With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the original young adult mystery series Missing from the Museum, will return with it’s second season titled Chamber of Wonders. The series was created by a partnership of four theatres across the country, which began through connections forged in TYA/USA affinity group meetings – Houston’s Brave Little Company, Wisconsin’s Dare to Dream Theatre, Brooklyn’s Off the Page, and Arkansas’ Trike Theatre.
As the season begins, audience members have been selected to attend a secret school to develop their Clear Sight, a special skill that is strongest in children and young people. Using this skill, youth aged 9-14 must find ways to counter the historic erasure of female artists – while finding themselves in the middle of a power struggle between factions determined to define what art is and who can make it. With over 20 possible variations, the audience’s input determines the path of the scripted episodes. Missing From the Museum combines participatory adventure with art history to highlight issues of representation in arts institutions.
The 2021-22 season include seven online episodes airing from October to May, plus in-person events and online activities held at partner museums around the country including Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, MFAH; Black Gotham Experience; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; The Museum of Native American History; and the Scott Family Amazeum. Houston community organizer and educator Jaison Oliver will also coordinate a Wikipedia edit-a-thon for participants and their families.
The returning creative team for Missing from the Museum includes Troy Scheid, director of Brave Little Company, and Brittny Bush, a Houston actor and director who is BLC’s Consulting Creative Director; Rachel Thuermer, Founder and Artistic Director of Dare to Dream Theatre; Jody Drezner Alperin, co-founder of Off the Page; Chris Tennison, Head of Academy at Trike Theatre; and teaching artist Amber-Nicole Wolfe.
