Catherine Hughes, Science Theatre Coordinator at the Boston Science Museum USA and founder of the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTA) arrived in Canberra yesterday (Wednesday 27/2/02). She is the keynote speaker at the National Forum on Performance in Cultural Institutions being held at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) from today (Thursday 28/2/02) until Saturday (2/3/02), jointly hosted by NMA and the School of Contemporary Arts, University of Western Sydney.
The Forum is a "self-examination" by museums across Australia of why theatrical performances should be used, what audiences learn from seeing them, and issues about performances such as censorship by funding bodies and sponsors. Institutions represented include Powerhouse Museum (Sydney), Questacon (Canberra), Historic Houses Trust NSW, Old Parliament House, Melbourne Museum and Australian National Maritime Museum, as well as NMA.
Hughes' main theme, based on research into neuroscience and the role of emotions and storytelling in memory and learning, is that theatre-in-education performances should be the core of a museum. Actors may represent conflicting viewpoints relating to museum exhibits, making theatre a "forum for debate, discussion and provocation: a safe place to examine difficult topics." This is in keeping with the new developments in museums, such as NMA whose charter emphasises showing Australian people past and present in the Australian environment.
Featured in the National Forum are well-known local performers John Shortis and Moya Simpson, The Jigsaw Company, Canberra Youth Theatre and Questacon's performance team Excited Particles, as well as CommonGround, Circus Solarus, Epoch Creations and others from interstate.
A key issue for the Forum will be the proper training of theatre professionals for museum performance. Hughes states the need for specialist high quality university courses as strands in drama-in-education and theatre training, to ensure "a more powerful learning experience."
Contact Daina Harvey at NMA for more information.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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