Theatre in Museums Workshop 2008

Over forty participants from museums across the country, including Hawaii; and from Canada and Trinidad participated in this year’s annual Theatre in Museums Workshop, held at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Sessions and performances were presented by Freetown Village, Indiana, the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Minnestrista Cultural Center, Muncie, Indiana, The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, The Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul , and Chronical Productions . This year, the Workshop also hosted members of the STEPS project. STEPS (Science Theater Education Programming System) is a collaboration between museums to create an innovative, interactive museum theater presentation system.

IMTAL hosted an evening trip to Comedy Sportz during Part 1 of the Workshop. Above is a photo (taken by Crystal Fields) of one of the workshop participants who had been called up on stage by the players. "Um, Waiter... there's an... actor in my soup!"

Special thanks to Tessa Bridal, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Greg Hardison, and everyone who particpated.

Please check the IMTAL site in April 2009 for information about next year's Workshop.

IMTAL Well-Represented at AASLH

IMTAL members and members of the IMTAL Board talked about museum theatre with the attendees at the American Association for State and Local History 2008 Annual Meeting in Rochester, NY.

Dale Jones of Making History Connections presented a session on transformative experiences and Greg Hardison and Elizabeth Pickard hosted a museum theatre table at the Education Showcase (pictured above - thank you to Laura Ayers for the photo!)

For those of you from history museums, what more could IMTAL do to meet your specific needs? Please comment here or send us an email at http://www.imtal.org/.

IMTAL Event at the Theatre in Museums Workshop

IMTAL will be hosting a social event the evening of September 23, 2008 during Part I of the Theatre in Museums Workshop in Indianapolis, IN.

Please join us for a trip to see Indianapolis Comedy Sportz!

The event is open to everyone, IMTAL members or not, whether you are attending the workshop or not. However, if you are not part of the workshop, please RSVP to the IMTAL Treasurer because seating is limited.

We hope to see you there!

Report from the Kentucky Conference

There is now a report from the IMTAL Annual Conference in Frankfort, Kentucky (held September 5-6, 2008) posted on the IMTAL site at www.imtal.org/regional_kentucky.asp.

View a collections of photos from the conference in the photo gallery at www.imtal.org/photos_kentucky_2008.asp.

Notes taken during each of the major sessions are available for IMTAL members. (You will need to login to the members only area of the site, and please contact us if you've forgotten your password.)

Thank you to all that participated, and an especially big thank you to Greg Hardison, Adam Luckey, and the Kentucky Historical Society for hosting the event with such warm hospitality!

IMTAL now has a news blog!

Welcome to the news blog for the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTAL-Americas). Here we'll be posting news, events and announcements for anyone interested in using performance and drama for interpretation and education in museums and cultural institutions.

Also be sure to check out IMTAL's web site at http://www.imtal.org/ for more details, information and resources, to become a member of our organization, or to contact us.