Bored with Strangers: A Site-Specific Museum Theatre Piece

Abstract

Bored with Strangers, a site-specific, travelling museum theatre piece, premiered at the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 as a collaboration between the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Blanton Museum of Art. Billed as a “walking tour” between the Winship Drama Building and the Blanton Museum, the piece drew inspiration from visual artist Nina Katchadourian’s work for performance vignettes that took place across the half-mile separating the theatre and museum. The piece positioned the audience as both theatre patrons and museum-goers and connected site-specific theatre, an audio tour, and a contemporary art exhibition to everyday university experiences. It offered an opportunity to examine familiar university spaces through new eyes. The performance enlivened banal places and connected disparate academic institutions in a quest to connect theatre and art for audience members, passersby, performers, and museum staff.

This photo essay allows readers to experience the tour through words, images, and note descriptions of audience experiences at each of the tour’s “stops.” As artists and researchers, the authors share their insights from the process, including the necessity of involving audience members throughout the creation process, and the way using a multi-director team allowed the project’s leadership to move between roles of creator and spectator fluidly.