Editing Black box theater (section)

== History ==
Black box theaters have their roots in the American [[avant-garde]] of the early 20th century. The black box theaters became popular and increasingly widespread in the 1960s as rehearsal spaces.<ref name="wisegeek"/>  Almost any large room can be transformed into a "black box" with the aid of paint or curtains, making black box theaters an easily accessible option for theater artists. Storefronts, church basements, and old trolley barns were some examples of the earliest versions of spaces transformed into black box theaters.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2012-11-15 |title=Black Box |url=https://www.tdf.org/on-stage/theatre-dictionary/search-by-letter/black-box/#:~:text=A%20black%20box%20is%20a,suddenly%20became%20intimate%20performance%20venues. |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=tdf.org}}</ref> Sets are simple and small and costs are lower, appealing to nonprofit and low-income artists or companies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://howlround.com/so-you-want-build-theatre|title=So, You Want to Build a Theatre?|website=HowlRound Theatre Commons|date=21 November 2015 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref>  The black box is also considered by many to be a place where more "pure" theatre can be explored, with the most human and least technical elements in focus.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stagingconcepts.com/news/enhancing-the-performance-space-black-box-theatres/|title=Black Box Theater {{!}} Seating Systems|last1=Staging Concepts HeadQuarters 8400 Wyoming Avenue North|first1=Suite 100 Minneapolis|last2=Directions|first2=Get|date=2015-11-17|website=Staging Concepts|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref>

The concept of a building designed for flexible staging techniques can be attributed to Swiss designer [[Adolphe Appia]], circa 1921. The invention of such a stage instigated a half-century of innovations in the relationship between audience and performers. This idea would again be re-visited by [[Harley Granville-Barker|Harley Granville Barker]], using Appia's design as his basis. Barker would have ideas of directing productions in “a great white box,” which would see success in 1970. As time went on, black boxes were decided on instead as black provided the most neutral setting for productions.<ref name=":1" /> [[Antonin Artaud]] also had ideas of a stage of this kind. The first flexible stage in [[United States|America]] was located in the home living room of actor and manager Gilmor Brown in [[Pasadena, California]]. While the domestic decor meant that Brown's stage was not a proper black box, the idea was still a revolutionary one. This venue, and two subsequent permutations, are known as the Playbox Theatre,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dynamics.org/ROGER/THESIS/ |title=A Historical Study of Gilmor Brown's Fairoaks Playbox: 1924-1927 |publisher=Dynamics.org |access-date=2018-04-04}}</ref> and functioned as an experimental space for Brown's larger venue, the [[Pasadena Playhouse]].