This is another feature that will be rolling out this year, which I’ve termed ‘debriefs’. These will be ‘after-action reports’ in which I break down public events I’ve attended in the name of ‘GFFA reenacting’. The first several will require a bit of backtracking, but we’ll get caught up quickly.
Venue: MCPL:
Other participants pictured above, all 501st: two TKs (Stormtroopers), one black-armored stormie(???), a black-uniformed Imperial, and one Jawa—so I was the lone ‘good guy’.
As this was geared towards primary school-aged children, the event was focused on craft activities and games (making lightsabers from foam pool noodles, Death Star beanbag toss, etc) and opportunities for taking photos with the above costumed participants. This meant that there was no ‘scenario’ to the event. Children seem more likely to engage with masked/faceless characters, and with no glowy lightsaber they weren’t exactly lining up for photos with yours truly.
As a result, my attempts to engage children were limited to browsing the SW book section, dueling children with toy lightsabers, or flattening myself against bookshelves when the Imps strolled through on ‘patrol’.
Take-away: if I’m going to go to any more events of this type, I need to build up a toolkit of engagement prompts—something more than ‘Jedi intently studying a book (even if it’s Star Wars)’!
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 