In the land of the free museum, the organizers of the city'snewest exhibit are betting you'll pay to role-play.
Today the International Spy Museum debuts "Operation Spy," aninteractive experience in which participants get to pretend they'respies for the U.S. government, traveling through and under the backstreets of a fictitious city, trying to find a missing nucleardevice.
"Operation Spy" is also one of the city's costlier museumexperiences. Tickets to the museum itself are $16, but if you wantto do the "Operation Spy" exhibit, too, you'll pay eight more bucks.
Or put another way: For $24, you can pretend you're on TV's "24."
"We perceive the additional $8 fee for 'Operation Spy' to be agreat value for the hour-long experience," museum spokeswoman AmandaAbrell said. (Tickets for admission only to "Operation Spy" are$14.)
The privately owned Spy Museum, run by the for-profit, Cleveland-based Malrite Co., is Washington's most expensive museum. TheSmithonian museums and the National Gallery of Art are free; amongmuseums that charge an admission, the Phillips Collection can costas much as $12 and the Corcoran Gallery of Art runs from $6 to $14.
With its emphasis on hands-on activities, the Spy Museum -- oneof the city's most popular tourist attractions -- seeks to draw,in part, a Disney-park audience. Since its opening in 2002, themuseum has drawn more than 3.5 million visitors.
"Operation Spy" cost between $1.5 million and $2 million tocreate, Abrell says.
During the one-hour virtual-world "mission," museum-goers get tomaneuver hidden cameras and fiddle with recording devices. Visitorsare on their feet nearly that entire time, at one point tiptoeingthrough a creepy, dark tunnel created by the exhibit designers, andlater ransacking an authentic-looking office of a "foreigngovernment official." The mission takes place within the confines ofthe Spy Museum at 800 F St. NW. "It takes interactivity one stepfurther," said Peter Earnest, the museum's executive director. "There's more of a visceral feel than just looking at stuff on adisplay case."
"Operation Spy" was scheduled to open in June, but glitchesthroughout the summer delayed the opening. "There's a number ofmoving parts," Earnest said. "A lot of synchronizing and specialeffects."
"Operation Spy" has its share of effects, but a promotional videorunning on the museum's Web site might oversell the experience withits claim: "Like the most intense movie you've ever seen -- exceptyou are in it."
Earnest also boasted: "It's sort of what it feels like to be in'24,' " referring to Fox's hit show.
Sort of, perhaps, but don't expect to extract any confessionsfrom bad guys through torture or to defuse a nuclear bomb with onehand tied behind your back.
Rather, it's more of a participatory experience, with muchconversation encouraged among exhibit-goers. There are also somethrills to be had; highlights include a noisy freight elevator ridein the dark and a (simulated) bumpy ride in the back of a cargo van.(Because of the complexity of the exhibit, participants must be atleast 12 years old.)
At first, the experience might feel more like jury duty as youand your fellow "spies" gather in a "bus depot" in the fictitiousKhandar City, a setting that has a Middle Eastern feel. AlthoughEarnest said the city depicted in "Operation Spy" is not modeledafter any particular country, he acknowledged that it could be inthe Middle East or southern Asia.
"We are taking you overseas to a foreign, exotic locale," hesays.
Earnest said the exhibit's story line is "loosely based" on thereal-life case of A.Q. Khan, a prominent Pakistani nuclear scientistwho in 2004 confessed to selling nuclear technology to othercountries. (Khan was pardoned by his government and remains underhouse arrest in Pakistan.)
After leaving the Khandar depot, visitors are rushed to a commandcenter to receive video screen instructions from an unidentifiedintelligence chief (played by Janet Hubert-Whitten, who played themother on the old Will Smith sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air")."You definitely look like tourists," she says. "Nice disguise."
Although this is a taped segment, our real-life team leader -- earlier this week, it was local actress Elise Arsenault -- skillfully talks to her and we are made to believe it's a liveconversation.
Visitors learn the particulars of the case -- that a nucleartrigger device has gone missing, say, and that there's a strongsuspicion that the country's energy director is involved. There'salso an on-screen secret agent, whom we see in video clips, whohas infiltrated the minister's office and may or may not be on ourside. During the preview, we were also made aware of a risingmovement within the country, seeking to dismantle the government.
Spy-philes at the preview this week were gung-ho for "OperationSpy," including Mark Dubowitz, chief operating officer of theFoundation for Defense of Democracies.
"It was part Jack Bauer, part Jennifer Garner," said Dubowitz,referring to the fictional "24" character and the actress whoportrayed "Alias" spy Sydney Barstow. "It was a great way to getpeople thinking about pressing issues in today's news."
In a preview earlier this summer, Speros Koumparakis, a 32-year-old Marine from the District, said he was "really into it." He alsoadmitted that his TiVo is filled with "24" episodes.
And Emily Guskin, 23, of Potomac said the experience was"somewhat akin to" a Disney ride, adding, "I guess it's aWashington, D.C., version."
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