Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1993 - 35

rerreared ro "found" spaces elsewhere on
campus or in rhe communiry, seizing
upon classrooms, empry garages, and
unused srorage areas for spaces rhar were
rorally rheir own and more amenable in
size and scale. This phenomena escalared
borh on rhe college and universiry campus and in rhe rhearre communiry ourside. Acrors and direcrors require every
nook and cranny of a building in which
ro rehearse. Soon rhey began ro see rhar
some of rhese "found" spaces could be
urilized for performances as well. The
rrap room under rhe srage, a srorage
room, rhe green room-however plain
and irregular rhese spaces were, rhey were
also places for performance rhar could be
resrrucrured using rhe somerimes riny
budgers and simple producrion means
available.
The idea ro use and adapr "found"
spaces for rhearrical performance is rhus
also very much ar rhe hearr of rhe "black
box" form. Garages, warehouses, clubrooms, deserred cabarers, srorage rooms,
church basemenrs, classrooms, meering
halls-almosr any open space of moderare size can become a place of rhearrical
performance. Such spaces were amenable
in size and required only relarively modesr budgers ro develop and mainrain.

Anyone exploring rhe freedoms of rhe
"black box" soon learns rhar rhey are
mosr easily accomplished if rhe audience
size is limired, perhaps nor exceeding
300-400 parrons. Reserring sears and
moving searing wagons becomes a chore
in addirion ro rhe need ro creare a scenic
environmenr. The inrerior floor space of
rhe "black box" seldom moves much pasr
3,500-4,000 square feeL There are,
rherefore, numerous examples of "black
box" rhearres ser in rhese ranges.
A rypical embodimenr in rhe performing arrs cenrers builr on college and universiry campuses in rhe Unired rares
srarring in rhe Sixries was a ser of one or
more rarher convenrional performance
spaces (a large mulripurpose audirorium,
a smaller rhearre, a concerr or reciral hall,
and rucked somewhere inro rhe building,
an "experimenral" rhearre srudio or black
box rhearre). The "black box" was already
being insri rurionalized.
The "Experimental Thearer" ar Smirh
College (Helge Wesrermann, Richard
Miller/Joel Rubin, 1964) has a surround
audience/performer balcony or rerrace as
an added verrical dimension for audience/acror inrerplay and rhe design for
rhis rhearre also included a well-developed overhead grid sysrem ro facili rare

lighring and rigging. The "Srudio Thearre" ar rhe Krannerr Center, Universiry
of Illinois (Abramovi rz/Izenour, 1969) is
a GO-foor square adaprable space ser on a
common archirecrural podium wirh four
orherwise rradirional performance spaces.
There are counrerparrs on virrually every
college campus; we don'r need many
examples ro know rhe rype: Knox College (Perkins and Will, archirecrs/Walrer
Dewey, 1965), Vassar College (Roberrson
Ward, archi recr/Tad Gusak, 1968), rhe
black box ar rhe Annenberg Thearer
Center, Universiry of Pennsylvania Gerry
Rojo, designer). To rhe presenr day, a
"srudio" rhearre space is in virrually all
new design plans along wirh rhe larger
and more rradirional spaces (for example,
Cornell Universiry Performing Arrs Cenrer, James Srirling, archirecr, 1987). An
addirional rhearre being builr for Cenrer
Srage in Balrimore (Ziger, Hoopes and
Snead, archirecrs/Richard Pilbrow, consulranr) uses moveable riered searing
wagons.
Indiana Universiry is adding an exper-

TD&T

1993 WINTER

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1993