Friday afternoon we did a photo shoot at work for promotional materials for our upcoming What Cheer! Day program on Saturday, October 5. We’ll be occupying the house in first person for a day, with members of the Brown family and their servants. I think we’re all a little overwhelmed by the prospect of playing real characters about whom we know less than we’d like, but too much not to pay attention to.

There are a lot of details in building a character, and I’m very lucky to be playing the housekeeper, who really is anonymous. We know the names of some of the servants, but not all. It’s liberating, but it’s also making a character up out of the whole cloth. This just means imagining someone new, and that’s where the aspiring fiction writer in me gets to play.

I’ve written about the process here and here, and there will be more to come. But for now, we request the pleasure of your company on Saturday October 5, where you can learn what secrets those maids know, and find out why the gentleman in the blue coat so hates the man in the green coat.