Rich and Gaius,<br>
        I find that attention spans are not problems as much as fitting the right information into the time frame and age group. Most of what I do is for high schools and college students. Although I have performed for as young as third grader studying latin with the "Minimus" program. I've never really had a teacher do specific preparatory assignments, like Gaius, but that would be a great idea for younger students.<br>
        I began with a lecture on paper, Rich, but based on the kinds of questions I got, and the responses that kept coming up over and over again, I now have done my presentation over seventy times and I really do it from memory. However, like Aristotle's topoi for a journey, I use the clothing itself to cue me where to go next. Since I usually have a soldier and a female in costume with me, there is something for everyone to look at. As expected, the boys want to know everything in detail about the armor, weapons, and fighting; and the girls want more specific detail on hair, jewelry and shoes. (There is of course some variation, some boys ask real perinent questions about women's issues and some females really like the weapons demonstration, but usually it divides along gender line.<br>
        Most of my demonstrations occur during school hours, so my length is predetermined. I usually need a teacher to keep time if a clock is not on a wall somewhere. I have gotten to where I don't give that long a lecture/performance to 45-50 minute classes anymore; I just says some introductory and thought provoking statements and then open the floor to questions, which really get lively and interesting.<br>
        My college presentations usually occur in the evening and run about an hour and a half (college attention spans). There I do about an hour:ten and leave twenty or so minutes for questions. These are usually students with some, and often much, Latin and history. These shows are much more detailed and I use lots of Latin tags and vocabulary from their classes.<br>
        One thing I've mentioned before. When I first started doing these, accurate weapons and equipment were not as readily available as today. I really laughed when I checked out the "Don't Even Bother" pages on the Legio XX web site. My pugio (Where and how did Brutus and Cassius hide their daggers?) is the awful nickel kind. But this POS has two advantages that are not acceptable for good reeactment purposes, but very useful for presentations in schools. I have run into problems with Zero-tolerance policies for weapons in schools. Some principals or security personnel can get very uptight about enforcing the policies. I have a better pugio, but I was once almost kicked off the schoolground with a warrant for my arrest, except that my POS dagger was so fake and non-lethal looking that I not only was not arrested, but got to use it, and not the "good" one in the show. The heavy, awful nickel blades have one major advantages, however, in performance. They sound mean and cool when unsheathed. They sound like a sword should sound in the movies; from a distance they look mean. As bad as they are, I find that sound of the nickel blades (especially the hidden dagger suddenly drawn close to some unsuspecting student) sound scary and cool, and they love that. Almost as much as how the citizen contributed to the fuller's bucket outside the shop while wearing a toga.<br>
<br>
Wade Heaton<br>
Lucius Cornelius Libo<br>
[email protected] <br>
www.togaman.com <p></p><i></i>
