National Smithsonian Museum - GlobeTrotter
Reviving the spirit of the traveling 17th-century Shakespearean theater—able to journey from town to town and to remote places in between—OMD proposes a mobile modular vehicle that transforms into a fully equipped theatrical venue. As part of Washington, DC’s city-wide Shakespeare Festival, the National Building Museum will present Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century, an exhibition conceived to encourage a reconsideration of spaces designed for dramatic performance. Working with the Festival, OMD designs a compact, efficient machine capable of traveling long distances and delivering a complete Shakespearean experience on any relatively flat site.
The vehicle measures 12 feet wide by 48 feet long by 13.5 feet high. It hitches to a standard truck cab and can tow a car behind it. Once parked, it deploys to create a stage roughly matching the proportions of the original Globe Theater: 44 feet wide by 22 feet deep. The overhead balcony swings down to cover the rear half of the stage, while wing walls extend outward to enhance acoustics, provide scenic surfaces, and house lighting. Backstage, pneumatic pods inflate from six openings, forming dressing rooms, a production office, and a ticket/concession space, and can also serve as sleeping quarters. Along the interior spine are water closets, sinks, and showers, while equipment racks for sound and lighting line the rear wall. Mobile sound and light carts roll to the audience’s rear for monitoring, and furniture, sets, costumes, and equipment are secured inside the vehicle between locations.
The design accommodates approximately 15 actors and 6 technicians. A photovoltaic array crowns the roof, generating power for sound and lighting. One side folds out to become the upper-level stage front and features a large plasma screen. The theater projects Shakespearean films and promotes the troupe with scenes from past performances while on the move. Inflated bench seating is placed before the stage. This self-sufficient fusion of high theater and high camping captures carnival-like attention upon arrival, animating diverse and ever-changing audiences.
