's premeiring play "Equivocation". Remember remember the 5th of November. (But how should we celebrate? Blowing things up is not actually an option. Ideas?)
 * Masquerade Ball: Always a good plan, involves masks, great excuse to dress up - might be a great November plan, because we can take advantage of after-Halloween sales on masks and handy-dandy accoutrements.
 * Time Traveller's Ball: whether you arrived by time machine or magic, and take your costume from one particular period or mix and match from your adventuring on the space-time continuum, come chat, dance, and defy the laws of temporal reality. (This was an idea we came up with last year - if people are interested, we can make it happen this time around.)
 * Mardi Gras Masquerade: Yes? Yes? Who's in? No harm in planning ahead!
 * Historical Assassins: the game Assassins is played on many college campuses (see wikipedia), but we'll be playing it with a twist. When you sign up for our game you will receive the identity of a historical figure, a military or political leader most likely, from any period in history. You will also be given the name of another historical figure, whom you must assassinate, and will be told the rules about how to do so. May the greatest conqueror win!
 * Old Hollywood Murder Mystery: If enough people are seriously interested, we could potentially do this, though there may not be time Fall semester. It's rather an involved project!
 * Steampunk Workshop: Sound interesting? Let us know!
 * Costuming Workshops

Potential Trips Off-Campus
Old Sturbridge Village: located about an hour's drive east, this historic village is very interesting, and we'll be organizing a trip with several other student groups on a weekend soon.


 * King Richard's Faire: a Renaissance Faire located near Boston, open weekends.
 * Historic Deerfield: another re-creation of a New England town, this time with museums and information from a variety of time periods, and closer.
 * Museum of Springfield History: the history of Springfield from the Civil War to the present.
 * Vericon: Harvard University's annual convention.

2010-2011

 * Fall Semester Planning Meeting: Friday 9/17 at 6:30pm in FPH 108 - come and join us for some planning! And possibly snacks. We'll toss around ideas for the semester, even for the year. If you have preferences or suggestions, you should come and let us know. If you have ideas but aren't going to be able to make it, you should send Ava (acl09@hampshire.edu) an email ahead of time so those ideas have a chance to make it to everyone else. We need input so we know what we should organize! Therefore, come to the meeting.

On-Campus Events

 * Spring Semester Big Planning Meeting on Sunday, February 21 at 4pm in FPH, probably room 107. This is everyone's chance to throw out ideas for the semester. We'll brainstorm, make plans, and pick set times for meetings that work for as many people as possible. If you can't make it and want to give us input, email the group signers beforehand and we'll bring up your thoughts to the group. Let us know if you want more movies, more sewing workshops, more field trips, etc. Also, there will be a simple sewing project available for anyone interested!
 * Historical Movie Nights: come in period costume, and hang around after the movies for discussions of the time periods and a list of inacurracies in the films! Films will be every other Friday, beginning October 23rd with "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" in FPH 107.
 * Emergency Halloween Costume Workshop: Panicking because Halloween is tomorrow and you're only half done with your costume? Know what you want to make but have no idea how to do it? Really need a sewing machine or someone to help you cut and measure? Come get some help from experienced costume-makers! Bring your costume or materials (and we'll also have basic fabrics and supplies) and have a fun evening working with awesome people, snacks, and music and movies to help distract/inspire you. Thursday, October 29 in FPH 107 at 6pm. 

Off-Campus Events

 * Old Sturbridge Village: a re-creation of an 1830s New England town located just outside of Boston. Specialists in various historical crafts and occupations are available and teach lessons in their chosen skills.October 23rd, joint trip with the Blacksmith's Guild.
 * Arisia 2010: New England's largest scifi and fantasy convention. January 15-18 in Cambridge MA.We will be going as part of the Excaliber/Asian Media groups. Contact us if you will be there and would like to get together!