A Black Box Theatre in a Suburban Mall? Welcome To Concord, New Hampshire's Hatbox Theatre

Concord New Hampshire's Steeplegate Mall seems no different than any other American suburban mall. It's anchored by a Sears and a J.C. Penny and contains familiar chain shops like American Eagle, Victoria's Secret and Yankee Candle.

But sandwiched between Chico's and Shoe Dept./Encore is something a bit unexpected, The Hatbox Theatre. No, it's not a movie multiplex. It's a 54-seat (soon to be 92-seat) live performance venue planned for variety entertainment, original plays, poetry readings, comedy, musicals, concerts, improvisation, puppetry, performance workshops, humanities experiences, educational opportunities, talks, cabaret, dance, burlesque, live podcast recording nights (currently slated: film & theatre) and more.

With the popularity of Internet shopping and the resurgence of downtown Concord, the tiny theatre is looked on by some as an attraction that might help boost traffic at the struggling shopping center.

As the theatre's founder, Andrew Pinard, tells New Hampshire Public Radio, the layout of the former women's clothing store offered immediate benefits.

"We converted the existing fitting rooms to dressing rooms, so we have five dressing rooms back here and you can actually write the names of the actors on the placards right next to their rooms. This has basically become the backstage area for the actors."

The theater opened April 1 with a sold-out performance of Jerry Mayer's play 2 ACROSS.

"We came to the mall because we wanted to have easy parking," adds Pinard. "We have to come to a place that's reasonably affordable for us to work in, but also covered all of the codes, such as sprinklers and accessibility. We needed to find a space that covered all that because we really didn't have the deep pockets. It's not like this was a huge capital campaign."

Pinard says he's hopeful this could mark a resurgence for the mall, which he credits for much of the business that now surrounds it.

"Unfortunately, the mall is kind of the whipping boy of Concord. But the mall when it came was the exciting new thing in the early 1990s. There wasn't a lot of development here. A lot of the development that happened here wouldn't have happened without the development of the Steeplegate Mall."

The theater's walls, designed to hold racks of clothing, are now decorated with hats that Pinard has collected from various productions.

"Actually, the name came from the notion of a black box theatre, which is a small, kind of intimate space that you can reconfigure into different shapes."

The theater has already hosted several concerts, and there's plans for a comedy night, burlesque shows and original theater productions.

"We're really trying to create a community of artists, performers, and members of the audience to come together. The benefit of our space is we're four seats deep. You're as close to the action as you can almost possibly be."

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Visit hatboxnh.com.