Alamo Living History?

[mustanggray]

List,

This may be the wrong place for this posting and if so would the Administrators please place it where they think appropriate?

I am currently working on a 175th Commemorative Immersive Living History Alamo event and am looking for interesting incidents to add to the scenario that have either not been done before(at previous events) or are in the community's(ie. folks frequenting this board) eyes important to the story. If you were to attend an event like this what would you want to see recreated on either side of the walls?

What are your thoughts in regards?

[Jim Boylston]

How about the breakouts during the battle? I don't think we've seen them portrayed too often (at least not at the March 6 ceremonies).
Jim

[Wade Dillon]

Scott, where is this to be held? I took part in the Alamo reenactment with the San Antonio Living History Association last March and would love to take part in another Alamo reenactment.

As for incidents in the battle, how about the female slave who fell beside the cannon? Or, the soldados using the garrison's artillery on the barracks. I've yet to see either done.

All the best,
Wade

[stuart]

Need to be practical on this one. If the numbers are going to be anything like the March 6 numbers - or less - then clever stuff like the breakout isn't going to be practical and anyway I suspect from some of the reaction in another place the sight of some brave Texians running away is hardly going to be a crowd pleaser.

However...

I'm assuming from the tenor of the question as asked that what you want is something a little more thoughtful than a knockabout stage performance and that you're looking for themes to be improvised in the garrison and/or the Mexican camp either by way of historical immersion for the participants or providing interesting angles for the punters drifting through.

If so I can probably suggest a few ideas, but will hold off until we get some clarification from you as to what you're really looking for

[Jim Boylston]

My "breakout" comment wasn't meant to be facetious, but might, as Stuart suggests, be impractical.
Jim

[Wade Dillon]

How about depicting the executions?

~Wade

[Allen Wiener]

admin said:

My "breakout" comment wasn't meant to be facetious, but might, as Stuart suggests, be impractical.
Jim

Yeah. I actually enjoyed seeing the Mexican reenactors; maybe something more could be done to depict the Mexican side (weapons, uniforms, different divisions, encampments).

AW

[tmdreb]

I'm guessing this event will be like A169 and will have few to zero spectators, am I correct, Scott? I think this really helped the last time, as the site (2004 movie set) was quite large, and we got to roam around as we pleased, and take potshots here and there without worrying about spectators running around. I actually am not sure how to include them in such an event, especially since a big part of it is replicating the pre-dawn final assault.

How long are you planning the event to be? I might recommend that you consider making it a 4-5 day event, so that a little bit of the "feel" of the siege can set in, and there is time for various scenarios.

I think a scaled-down breakout could possibly be feasible depending on the numbers of Mexican cavalry. Last time, we had at least 10 lancers if I'm correct. Having a few defenders jump the walls and get "run down" could be quite a stunning sight for the participants.

[mustanggray]

List,

At the present this event is still in the planning stages. I would like to make this a bit more of an extended event than normal with a day or two open to the public with the remainder for us and us alone HOWEVER if I can raise the funds we could possibly do this as an event closed to the public.

I am working on ideas for building on the number of soldados present for this event. Breakouts, sorties, interesting historical characters and possibly the executions might be possibilities.

Thanks for the input and feel free to drop in and offer your comments as you feel so inclined.

[tman56]

Scott,

This sounds like a great idea!

Just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head, that I think might be interesting for the public (if you open the event up to them):

Nat Lewis fleeing Bexar the first day. We've all seen portrayals of the Bexar residents pouring into the Alamo, or waiting apprehensively in their homes for Santa Anna's arrival. But an Anglo colonist filling his saddlebags with everything he could carry and exiting stage left? In all honesty, had I been there, I can't rule out the possibility I'd have at least considered joining him....

Brigido Guerrero. "Hey, compadres, good to see you! I've been held prisoner by these rebels." Like Nat, Brigido makes me wonder what I would have done.

Keep us posted as things develop. This could be a good 'un.

tman56

[stuart]

Don’t want to sound like I’m trying to teach you to suck eggs on this one but its first a question of focussing on what you’re really trying to achieve and then the practicality of doing it.

Give you an example; a few years back I was working as a second unit AD on a feature film culminating in the battle of Culloden and using the inevitable collection of re-enactors to produce a reasonably convincing battle. For one particular scene I was able to work in a well-known story of a guy who escaped with his regiment’s colours. In cinematic terms it didn’t really add a lot but it was very much appreciated by the re-enactors as an iconic moment. For a public display you need a lot of iconic moments like this because they help the audience to engage and to identify the event as a specific historical event rather than a random shoot-out – and you also need to make the most of them, up front where the audience can see that they’re watching a significant episode.

Immersion on the other hand can seem like a lot of hard work and is usually much more understated, but pitch it right and you can find things taking on a life of their own. By way of another example, even longer ago I ran one of these set in Tynemouth Castle in 1642, at the outset of the English Civil War. Every participant received a detail briefing pack setting out all the necessary background information for the role allocated to them. As it happens the situation was confused. The garrison were local militia and theoretically loyal to the King. The governor certainly was, but his men were doing what they were told and as Protestants uneasy about the King’s seemingly equivocal stance on Catholicism. They were also on the other hand worried about rumours they might be sent to Ireland to deal with a Catholic uprising there. After a slow burning start this took on a life all of its own and almost tore the whole place apart without needing to run a scripted skirmish in the afternoon. All it took was a couple of committed agitators in a two and sometimes three sided but sporadic argument with everybody else gradually following their lead. Afterwards the general consensus was that we had probably got a better understanding of what the Civil War was all about in one day than through years of reading books.

Something similar might work very well in the Alamo if say certain individuals are briefed as Travis-fight-to-the-death supporters; others as willing fight only so long as there’s a chance but see no point in dying just to make a point; Tejanos (I assume you have some) who see themselves as Federalistas but are horrified by the prospect of independence and American annexation and are beginning to wonder if they’re fighting on the right side; and so on. Throw them all in together, encourage those who aren’t agitators to take sides, steering them if need be in the individual briefing notes, stand back and let it rip.

And if it works half as well as it has the potential to do, quietly booking a one-way seat on the 2.10 to Yuma might be prudent…

[witlesstex]

I like the one of Brigido Guerrero pleading his case of being a hostage before Santa Anna's men, if it can feasibly be done.