Museum theatre is the use of theatre and theatrical techniques by a museum for educational, informative, and entertainment purposes. It can also be used in a zoo, an aquarium, an art gallery, and at historic sites. [1] It is generally performed by professional actors. Varieties of museum theatre include historical characters, puppetry, movement and music.
Actors portraying historical characters perform in first person, as if he or she were an actual person from the era or culture he or she is representing. With puppetry, actors can tell stories, create multiple characters, and portray a variety of cultures.
Theatrical techniques can be used for third-person interpretation, where an actor or trained presenter uses costumes, props. lighting, or special effects to convey historical or scientific facts, without necessarily portraying a character. [2]
Museum theatre pioneers include the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Museum of Science, Boston, the National Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia Zoo. [2]
The Theatre in Museums Workshop, begun in 1983 at the Science Museum of Minnesota, is an annual event now held at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It provides all the basic information needed to start a theatre program, and an opportunity to develop scripts under the guidance of experienced museum theatre practitioners.
First-person interpretation is an increasingly popular way of creating a full-body experience for museum visitors by giving them the opportunity to interact with the past through actors and interpreters.
Historical character interpretation is increasingly becoming the way all first-person interpretation is performed because it adds a high degree of authenticity to a given museum performance or interpretation. [2] This movement corresponds with the increase in focus on the educational benefit of the museum to the visitor as opposed to the previously held belief that the visitor is a secondary concern to the objects. While this has been a strong movement since about 1980, the concern for accuracy and consequent focus on portraying real people is a marker that can be interpreted as a new stage.
One of the main ways that museum theatre differs from museum interpretation is in the degree of disbelief involved in the performance; representing a historical figure requires less suspension of disbelief because the audience knows that the character being represented did exist. It is easier for an audience to believe that the performer is accurately representing a figure that they themselves can verify existed. [2]
The portrayal of a historical character in a museum environment as opposed to a traditional theatrical space is hard to define. The main distinction is perhaps that the actor in the museum environment must be prepared to interact with the audience, while the stage actor is not expected to know much about his character beyond what is developed on-stage. While acting the characters are subject to similar acting conventions, the museum actor must be prepared to answer to his audience face-to-face. The final distinction to be made is that the portrayal of a historical character is a performance of living history, as opposed to museum theatre. In taking on the identity of a person who truly lived, you are expected to become that person, which involves answering to that person’s actions, ideologies, and life experiences. [3]
Second-person interpretation is a newer form of interpretation in which visitors participate in programming and hands-on activities, as opposed to only engaging in dialogue with interpreters. [4] :298 It is employed most often in living history museums and can be used in conjunction with first- or third-person interpretation. Common hands-on activities include candle-dipping, butter churning, weaving on a loom, and musket loading. [4] :291 This form of second-person interpretation does not necessarily require the visitor to adopt a character or pretend to be part of the past. In another form, more similar to participatory theatre, visitors are invited to adopt a character and interact with interpreters as that character. [4] :300 One example is the "Follow the North Star" program at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park in Indiana, where visitors pretend to be fugitive slaves as a way of learning about the Underground Railroad. [5] Often, such interactions are carefully facilitated so that a desired outcome is achieved, but sometimes visitors are allowed to make their own choices regardless of the historical record. Allowing visitors to portray prominent historical figures and make their own choices is done less frequently because of concerns over historical accuracy. [4] :304 Many educators support role-playing as a way for visitors to learn by doing, think critically about history, and make personal connections between history and their own lives. [3]
Demonstration is a form of museum interpretation that has been used in museums, historic sites, zoos, and aquaria for decades. Demonstration is a way to illustrate activities such as historical craft-making and concepts like scientific principles. [6] :37–38 It is also a way to contextualize a museum object or artifact. [7] In a demonstration, the demonstrator generally explains the activity or concept using something "real" like an object or animal. [6] :37–38 In traditional demonstrations, the demonstrators generally do not assume to be anyone else (characterization might be involved in more theatrical demonstrations). [6] :38 One example of a demonstration is fish feeding at the New England Aquarium, in which visitors watch a diver feed fish while listening to a volunteer explain the process. [6] :38 Another example is the lightning presentation at the Museum of Science, Boston during which visitors watch lightning flashes produced by a Van de Graaff generator. [6] :38 There is a great deal of overlap between demonstration and theatre. Theatrical techniques such as characterization, costume, narrative, and special effects are often used to enliven demonstration and draw visitor attention. [6] :37–38 Some museums, such as Science Museum in London, classify demonstration as a form of museum theatre, [2] :5 while other museums, such as the Science Museum of Minnesota, use actors to present demonstrations. [2] :xii Demonstration may also serve as a component of a museum play or theatre piece. [8] However, differences remain between the conventions of demonstration and the conventions of theatre. In her book Exploring Museum Theatre, Tessa Bridal warns museums against promoting a demonstration as a theatre performance, as it may cause visitor confusion or disappointment. [2] :5 Yet like museum theatre and other forms of live interpretation, demonstration aims to engage visitors, to create interest in a topic, to serve as an alternative to lists of facts and static exhibitions, and to provoke an emotional response that leads to learning. [6] :39 [2] :4
Storytelling is a discipline that has a history as long as the human race.[ citation needed ] Storytellers inhabit the characters of the tale, while still maintaining the status as narrator of the events, they are both first person and third person perspectives in one. Storytelling can help bring historical and cultural context to works of art, dinosaur bones, scientific and historical objects. [6] :65 For this reason some museums will hire a contract storyteller to add depth and experience to exhibitions or programs by spinning children's tales, appearing as a costume character to aid in an immersive environment and to aid in depicting different cultures by sharing traditions, histories, folklore and myths. [2] :19–21
Museum theatre often adapts the archetypal storyteller to a character embodied by a trained and scripted actor. It is important to note that part of the art of storytelling is the development of the storyteller's persona and their unique style of performing, [2] :19–21 which is similar to the creation of a character intrinsic to the acting discipline and the Theatre genre. Some purists believe that creating a theatrical piece embodying the stories and myths of a culture without the native storyteller present, is a perversion and denigration of cultural patrimony. However, professionals in museum theatre believe that the most important part of creating meaningful experiences using others' stories is that the stories and the culture they represent are handled with respect and every effort is made to portray them accurately. [6] :66
Despite some detractors museums are beginning to integrate many aspects of museum theatre into their daily programming schedule. This is probably due to recently scholarly discourse in the field of museum education that links multi-sensory experiences like storytelling with effective learning in children and adults. [9] Storytelling is a particularly effective type of museum theatre because children's cognitive and empathetic abilities are increased when they are asked to listen and follow the sequence of events presented by storytellers. To quote Catherine Hughes,
Juxtaposing stories (an ancient way of understanding) and science [or history, or art, etc](a new approach to understanding) creates more models and pictures for the listener, which makes for a deeper, more complex, and complete awareness of the natural world. [6] :67
Dance and music performance within museum theatre take on many different forms. While they can be used separately, dance and music are also used in conjunction with other forms of museum theatre, including each other, to enhance the visitor’s experience. Music as either an instrumental or vocal performance should be performed by qualified performers. The same goes for a dance performance that is either choreographed or improvised. [2] :26 However, in other circumstances, such as after a performance or in a special program, music and dance can be explored by the visitor in a more participatory way. This helps to enhance their understanding and interpretation of the ideas and concepts the museum is trying to encourage.
Even within a performance museums use music and dance in different ways. Music has been used as a cultural performance to show and explore different cultures through the use of music. In other cases music performance has been used to help visitors discover more about the music and instruments themselves, such as the Exploratorium, in San Francisco. They held a series of informal concerts at which, after the musician gave his or her performance, the audience were given the opportunity to converse with the musician and ask question. [2] :26 Dance performance, presented on its own is unusual. It is often used in addition to or as a part of another museum theatre piece. There are however a few sole dance performances in museums. The Weisman holds a performance entitled Eddy that uses the museum building itself as the stage. To help visitors look at the building differently, the dancers move through the space walking up walls, using the elevator as a dance floor, and other unusual ways. The museum wants the visitor to appreciate not only the exhibits in the museum, but the building itself. [2] :27
When used together dance and music provide another opportunity for museums to educate. A good example of this is The Ballad of Chico Mendes. The Museum of Science, in Boston used choreographed dance and music, both as song and for background, to teach visitors about the battle for the rainforest through the life of Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper. Not only did they perform this in the museum, but latter took it “on the road” to schools in the area. [6] :86–87
Using dance and music in museum theatre allows the museum to evoke greater emotion within a performance, connecting to the visitor on a different level. Music especially helps to set the stage of not only a musical or dance performance, but more traditional theatre and program pieces as well. [2] :26
Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines which are performed in front of a live audience, including theatre, music, and dance.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:
Storytelling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view.
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is similar to, and sometimes incorporates, historical reenactment. Living history is an educational medium used by living history museums, historic sites, heritage interpreters, schools and historical reenactment groups to educate the public or their own members in particular areas of history, such as clothing styles, pastimes and handicrafts, or to simply convey a sense of the everyday life of a certain period in history.
A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recreates to the fullest extent conditions of a culture, natural environment or historical period, in an example of living history.
Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that encompasses storytelling primarily through physical movement. Although several performance theatre disciplines are often described as "physical theatre," the genre's characteristic aspect is a reliance on the performers' physical motion rather than, or combined with, text to convey storytelling. Performers can communicate through various body gestures.
Performing arts – are art forms where the participant engages in a physical performance using their body, voice, language, or use of specific equipment for entertainment purposes.
Persian theater goes back to antiquity. The first initiation of theater and phenomena of acting can be traced in ceremonial theaters to glorify national heroes and legends and to humiliate the enemy, as in the classics "Soug Sivash" and "Mogh Koshi" (Megakhouni). Ancient Persian theatre and dance was significantly researched by the Greek historian Herodotus of Halikarnassos, who lived during the Persian rule in Greece. In his work Book IX (Calliope), he describes the history of Asian empires and also the Persian wars until 478 BC.
Interactive theatre is a presentational or theatrical form or work that breaks the "fourth wall" that traditionally separates the performer from the audience both physically and verbally.
An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role," which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.
Oral storytelling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. The storyteller and the listeners are physically close, often seated together in a circular fashion. Through the telling of the story people become psychically close, developing a connection to one another through the communal experience. The storyteller reveals, and thus shares, their self through their telling and the listeners reveal and share themselves through their reception of the story. The intimacy and connection is deepened by the flexibility of oral storytelling which allows the tale to be moulded according to the needs of the audience and/or the location or environment of the telling. Listeners also experience the urgency of a creative process taking place in their presence and they experience the empowerment of being a part of that creative process. Storytelling creates a personal bond with the teller and the audience.
The Mount Dora Ghost Walk is a ninety minutes long bizarre bilingual, theatrical, and lantern-guided walking tour of the city of Mount Dora, Florida. It is an adventure into the darker side of the city often referred by visitors as the New England of the South, and gets its inspiration from the local history, legends, and myths that are compiled by a group of historians and actors.
American Sign Language literature is one of the most important shared cultural experiences in the American Deaf community. Literary genres initially developed in residential Deaf institutes, such as American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, which is where American Sign Language developed as a language in the early 19th century. There are many genres of ASL literature, such as narratives of personal experience, poetry, cinematographic stories, folktales, translated works, original fiction and stories with handshape constraints. Authors of ASL literature use their body as the text of their work, which is visually read and comprehended by their audience viewers. In the early development of ASL literary genres, the works were generally not analyzed as written texts are, but the increased dissemination of ASL literature on video has led to greater analysis of these genres.
A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. The writer of a play is a playwright.
Disability in the arts is an aspect within various arts disciplines of inclusive practices involving disability. It manifests itself in the output and mission of some stage and modern dance performing-arts companies, and as the subject matter of individual works of art, such as the work of specific painters and those who draw.
Presentational acting and the related representational acting are opposing ways of sustaining the actor–audience relationship. With presentational acting, the actor acknowledges the audience. With representational acting, the audience is studiously ignored and treated as voyeurs.
Experimental theatre in the Arab world emerged in the post-colonial era as a fusion of Western theatrical traditions with local performance cultures such as music and dance. It is characterized by hybridity as it transposes Arabic traditional performances that were usually seen in public squares and marketplaces to theatre buildings. Experimental theatre in the Arab world has historically taken forms of Forum theatre by using audience participation as a way to smooth conflicts and resolve social tension. The audience is then transformed from a commonly passive into a proactive and involved one. It has been seen as a form of theatre of resistance and cultural activism as it deals with contemporary sensitive issues of the region such as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Arab Spring, the role of women in Arabic society and religion. Such issues are often dealt with using humour. Throughout the years, experimental theatre in the Arab world has gradually converted into a synonymous of non-mainstream and underground art movements in which artists are always evolving and breaking down conventional markers between actors and spectators. The script combines the appropriation and dis-appropriation of Western models and is usually organic, more improvisational and self-reflexive. In the late 2000s, improvisational theatre which takes forms of stand up comedy shows has also emerged around the Arab world.
Immersive theater differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and immersing audiences within the performance itself. Often, this is accomplished by using a specific location (site-specific), allowing audiences to converse with the actors and interact with their surroundings (interactive), thereby breaking the fourth wall.
Performance archaeology is a subset of archaeological theory. Developers of this theory include Michael Shanks, Mike Pearson and Julian Thomas who in the 1990s at University of Wales, Lampeter began formulating concepts which view the social aspect of performance along with the artistic nature of theatre together through an interdisciplinary lens as "an integrated approach to recording, writing and illustrating the material past" thereby marrying the academic with the artistic. Performance archaeology has further expanded in the last decade upon the theories of presence. Geoff Bailey states that "because we believe that the present is known or knowable better than the past, we must seek our inspiration in studies of present phenomena and our concepts and theories from authorities on the present." Michael Shanks along with Ian Hodder, Christopher Witmore, Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye have recently expanded the theory further by calling for cooperation within the humanities and studying transdisciplinary research from archaeologists who are encouraged to become storytellers in order to more diversely analyze the engagement of the actor, the audience, the things and the space in which they perform by using an 'ecology of practices'. The theory of performance archaeology aims to give researchers a multi temporal link to the antiquated through studying the processual nature of "performance of presence" which is entangled within the 'multipleness' of time. Echoing theories posited by Martin Heidegger, the processual and temporal natures of performance are phenomenologically entwined with the experiences of the performers and audience. Stories are preserved by memory through performance. These performances can be seen both in the archaeological record as well in modern enactments or rituals. The landscape itself is an integral portion of performance memory. Performance archaeology sets itself apart from performance history by directing focus not toward the past itself but instead toward what has become of the past by taking an ethnoarchaeological approach of analyzing the 'archaeology of present' cultures which allows for a richer interpretation of past performance. Performance archaeology takes a cross-disciplinary approach with 'social archaeology' to studying the things, narratives or artifacts, that remain of ancient theatre, music, dance, art history and oral tradition in order to 'model the past'. The following examples illustrate components that might aptly demonstrate aspects of performance archaeology.
