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EXETER — From playing sports to weaving, from cooking JELL-O to hasty pudding, and from wearing jeans and T-shirts to the Colonial garb of working women, the American Independence Museum's Junior Role Players travelled back to the 18th century.

The three girls participating in this year's program are spending two weeks learning how to speak, dress and act like a young lady during New Hampshire's colonial period to prepare for roles in this year's American Independence Festival on July 19. Emma Doukmak, 11, of Jacksonville, Fla., Elizabeth Butler, 11, of Dover, and Emily Belanger, 11, of Newfields, will play the roles of family members of some of Exeter's most influential residents and visitors of 1776.

This year's 18th American Independence Festival, on Saturday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will focus on the roles women played during the Revolutionary War era. Admission to events on the museum grounds is $5 per adult, no charge for museum members or children 12 and under.

Visitors will meet Elizabeth Folsom, who operated the Folsom Tavern after her husband Samuel's death, played by Junior Role Player Instructor Carolyn Chase, as well as Anna Folsom played by Doukmak, Elizabeth Odlin played by Butler and Tabitha Gilman played by Belanger and more.

"We are experiencing all aspects of women's life at the time," Chase said, including life at the Folsom Tavern, schooling and running the fictional business, the Folsom, Gilman and Gilman store. "It's all an opportunity for them to actually be in the culture of the period and participate in normal activities of that time."

While in the Folsom Tavern on Wednesday, July 9, each of the girls shared what they've learned so far about their characters and how they plan to portray them. Doukmak's character Anna Folsom is related to John Taylor Gilman, her sister's husband, who first read the Declaration of Independence to the town of Exeter on the tavern's steps. Elizabeth Odlin is the daughter of Abigail Gilman and Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, pastor of the First Parish Church, Butler said. Tabitha Gilman is Odlin's cousin who married Samuel Teddy and wrote "Female Quixotism," the first novel to be written by an American woman around 1800, Belanger said.

The girls have been researching the history of their characters while learning the activities they would have done each day like spinning and weaving, musketry and cooking.

Just three days into the program, the girls who have never role played before, already seemed to be having fun and getting comfortable in their roles.

"My character is a challenge for me because I am usually not stuck up," Belanger said. "It's fun to try to have a different kind of attitude."

Belanger said she has had fun learning not only about Tabitha Gilman but how she lived during her time in Exeter. "Just the simplicity of life," she said. "It's really interesting to me."

While its difficult to play another person, Doukmak said it's fun to imagine who they were. "With a historic person, they don't always know everything about that person, so you get to research and make up what the person was like," she said.

Butler said playing Odlin is fun because she's different from herself. "I am an only child and she has six siblings," she said.

Each junior role player has enjoyed learning over the course of the program. Butler said the clothes have been most fun for her while Belanger said she's been interested in cooking, particularly hasty pudding which did not taste like she expected.

"It always sounded good to me until I tried it," she said. "It tasted like corn."

Doukmak, who will help run a store during the program, learned to work with money of the time like a schilling and a pence. She's also found learning language of the 18th century particularly fascinating.

"Just learning the dialogue of people during the 18th century, all the words and phrases they used," she said. "Like as merry as a cricket, acting quite loutish, to cry over spilled milk and a lot of ays and nays instead of yes and no."

During the festival next Saturday, traditional artisans, sponsored by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, will help visitors "Make the Connection" with items in the museum by demonstrating the techniques used to create them. Demonstrations will include basketry, sheep shearing, spinning, weaving, rug making, leatherwork, blacksmithing, handset type setting and more.

Returning for the festival this year, will be crowd favorites George Washington and John Taylor Gilman, as well as the Lexington Minutemen and the 10th British Regiment of Foot. Additional militias and the Royal Irish Artillery will perform military maneuvers and fire cannons throughout the day on Swasey Parkway. A complete itinerary of events can be found on the Festival page at the museum's Web site, www.independencemuseum.org.

An annual highlight of the festival is the opportunity to view the rare founding documents in the museum's collection, including a Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence and drafts of the U.S. Constitution, one complete with Nicholas Gilman's handwritten annotations.

Additional activities include food, music, fine arts and crafts, children's activities and troop encampments. Role-players will be strolling through the crowd following the morning's procession with George Washington on Water Street.

In addition to Sidewalk Sales at downtown merchants and a "Sumptuous Summer Art Show" at the Old Town Hall Gallery, the town will continue the festivities on Swasey Parkway with music by Mr. Nick and the Dirty Tricks and a fireworks display.

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