Research context
- The use of theatre to interpret museum collections or historic sites, and to enhance the 'visitor experience' is an expanding but relatively under-researched field of performance practice.
- It is also a contested practice (e.g. drama fictionalises, it may divert attention from the collections & exhibitions, at worst it may trivialise - and employment of actors can be expensive)
- Our 2001/2 'pilot' research project (on the effectiveness of drama at the People's History Museum, Manchester, & the Imperial War Museum London) raised as many questions as it answered - and was the basis for the design of the new research.