Since 2008 History Alive! theater program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has brought together more than 1 million visitors to explore new worlds, confront difficult truths, and intimately connect people and ideas toward a new understanding of our past. History Alive! gets people talking about history through interactive, personal stories of America’s past that resonate in the nation’s present. Each year our rich, vibrant, and popular programs inspire hundreds of thousands of museum visitors to bring their own ideas to an understanding of our history. The dramatic experiences we offer use emotion, tension, and conflict to make visitors comfortable exploring provocative issues and modeling civil discourse. Theater at the museum is fun and profoundly educational - drawing participants into the experience while promoting learning. Today as in the past, American democracy requires civil dialogue, particularly from groups at different ends of the ideological spectrum. History Alive! allows the Museum to engage with visitors, but most importantly, it encourages visitors to speak with each other. We invite you to support the Smithsonian’s History Alive! theater program as we enlist the power of drama to explore the past of the United States, to participate meaningfully in the great issues of our day through the public conversation, and to inspire active involvement in the life of our country. Help us make history present.
