Actors in a Museum: Towards an Innovative Theatre Stage

Abstract

Museums are living organizations and theatres bring live while staging performances. Can the to meet? How and this can take place? This paper discusses a theatrical project done within museums, in order to examine the use of museum space as a theatrical one. It aims in creating a new reality within museums and provides, at the same time, opportunities for tourism. The project’s goal was to push the existing boundaries, to reconsider the way we perceive museum spaces and redefine the visitor’s experience. Actors and audience members, as if in display, become part of the museum’s reality, exchanging roles and redefining the boundaries and their experiences. Visitors are not just watching the objects on display but rather they ‘experience’ history, participating in an endless interplay between the performers, themselves and the museum’s space. They acquire a well-rounded experience of history, as well as the contemporary art trends of the visiting destination. By using museums as theater spaces a new way of exploring history and art is created.