A Day at the Museum

A Day at the Museum is a silent movie come to life. The play is an ensemble mime piece set to an original score by Brian Wilbur Grundstrom and takes place in an art museum over the course of a day. In this New York world premiere, the cast creates a quick-change soufflé of people and personalities whose interweaving storylines become a visual fugue as they visit a museum gallery to view a series of three paintings. The aging artist’s model wanting to share her past acclaim with her adult daughter…the snooty critic, the chattering matrons, the uncomprehending tourists, the put-upon docent, the lovers…become their own living pictures at an exhibition, set to the music that only we, the audience, hears.

"Much of the credit for A Day at the Museum’s success, however, has to go to Brian Wilbur Grundstrom’s striking score. It’s a curious, often intoxicating mix of chamber ensemble and electronic timbres. No mere incidental music, Grundstrom’s score works very much like a modern Wagner opera in miniature — leitmotifs letting you know not just who’s on stage, but also if they’re good or bad, happy or sad. Syncing live motion to canned music is a notoriously difficult enterprise. If I had just one wish, it would be that one day, this specific Day will get the real accompaniment it rightfully deserves."

Washington City Paper

"A Day at the Museum is an artful, surprising, and engaging Capital Fringe work .... Just as vital to this purpose is the score of Brian Wilbur Grundstrom who composed the music and also happens to be the play's producer. A celebrated composer, every step, shrug, head tilt, and double-take taken corresponds to the notes of Grundstrom's strong score."

Joshua Novikoff - DCist.com

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