New additions have been popping up everywhere in Forge, from the new weight room to the ambulance in a classroom. The new black box theater added to the Drama department has provided many new opportunities for the actors, and yet behind the scenes it seems to be riddled with small problems and errors.

A typical black box theater is usually a small room with little to no added decoration. .. It is completely painted black with no windows and no other source of outside light.  The chairs and stage are movable and the light booth tends to be smaller.

The Forge black box, however, seems to stray from these typical designs. The differences include large windows that stretch completely along both side walls, whiteboards and projectors that cover both halfs of the walls, and there is a black curtain that cannot fully block out the light coming from the windows.  It does follow the design of being a small black colored room, including  a small light booth and movable chairs and stage.

Some people at first were taken aback by the designs of the new theater. “The layout of the supposed ‘black box’ is not usual to other black boxes you would see, so it’s a little strange,” Jeffery Bare (‘18) said.

The designs were decided upon within the school and both the theater teachers were asked for input on the designed. When asked about the design process Deb Hansen, The Forge drama teacher, said “We did get asked for input but not much of our input actually came into reality.”

Many say there are just certain design flaws that they find strange. These flaws take away from it being an actual black box. “ The curtain that goes around the space infringes on a lot of the space of the box itself, and the hallway that currently leads to nowhere but is suppose to lead to the technical piece that didn’t get built ,” Hansen said.

The theater students who use this room also see some of these flaws. “It’s not a true black box. It’s not big enough and it has huge windows which hinder us from being able to use it as a true black box which is really disappointing ,” Lauryn Hobbs (‘17) said.  “What I dislike about the black box are the windows and whiteboards/projectors. I understand that they also had to make it into a classroom, but it strips away a lot of what a black box is supposed to be ,” Bare said.

People see that even some minor improvements could change the space a lot for the better.

“Having no windows would definitely help. Also, the curtain blocks off a large amount of the space, so maybe the track could get extended ,” said Claudio Manno (‘17).

So the real question seems to be was the black box worth it? Even with all these problems the overall consensus seems to be yes. Though the new Forge black box may not be a “True” black box people still really enjoy the space. The location is also ultimately ideal for the Drama department.  “We are not going to disrupt other classes. In particular traditional academic classes ,” Hansen said.

The students also  find upsides to this new classroom.  “It gives our private space to do all of our crazy things ” Amaya Montgomery (‘19) said.  It gives them a more soundproof area to work in and creates a place that they can finally work in “It gives them a more soundproof area to work in and creates a place that they can finally work in instead of being in the academic area of another class,” Hansen said.

Even with these downfalls, the black box theater does provide the drama students a workplace of their own and a place to connect more.  “We have had so many great talks in that space, it feels like another place to call home ” Bare said.