Virginia’s summer humidity had infiltrated the small house on Duke of Gloucester Street by the time Dara King rose at 7:30 a.m.
By 8 a.m., King already had on several layers of clothing: First, the shift, a loose gown made of linen or cotton with a drawstring neck and sleeves. Second, her stockings and cap for her hair. Third, the stays, a fully-boned bodice that supports the weight of layers of petticoat.
That morning, King was a servant at the Colonial Williamsburg Governor’s Palace.
With her skirt flowing around her ankles, King, 27, whisked around the living room and kitchen, an open laptop on the table contrasting with an antique blue teapot and teacups.
“There’s a quote for my Peyton Randolph tour I was looking for,” King said, gesturing to the open laptop. “There was a Virginian man speaking to an English passenger on a ship heading back to Virginia. The Englishman had never been to Virginia — and he was basically told to ingratiate himself because all the elite people were related.”
After tying on a blue flowered petticoat, King emerged from the cooler shade of her little white house and into a blooming garden.
As she walked down a brick sidewalk toward the Governor’s Palace, she greeted tourists with a chipper “Good morning,” at one point reconnecting with a family who had seen her a day earlier in a coffeehouse.
“I’ve always felt more comfortable in costume,” King later recalled. “It’s pretty awesome to walk around all day as someone else.”
One of hundreds of interpreters in Colonial Williamsburg, King is not alone in her love for costumes — but she is one cell in the “lifeblood” of Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
And Williamsburg heats up and tourism season kicks off, King is looking ahead to another busy summer.
By nature
History and acting is King’s “thing.”
King, a Pennsylvania native, has worked with Colonial Williamsburg for nearly five years, but her love of history traces back much further.
As a child, Dara always felt more comfortable in costume.
King would dress up in Regency or 18th-century costumes — to match her pirate-themed bedroom — when she did her homework.
King also loves painting, sculpture and other types of art, she said. She attended Bryn Athyn College in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, graduating in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree.
It was through her education that King fell in love with Colonial Williamsburg. The 27-year-old made several visits to Colonial Williamsburg with her elementary school class.
King also received a scholarship through Bryn Athyn for Colonial Williamsburg’s Teacher Institute, where students receive in-depth training on how to teach history.
“I moved down to Williamsburg for the institute like three days after graduation,” King said while sitting in the Governor’s Palace. “I remember the Lady Dunmore interpreter walking us through the palace — that’s what inspired me to work here.”
The daily job
After fighting the summer heat, King spent a mid-morning break in a room on the second floor of a building adjacent to the palace, writing notes down in a spiral-bound notebook.
“When you’ve been at the palace for three years, you can’t keep repeating the same thing to guests,” King said. “You need to tell the story in a new way each time.”
Each day at work is another homework assignment for King: Read up on the Peyton Randolph house, retell the story of Royal Governor Lord Dunmore’s unpopular tenure following the Gunpowder Incident of April 1775, describe the layers of her clothing to guests.
King works in seven different buildings, including the George Wythe House, Governor’s Palace, James Geddy House, Capitol building, Raleigh Tavern, R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse and the Peyton Randolph house.
A day in the life of Dara King, an interpreter with Colonial Williamsburg. (Sarah Fearing/WYDaily)
Each building requires a sharp knowledge of the men and women who frequented them.
“You have to be ‘on’ every single day you’re out there,” King said. “In this job, you can’t be tired on someone else’s vacation.”
Colonial Williamsburg is also an all-ages, all-backgrounds destination, and King focuses on catering to each person during tours. On the hot July day, King led several tours through the Governor’s Palace, teaching children how to dance and describing the subjects of paintings and materials of colonial outfits in close detail.
As a historical interpreter, the unique experiences extend beyond the boundaries of Colonial Williamsburg.
King recalls a “surreal” moment when she saw the interpreter who plays Patrick Henry at a local restaurant, La Tolteca.
“You see us in our roles so often — it’s not the same to see us out as modern-day people,” she said.
The value of interpreters
Interpreters like King are the “lifeblood” of Colonial Williamsburg.
Over the last two years, Colonial Williamsburg has gradually outsourced certain operations and laid off some employees, including streamlining the foundation museum’s tavern balladeers program.
There are still “hundreds” of interpreters who work for the nonprofit foundation, according to Joe Straw, Colonial Williamsburg spokesman.
“These people are really talented interpreters out there,” Peter Seibert, executive director of the Historic Area, said. “I’m really really proud of that. Morning, noon and night, they have to be on at 9:01 [a.m.] and 4:59 [p.m.]. It’s a very special skill set.”
Seibert said working as an interpreter means employees are consistently studying to deepen their knowledge. Many guests are history buffs, so interpreters must have content knowledge, and be able to deliver it in a way that captures people’s attention.
“Every guest views it with a different set of eyes,” Siebert said. “Some want that deep dive, some others want to know how they lived… or some ask ‘Who’s the most famous person who lived here?’”
Returning to real life
After a long day of tours, answering questions, and walking DoG Street in the sweltering heat, King returned home to prepare for an evening with friends.
King donned a pink patterned shirt, blue jeans and flip flops as she briskly descended the stairs.
After double-checking her cell phone, King got into her mint-colored Fiat, turned left onto Prince George Street and left Colonial Williamsburg.
Fearing can be reached at sarah.f@localvoicemedia.com.
