It’s Sunday March 8th and I’m standing outside the visitor centre at the governor general’s residence reading a brochure of the grounds. It’s overcast and cold but warmer than it has been lately.
It’s very still. Empty. I keep half expecting a security guard to pop out from behind a maple tree and tell me I have to move along.
I look up from my brochure and in the distance I see a tiny figure in a bright red jacket with a multi coloured swingy skirt and blue tights walking at a determined pace. The distinct clicking of her heels fills the air.
This is Jasmine Bowen.
She comes up to me. “Hi! Are you Miranda?”
She sticks her hand out for a quick handshake and with that it’s as though we’re old friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time.
It’s very still. Empty. I keep half expecting a security guard to pop out from behind a maple tree and tell me I have to move along.
I look up from my brochure and in the distance I see a tiny figure in a bright red jacket with a multi coloured swingy skirt and blue tights walking at a determined pace. The distinct clicking of her heels fills the air.
This is Jasmine Bowen.
She comes up to me. “Hi! Are you Miranda?”
She sticks her hand out for a quick handshake and with that it’s as though we’re old friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time.
Activity
Jasmine has arranged for us to take a tour of Rideau Hall. Since Jasmine does historical plays this was a fitting activity for us to do together. I thought for sure we would get a VIP tour considering it was 1 pm on a Sunday in March on the day the clocks sprung forward. To my surprise, we were joined by a couple from the United States and a family.
I feel like a huge nerd, but the tour was pretty fun. Once it wrapped up we hit up the Second Cup just down the street in New Edinburgh to chat.
Fast Facts
- Jasmine lives in New Edinburgh with her husband in a home they just bought. She’s basically David Johnston’s neighbour. She jokes he’s a terrible neighbour. “He takes up the whole block!”
- We both have diesel Jetta’s. “They’re good for long hauls,” she said. “And we only seem to drive when we’re going on a long haul.”
- She is the oldest of 3 – she has a teacher sister and a five star chef brother. She also has all 4 grandparents.
Projects
Jasmine works with the haunted walk and has done children’s puppet theatre. She lived in Toronto for several years working as an actor but was finding film gigs were easier to come by than theatre. “And my heart is in the theatre,” she said.
Her family is here in Ottawa and while she wanted to move back, she wasn’t confident she could make it as an actor here. She sent off a few emails to get a feel for whether a theatre career in Ottawa was viable. She didn’t get encouraging responses. However, she finally made the jump and hasn’t looked back since.
“I just want to email all those people back and be like, ‘What were you talking about?’," she says, smiling.
Her newest and most exciting project is with a company she created two months ago called Live History that already has a summer tour lined up.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “I’m going crazy trying to get U.S. work visas.”
The tour is set to hit Picton, Perth, Indiana, Ohio, and will have a 6-week stint in Ottawa. If that’s not enough, each historic site will have it’s own custom show.
“I was reading in The Economist that historic sites are doing poorly. I want to pay my bills, but I want them to make money too,” she said.
The basic template for each show follows a maid and her master and then that template is adjusted to fit the location. She is working on the specifics for each show with the respective historical site to make them as accurate as possible. As a bonafide history buff, accuracy is important to Jasmine.
History and Theatre
What I find particularly interesting about Jasmine’s Live History shows is not that they’re interactive, (which is obviously cool - it involves treasure!) It's that there’s a greater message than just “learn your history, kids.” There’s a moral to each show.
The message, in short, is to be grateful for what you have because there is always someone worse off than you.
The show follows a maid, played by Jasmine, who is content with her status as a servant. Even though she’s not in the upper echelon of society, she recognizes she has a warm place to live and she’s always well fed.
Using history as a vehicle to discuss gratitude and contentment is particularly interesting since today we have so many amenities compared to the time periods Jasmine is re-enacting. It also makes the historical facts more accessible and relatable for audiences.
It’s probably for these reasons that the historical sites Jasmine has approached with the concept have responded with such enthusiasm.
Highlights
Aside from geeking out with Jasmine about history and corsets, the most memorable moment for me was actually thanks to the one kid who was on the tour with us through Rideau Hall.
The tour ended in the Ballroom (which in itself is kind of cool because it’s believed to be the site of the first theatrical productions in Ottawa in the 1870’s). Anyways the Ballroom is also where they hold fancy state dinners and have ceremonies for the recipients of the Order of Canada.
Our tour guide was explaining all this when this kid, who was about 8 or 9, asked if they played dodge ball in this room. The tour guide looked kind of perplexed and said, “…No...” The kid shot back, “Well then why do they call it a ball room!?”
Kids. I love them.