Personal Programming Archives - Page 2 of 3

To script or not to script? An interpreter’s dilemma

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Planning, Visitor Experience October 29, 2016June 26, 20182 Comments

A great presentation requires a great script. We’ve been talking a lot lately about the decline of classical stand-and-deliver interpretation, and the rise of experiential, inquiry-based or dialogue-based programming. I think it’s a healthy dialogue. For decades, sage-on-the-stage programming was the default interpretive medium. You took an interpreter, put her in front of an audience, and made …

Is Your Halloween Program Off-Theme?

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Visitor Experience October 16, 2016October 2, 2022One Comment

Surely we can accomplish more with a valuable new audience than just jump out of a dark corner and go “boo.” Are you planning a thematically vapid Halloween event? Are you busily training volunteers to jump out at people from behind half-closed doors? Are you dusting off your wacky grave stones and firing up your howling-and-cackling sound …

It’s Finally Time to STFU.

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Planning, Visitor Experience June 11, 2016December 22, 201611 Comments

Start to think of yourself as narrator, stage manager, and prop assistant. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of interpretation in the rapidly-expanding world of experiential tourism. What is experiential tourism? It’s the future. Actually, it’s the present—the world of tourism began moving to an experiential model at least fifteen years ago. Where …

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Interpretive Capital and the VE Cycle

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Planning, Visitor Experience May 11, 2016May 11, 2016No Comments

How are you spending yours? I just spent a week working with interpreters at three different national historic sites in Alberta, and what a blast it was. Is there anything more energizing than workshopping programs with passionate, engaged people? I would like to share an insight I had while working through a script about the history …

Dear Don: I suck at themes. Help!

by Don EnrightDear Don, Personal Programming April 10, 2016April 10, 20162 Comments

Don! I’m struggling with themes. I’m terrible at them. They’re awful. I need to get better. And I’m struggling with themes that have cropped up in other programs. They are still so fill-in-the-blank. I feel this is something myself and my team need to revisit. Some more specific case examples – what are your thoughts on …

2016 Interpretive Programs Announced!

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Visitor Experience February 14, 20162 Comments

Some time ago, I was asked to submit a selection of programs for the upcoming season. Here are the ones I didn’t submit. Bugs, Bogs and Browbeating Our wetlands are in trouble, and it’s all your fault! Naturalist Tabitha Smugge plays a wacky “Judge” who enumerates all the ways that you’ve ruined our watershed for generations to …

The Interpretive Voice: Find Your Spirit Guide

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Visitor Experience February 3, 2016September 16, 20162 Comments

Finding Your Voice… On A Graph This is part two of a series. You should probably start with part one, here. In trying to craft my own voice as an interpreter and interpretive writer, I often look to some of the great interpreters I have seen over the years. And one of the things these inspiring …

Dear Don: We’re Too Successful.

by Don EnrightAudiences, Dear Don, Personal Programming, Visitor Experience January 29, 2016November 28, 2020No Comments

Welcome to the first in my Dear Don series, in which I do my best to answer questions from my readers about interpretation and visitor experience. (And if I don’t have the answers, I’ll be featuring wise experts who can help.) Dear Don: I attended your webinar on target audiences and have a question: We offer …

The Interpretive Voice

by Don EnrightInterpretive Media, Personal Programming, Visitor Experience January 9, 2016May 3, 20234 Comments

… have you found yours? Have you ever tried writing interpretive text as a committee? It’s about as delightful as being pecked apart by mergansers. Each writer contributes a piece, and each piece might be lovely on its own, but you put the bits together and they just don’t get along. And so you talk and you …

The Interpretive Soapbox

by Don EnrightPersonal Programming, Visitor Experience December 10, 2015December 15, 20153 Comments

Interpreters are purveyors of wonder. Never, ever forget it. Those of us who work with endangered species (or endangered resources of any kind) tend to feel fairly passionate about them. We also tend to be have long personal histories with our subjects, and a high level of knowledge about them. As a result, we are …

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