by Marianna Sorensen
Spring 2017 Intern
In the eighth grade, I researched Sam Houston for
one of my classes. As a final part of the project, we spent a class period
acting out the person we researched. I had never considered anyone I studied that
deeply until I was assigned that project.
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a
program it has run for the past 10 summers that gives high school students the same
opportunity. Teenagers who have
applied and are selected to work for Portraits Alive come and study someone who has a
portrait in the museum. The students first choose someone, then research that
person without relying on the information that the museum provides on the
plaque beside the portrait.
Students then write monologues about the subject of
the portrait they’ve chosen. And they don’t just recite the
monologue. They wear costumes to look like the people they’ve studied and
perform the monologue for visitors touring the museum. Students put a lot of
work into this. And after three weeks of presenting to tour groups, they
rewrite their script, focusing on a new theme or approach. So not only are they
learning research methods and performance skills, they are also learning how to
review and strengthen their own work. When they perform, they present
themselves alongside the portraits they studied, bringing the image beside them
to life.
This project involves more than memorizing basic
facts about the
portrayed person. Not just anyone gets their portrait displayed at
famous museums. Students in the program learn why the people they’re researching
got their portraits on the wall. They also each find a personal connection to the person in the
portrait. Some of the actors even come to resemble those they choose to perform
after studying them in such detail. Christopher Schelb, a student portraying poet
Allen Ginsberg, became known among his fellow teens as just “Ginsberg.”
The best part of this program is that not only do
the students learn about the power of a new portrayal of the past, but the
visitors do as well. Those who see the performance are encouraged to think
about history that they may have forgotten about or that they have never
encountered before.
Did You Know?
The smallest
portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London is about the size of
your thumbnail. Made of enamel on gold, it’s a picture of Henrietta Anne,
Duchess of Orléans in the seventeenth century.
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