Museum: An Outsider’s Perspective

By Anna Sgarbi

Lights, camera, action. This fall, the BGA Upper School theater program staged a play called Museum by Elyse Sommer. Museum, in a nutshell, is a play taking place in a museum exhibit called “The Broken Silence” on the third floor of a Manhattan art museum. The exhibit consists of four all white paintings, small constructions placed all over the room, and a clothesline on one side of the room from which clothed realistic figures are left out to dry. 

However, before I describe how the play went, let’s rewind to the teaser that was performed at assembly. While I had never heard of this play before, I was pleasantly shocked when the teaser ended. The teaser was a simple scene from the play where we saw many actors including Anna Pile, Charlotte Slater, and Walker Kesler take the stage. Walking out of the teaser, I was intrigued and decided that going to see the play would be fun, so I chose to go to the Sunday show. 

As the house lights dimmed and the stage lights turned on, I was very excited to see this play that I knew nothing about. I tried asking a couple actors about the plot, but I was told that I “just have to go see it.” A couple minutes into the play, I found myself laughing with the rest of the audience at funny jokes and gags. Personally, I thought it was hilarious when people would walk on stage, act really confused, and then all of the sudden just walk off without giving any explanation. While there were many funny moments, I have to say that Walker’s tap solo was one of the best things that I have ever seen in a play. Not only was it fantastic, but it was also so random that nobody in the crowd could have expected it (Walker if you’re reading this, you are amazing).

The play became quite interesting towards the end. One could say this ending was unpredictable and maybe even shocking. The people looking at the exhibit started tearing off pieces the artwork to take home, completely destroying multiple things in the gallery. Now, I never thought something like this would happen, but I knew that it was quite comical when the actors started ripping off arms and legs and shoving “rare” safety pins in their bags. Museum performed by the Upper School BGA theater receives an 8/10 on the Anna scale (I rarely give out 10/10 so really an 8/10 is an amazing rating). I not only enjoyed the acting but the story line as well. The theater department did an amazing job putting on this play and really giving it their best. If you did not get to see Museum this time, then I recommend you go see it eventually in your life. It really is a fun and interesting play that everyone can enjoy.