Arts & Entertainment

Black Box's "Museum" is Out of the Box

The Artists' Exchange opens its production of Tina Howe's "Museum," a comedy about art, artists and the people who look at art, tonight at 7 p.m. The show will run until April 10.

When the Black Box Theatre opens its new production of Tina Howe’s “Museum” tonight, it will mark a number of firsts.

It’s the first time an in-house performance at the won’t be contained within the small black theatre. Instead, it will spill out into the front gallery space.

And it’s the first time the theatre and visual arts components of the Artists’ Exchange will work so closely together. A play about a cast of characters on the last day of a gallery show, the production relies on a close collaboration between performance and visuals, acting and art.

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“The reason we chose the play is not only because it’s a great piece of theater, but it’s a great way to cross disciplines in the Artists’ Exchange,” said Rich Morra, Black Box theatre director.

Visual Arts Director Karen Bouchard has routinely helped the Black Box Theatre with set design and props. But for “Museum,” she’s played a more integral role.

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“She’s helped us in the past with props and set pieces but I never said ‘Karen, design the set’” Morra said.

The play is set in an art gallery and the installations at the Artists’ Exchange were created by in-house artists. Those artists are the same people who will play the fictitious artists in the play. Accompanying those works is a large installation comprised of 99 small paintings by the community that were painted on a recent Saturday. The public was invited to come into the Artists’ Exchange and paint small 8x8 canvasses.

“What’s always on my mind is how to bring art into the community and bring community into art,” Bouchard said. “Groups of people came in and had a lovely time.”

The result is a play in which the actors are artists and the artists are actors. And upon arrival, patrons won’t know who is who. The room will look exactly like a typical gallery show with artists standing near their work. With community art on the walls as part of the set, it will be hard to put a finger on the line between fiction and reality, actor and audience.

The play is a comedy that pokes fun at the art community. Along with the three artists, a revolving cast of characters — 44 to be exact — come in and out of the show.

“The play is about art and the people who go to see it,” Morra said.

One installation consists of three huge white canvasses that seem to be completely blank. But they’re actually paintings of vast seascapes and starscapes with appropriate titles.

“It’s very absurd from a layman’s point of view, but it shows that there are people who are so entrenched in the art world they can look at piece like that and give you a complete breakdown of the influence, what it means,” Morra said. “And then there’s a blue collar dude who goes through and says what the heck is that?”

The play isn’t just satire. It aims to provoke thoughts about what art means, where it comes from and what it does.

“Museum” runs from March 25 to April 10 on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15.

For more information, visit www.artists-exchange.org. To buy tickets, follow this link.


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