Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2012 - 48

In today's technology-driven world, these entities have new tools at their disposal for
storytelling such as video, audio, show control, virtual reality-even smell.
hey all have a story to tell. It could be an object such as a book or piece of clothing, a sound
such as a voice recording or music track; it could
even be an idea or ideal. The depth at which their
stories are communicated to the masses differ by
several factors. Museums, themed and immersive
environments, even some corporations struggle with this storytelling, which is imperative to their success.
One core of this storytelling is the mission statement as
the driver for direction. It influences not only presence, attitude, and conviction, but the plot as well. In today's technology-driven world, these entities have new tools at their
disposal for storytelling such as video, audio, show control,
virtual reality-even smell. These tools can take a patron at
a museum, for instance, to new depths of that artifact. Today
one cannot only look at a dinosaur bone at the Smithsonian
but enter into a recreated world complete with the sounds
and smells of the Jurassic and get a greater sense of how this
animal lived and died. Disney and many other theme parks
and museums have mastered this technique of the story. It is
the job of the design team working closely with the storytellers to ultimately communicate this.
Recently I had the pleasure of being the lead AV, lighting, and show control designer on one of America's iconic
museums, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cleveland, Ohio, as they started on the path to take a look

at how the story they were telling was being conveyed. The
massive structure designed by I.M. Pei, which opened fifteen
years ago, provided certain challenges in terms of what and
how the museum curatorial staff could present its collection
of artifacts, particularly in its large glazed lobby. In addition,
the museum staff had discovered that wayfinding was a major
concern. Many patrons haven't realized the building is both
a hall of fame and a museum housed under one roof and
that each are in different parts of the building. Museumgoers
could also miss entire sections of artifacts in Ertegun Hall,
where the majority of the collection is displayed, because of
poor wayfinding and lighting. These problems were made
worse by the building's outdated audiovisual, lighting, and
presentation technology, most of which was original to the
building. Terry Stewart, president and chief executive officer
of the RRHOF, and his staff decided it was time for an update.
Stewart commented that "It's fairly simple. We try to make
sure that the music and the debris or the detritus around how
the music is created, whether it's instruments, costumes, or
lyrics, are preserved, and they are exhibited here. Then we
use that as part of the way we tell the impact of rock and roll
and the history of rock and roll." He added, "A great deal of
what the renovation is about is reacting to what we've learned
about the building during the last sixteen years."
To tackle the challenge, architecture firm Westlake Reed
Leskosky was brought to the team for their overwhelming

winter

2012

theatre design

& technology

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