Mark has a wealth of experience in the field of Costumed Interpretation spanning 40 years and three Continents.
His journey began in 1977 whilst an art student when he was hired to provide a group of Georgians for the 200-year anniversary of London’s oldest surviving bridge.
Since then, he has worked on both coasts of the United States; at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Virginia) and the Living History Centre (California), before returning to the United Kingdom in 1987, bringing with him his newly formed company Past Pleasures.
For the next 33 years Past Pleasures grew from a small concern run from Mark’s spare room to the leading Historical Interpretation company in Europe, with a workforce of 170 people fulfilling the largest contract of its kind.
Past Pleasures offered a range of services to clients across the Museum and Heritage sectors, including Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage, CADW and the Natural History and British Museums.
As well as working for some of the biggest cultural Institutions in the United Kingdom, Past Pleasures provided services to much smaller sites such as Watts Gallery (Surrey), Tamworth Castle (Staffs) and the Potteries Museum (Stoke).
Mark continues to provide guidance to institutions that are considering, or already practicing, Costumed Live Interpretation having started to offer the service in the 1990s. He has trained front of house staff, interpreters and guides across the United Kingdom for a wide variety of clients including Merlin Entertainment Group’s guides for the London Eye and Aquarium, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Jorvik Viking Centre.
In addition, Mark’s company was hired by both the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (USA) and Sovereign Hill (Australia) to provide a wide range of training and development solutions. More recently he has worked in Croatia and Hungary, bringing his tailored programme of best practices to the Museum services of those countries and has now added the Czech Republic to his resumé.
© 2024 All Rights Reserved.
