We have been developing Versailles Imagined since 2019. We offer you the possibility to join the court of Marie Antoinette in a fully immersive theatrical experience.
Covid happened and we had to change our objectives, our ways of working, our distribution channels. Versailles Imagined went online for a while with our “Ladies of Versailles online” performances. We used these uncertain Covid times to develop our business skills and build a community and a professional network. One of the people in this network is Philippe Hertzberg of Secret Journeys. Philippe has become a valuable partner, especially since it is thanks to him that we were finally able to find an exceptional place to propose our Versailles Imagined experiences.
This exceptional place is a luxury hotel in Versailles, which offers various experiences around Versailles and its Palace but they did not yet have any experiences with actors playing the characters from history. Philippe suggested our services and they were interested, but they wanted to test the quality of our experiences of course. They can't offer something to their luxury customers without being convinced of its quality.
We therefore mobilized to pass the "audition" at the hotel by giving them two examples of possible experiences: Tea with Marie-Antoinette and the Duchess of Polignac followed by The Game of Goose with Marie- Antoinette.
Elena took beautiful fresh flowers from her garden to put in the actresses' hair and she brought the costumes, props and wigs. She also prepared to play the Duchess of Polignac of course.
Frances came up from Pau to make sure everything went well and to cultivate relationships with Philippe and the potential collaborators at the hotel. Maddy created a beautiful prototype of our bespoke game of goose and she helped the actresses to prepare by giving them all the necessary historical information and explaining how the experience would unfold.
Philippe was also present and he had brought the gifts that we had planned to give to the participants at the end of the experience. Rachel Calvo, one of our favorite photographers, came over to take photos of the event for later use in publicity if the hotel accepted us.
Jolene, our exceptional make-up artist/hairdresser did the hair and make-up for the actresses and she also played "a guest" because even if the hotel manager and two of his associates were to participate in the experience as "guests" we wanted someone one to help make the experience more lively and interesting in case the other participants were very shy. Victoria and Pauline, our two Marie-Antoinettes, got ready to play the queen with plenty of charm and authenticity.
We were ready.
We walked through the hotel under the enchanted gaze of tourists and employees to arrive on a terrace where the participants were waiting for us. The Duchess (Elena) arrived first to explain to them how to behave with the queen and give them their noble identities and then she introduced Marie-Antoinette (Victoria). While drinking delicious rose tea, they chatted, answered questions, asked questions and had a good laugh. The Queen then left and the Duchess led the participants into another room where they could play the game of the goose with Marie-Antoinette (Pauline) who told them stories about her life throughout the game.
The director and his associates were delighted and they told us on the spot that they would be very happy to work together. Our whole team was over the moon.