A Night at The Museum 

Each school year, Sturgis Theatre Arts Guild of Entertainers(STAGE) performs a one-act play. STAGE East’s choice of a play this year was Museum by Tina Howe. Museum is set in a fictional museum exhibition entitled “The Broken Silence,” in which about 40 characters enter and exit the stage, from French art connoisseurs to an agoraphobe and an apprehensive security guard. 

While Ms. Young, Sturgis East’s theatre teacher, has often been the director of STAGE productions, she has handed this position down to senior and IB Theatre student Emma Marczak. Emma has been a part of STAGE since freshman year, primarily in the role as Stage Manager. As a Stage Manager in past productions, Emma helped Ms. Young in organizing rehearsals to help her vision for the play come to life. However, as a student director, Ms. Young remarks that for Museum “the vision is 100% hers.”

Emma was first introduced to Museum in choosing a play for her IB Theatre assignment: the Director’s Notebook. In a Director’s Notebook, IB Theatre students choose a play and write about the choices they would make if they were to direct it. The student uses their knowledge of theatre to design both the technical and performance elements of the play. Though Emma admittedly chose Museum for this assignment because it is a short play, she became enamored with designing the technical aspects of the show, and said that “Museum set off so many creativity sensors in [her] brain that none of the other plays [she had read] did!”

Emma presented Museum to STAGE East as an option for the one-act, and members of the club read through a few scenes of the show together. Hannah Gent, the Vice President of the club, thought it was “absolutely ridiculous and silly,” and was excited to have the opportunity to act in a comedic play. Trinh O’Doherty, STAGE President, said that the show’s “wackiness…felt like so much fun.” While they only considered one other play, STAGE East members agreed that Museum was the play they wanted to perform. 

Hannah, who has acted in six STAGE productions, remarked that Emma “brings the cast together as a community and a lot of life to the stage.” Trinh, with Museum being her fourth STAGE production, enjoyed seeing Emma’s “hard work pay off [and to] bring to life her artistic vision from a director to an actor.” Robin Shea, a sophomore, observed that Emma made the Museum environment welcoming and exciting for new STAGE members.

While Ms. Young said that it was strange to put aside her own vision for Museum, she was excited to help meld the technical aspects of the show with Emma’s vision for the production. She was especially impressed by Emma’s dedication to her vision, which is quite hard to do, especially working with other students. “You have to have your friend brain and your director brain, and that can be really challenging, but…she has done really well,” said Ms. Young, who is excited to celebrate Emma’s achievements with Museum.