House of GamesTheatre in the Expanded FieldAesthetics of Everyday LifeFado and the Place of LongingTheatre & Everyday LifeThe Theatre of NaturalismDigital Performance in Everyday LifeTheatre and LawA Formalist TheatrePerformance in Theatre and Everyday Life: Cognitive, Neuronal, and Applied Aspects of ActingThe Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance StudiesThe Critique of Everyday LifeThe Sublime in Everyday LifeWir alle spielen TheaterStudying AudiencesThe Everyday Life ReaderTheatre and Everyday LifeThe Routledge Companion to Theatre and PerformanceThe Theater of Michel VinaverSelf-Identity and Everyday LifeTheatre History Studies 2018Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British TheatreTheatres of ImmanenceMusicality in TheatreTheatre, Education and PerformanceContemporary European Theatre DirectorsDesigning Smart Objects in Everyday LifeFashion and Everyday LifeMusic Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday LifeCity StagesPerforming ImmanenceTheatre History Studies 2010Ambient Intelligence in Everyday LifeDramaturgy of the Real on the World StageTheatre and AdaptationHistory of Everyday Life in Twentieth-Century ScotlandPerforming the UnstageableTheatre and Everyday LifeTelevision And Everyday LifeThe Routledge Reader in Politics and Performance

Theatre and Everyday Life. An Ethics of Performance. By Alan Read. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. Pp. xii + 260 £37.50.

There is a growing need for articulation of the theoretical framework underpinning performance as a learning medium in heritage sites and for an in-depth insight into the children's experiences therein. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the themes that emerged from researching participatory theatre in a historic house as experienced by two primary school groups. The methodology drawing upon the principles of participatory research with children and a constructivist theoretical framework employed interviews, observations and drawings as data generation methods to explore the children's individual and collective experiences. The research findings underline the interplay between the events' theatrical and interpretive format and advocate the significance of children's co-authorship of such events.

Primary Schoolchildren's Experiences of Participatory Theatre in a Heritage Site.

As the number of museums that employ theatre as part of their educational provision is increasing there is a need for the articulation of the theoretical framework and an in-depth insight into the children's "museum theatre" experiences. The aim of this empirical research is to examine how primary school children "make meaning" of the form and content of the experience in two forms of "museum theatre": a) a participatory theatrical experience in the heritage site of Clarke Hall and b) first person interpretation events in the Museum of London. Based on the principles of the constructivist qualitative paradigm, the research attempts to offer an insight into how the children understand the content and format of the "museum theatre" experience. The research focuses on the interrelationship between the children's prior-to-the-event agenda and their "museum theatre" experiences and examines the children's experiences as products of relationships between the involved parties: the museum's agenda and the schools' agenda. The constructivist paradigm and the interpretive sociological approach illustrate the epistemological position that underpins the formulation of the research questions and the methodological framework employed. The data generation methods derive from ethnographical research methods and mainly involve interviews, observations and children's drawings. The research attempts to elucidate the parameters that shape the children's "museum theatre" experiences. These include the museum's setting and objects, the children's willingness to suspend disbelief, the interactive/participatory aspects of the experience and the opportunities given to children for reflection and generation of new understandings. The research findings underline the subjectivity of the theatrical experience, as shaped through the various objectives and expectations of the involved parties. They suggest that interplay between the event's format/content and the experience's fictional/real context is evident in the children's interpretation of their "museum theatre" experience.

Researching Primary School Children's "Museum Theatre" Experiences

This research uses theory from the field of performance studies with which to analyse museum performances, and more specifically, considers the notion of the ‘interpretive performance’. Using a case study approach and being based on a collaboration with the National Coal Mining Museum, it considers a range of interpretive activities characteristic of the industrial museum and heritage site. Other case study sites chosen for comparison specialise in the representation and display of work and working lives from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries in the North of England. This research looks how these museums/sites produce ‘first’ and ‘third person’ interpretation as well as guided tours and demonstrations in order to interpret this history. A wide definition of performance is used with which to consider a range of interpretive activities, so that both the scripted and acted, theatre-like scenarios produced by ‘first person’ actors can be considered alongside the under-researched ‘third person’ performance that uses less characterisation and acting.

The idea of ‘bringing history to life’ is central to this research, as ‘performed interpretation’ aims to restore the presence of the people from the past, and animate museum space. The interpretive aspects of this type of performance are that they produce a dialogic space where visitors/audiences are invited to be more active in their meaning-making. The interpretive performance uses the museum’s materiality: its architecture, spaces and artefacts and the histories connected with it to explain, illustrate and illuminate and relate to the visitor’s memory and imagination. However, although desirable in its ability to produce a sense of liveliness, presence and living, performing history also has the effect of questioning the representational practices of the museum, as this ‘bringing to life’ is always re-making history in the present. This research therefore considers the relationship between performance and authenticity in the museum through these interpretations of history.

Living histories : performing work and working lives in the Industrial Museum

Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, it became increasingly apparent to interested observers that there was a growing trend towards using theatre in museum settings. The work was varied, ranging from single costumed characters working on galleries to help interpret for visitors items in the collection, to literally hundreds of re-enactors creating entire battle scenarios watched by thousands of visitors.

This study considers the ideas and methods behind the various styles of theatre which have emerged in British museums and questions what it is that both theatre and
museum professions think they will achieve by enlivening the traditionally silent enclaves of our museums in such a way.

The study proposes that we are, in fact, witnessing the emergence of a new form of educational theatre which is context-specific and which embraces the needs of museums and their visitors rather than being concerned solely with theatre as an art form. 'Theatre-in-museum', as it has become known, is a synthesis of theatre as a learning medium and the educational and cultural mission of museums. This kind of theatre echoes, to some extent, aspects of other educational theatre movements including those
associated with Brecht, Littlewood, Cheeseman, Heathcote,
and Boal. Like many movements,'theatre-in-museum' as emerged out of a period of rapid change and instability, this time in the shifting world of museums which are
themselves re-defining their role at the end of the twentieth century.

Chapter One presents a thesis about' theatre-in-museum and will include: 

an analysis of contemporary museology; 

an analysis of the characteristics of 'theatre-in-museum' as a theatreform; 

and,
the results of a national research project aimed at establishing the extent to which theatre is used in contemporary museums.

Chapters Two to Six will feature five case studies explaining contemporary practice in this field. The critical attributes of five styles of theatre-in-museum will be explored along with the principal aims and methodologies associated with each one. 

A concluding chapter will consider the current state of 'theatre-in-museum' and will propose further action if the work is to flourish in future years.

Christopher Martin Ford

Papers

The "theatre-in-museum" movement in the British Isles