Canvas, unique sculptures and pedistoles lined the walls of the Black Box as the cast of Museum performed on April 25th through 28th. Museum was an satirical, immersive play that brought the audience into the storyline as well as poking fun at how people view art. As opposed to a traditional show where the actors are on a stage, they stood among the audience who were seated on benches or standing similar to people at an art exhibit. Actors walked around or even sat down next to audience members. This created a theater experience like never before.

“The show doesn’t have a plot which makes it different from other shows we’ve done,” director Brooke Phillips said. “Because it was immersive the audience didn’t have seats necessarily and it was the first time we’ve ever done that.”

Because of the show being non-traditional, actors had to focus on staying in character while performing. They worked on this throughout the rehearsal process. Senior Brannon Evans played a guard in the museum and constantly stayed walking around the museum the entirety of the show.

“Usually I just pretend the audience isn’t there but in this show they were members of the art gallery so I had to acknowledge they were there,” Evans said. “So inside my head I kept thinking ‘you’re a security guard you’re not Brannon’.”

Each character was intended to be a different stereotype that goes to a museum. An old couple, a hipster photography and even two rich women made appearances on stage. Sophomore Edison Geiler played a ecentric young man named Will Willard who likes to critique art. He focused on his scene partner to keep himself in character.

“Willard is someone who doesn’t really know a lot about art, but he loves to critique it,” Geiler said. “He also hates people disrupting his museum-going experience, so there was actually a benefit in not giving my attention to the audience since he’s someone who doesn’t like talking to people around him.”

On opening night, the Black Box was filled with people sitting on every inch of the rainbow benches. People who attended were surprised to see the out of the box artwork that was set up in the auditorium lobby as they arrived. The show then began and they got an even bigger surprise with the show being immersive.

“I think usually an audience expects to just sit and watch a show and be entertained but we were calling them to be apart of it,” Evans said. “This type of show encourages more audience participation and requires them to be more involved than they usually are.”

Along with the three performances on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, the cast and crew performed at the All Millard Festival on April 27th . This event brings together all three Millard Schools to celebrated theater and perform for one another. Each show is also adjudicated and awards are given out at the end of the day. Millard West hosted the festival this year.

“All-Millard is just a great place to interact with other drama students from different high schools and enjoy shows in general,” Geiler said. “The festival began with North’s play and then we went to a workshop, which can be crew or acting oriented. Then we performed Museum, had a lunch break, watched South’s play and did a second workshop. At the end there was an awards show where actors and the entire cast and crew won fun little awards. After that, we went home to eat and then got ready to perform again.”

Once the festival and show week the crew tore down the set and hung up their costumes. This show created a theater experience many audience members will remember in years to come.