The theatre program at Southern Utah University is best known for their large-scale mainstage shows and for Second Studio, their student-run company. However, the department is also home to a lesser-known program that helps produce several shows each semester. The Black Box Grant aims to provide students opportunities to produce their own dream pieces of theatre with department funding.
“Once you’re in the professional world, in order to rent space, to find the community to make theatre happen, it all just gets so much harder. So, if you have a vision and a dream, right now is the time to do it,” said Lisa Quoresimo, an SUU theatre professor and the chair of the Black Box Grant committee.
Any theatre student can apply for the Black Box Grant, whether they have a role they’ve dreamed of playing, a show they’ve written or adapted themselves or a show they’d like to direct or design. Many SUU students and alumni have brought dream projects to life through the program.
The allotted funding largely goes toward rights to shows, leaving students to use their resources and creativity to bring the rest of the show to life.
“The idea kind of comes from Jerzy Grotowski’s idea of poor theatre, where you create theatre with very little money, which is frankly how I did theatre for most of my career,” said Quoresimo. “I really enjoy that style of theatre.”
Campus resources such as the costume, prop and scenic shops are available to students producing Black Box Grants, though Second Studio and mainstage productions receive priority
“I was very lucky that I had brought together a lot of techs in the program who consistently worked mainstage or worked in the shops, and I had kept up good relationships with my professors, so I was able to borrow a lot,” said Bridget Arias Cunningham, an alumna who produced her Black Box Grant, an original adaptation of Shakespeare’s “King Henry V,” in spring 2022.
The Black Box Grant equips both its applicants and other students who have worked on its sponsored productions with tools they can carry with them for the rest of their professional careers.
“I realized that, as a director, I had the ability to create a safe environment for people to take those risks that they needed to and grow,” said Cunningham. “It really left me with a feeling that I feel called to continue doing this.”
The goal of the Black Box Grant program is to give students experience with producing a show on their own, which presents them unique challenges.
“You are building it from scratch, and everything is your responsibility,” said Eleora Ryan, who received a Black Box Grant in fall 2023 to produce her own translation and adaptation of “Spring Awakening.” “There are some things that the department will do, like schedule space for rehearsals, but even with that, you kind of have to be on top of making sure that stuff gets done just because there’s 1,000 other priorities for the department.”
Many students receive the Black Box Grant because they are doing a unique type of theatre that takes more chances than the productions put on by the department or Second Studio.
“There’s no place else in Cedar City where you’re going to get to see edgy, risky theatre, where you’re going to get to see new plays by exciting new playwrights, where you’re going to get to see devised theatre. There’s no other theatre space for that,” said Quoresimo.
Students can also get involved with the Black Box Grant without applying for their own, as each grant requires students to perform in and work on the shows.
“Black Box Grants are really, really fun because it’s just passion projects left and right,” said Ryan. “Even if you’re not applying for one, get involved with them for sure because they are just so often really cool and the most fun projects.”
Students who participate in Black Box Grant productions can gain just as much from the experience as those who applied for it.
“I learned how much creativity can happen when you’re not limited to the parameters of, you know, trying to garner an audience or all these things. If you’re just focused on creating something with people around you, you can make some really, really fascinating art,” said Gracie Butterfield, who portrayed Storyteller D in Cunningham’s production.
Another one of the main goals of the Black Box Grant is to prepare students for the specific theatrical goals they have for their post-graduate lives
“A lot of the theatre I want to make, I’m gonna have to produce myself, so I expect this to be the first of many that look like this,” said Ryan. “I think this was the best thing to set me up for what I want to do artistically in the future.”
Aside from the work experience-based benefits of the program, it enables students to form strong bonds with others involved in their grant production. Cunningham currently lives with three people with whom she worked on “Henry V” and is in a relationship with someone who she grew close to throughout the process of the show. Other members of Black Box Grants have also experienced “showmances” or built otherwise lasting relationships through the program.
“It really forged some opinions of people that I will carry with me throughout the rest of my experience and created some friendships that I still engage in and are still integral in my life,” said Butterfield.
Author: Tessa Cheshire
Photos courtesy of Jessica Marcano
Editor: Kale Nelson
arts@suunews.net
This article was originally published in the March 2024 edition of the University Journal.
