Henry Ford College's Theatre Arts Announces The Inaugural Production Of Its New Black Box Theatre

HFC's Black Box Theatre will begin productions in May in the former home of the college's Virtual Theatricality Lab. (VTL).

Dr. George Popovich retired full-time former director of HFC Theatre Arts and The Virtual Theatricality Lab supervised the conversion of the VTL into The Black Box Theatre.

"We thought the best artistic gift we could give our students was the opportunity for more performances," Popovich said.

The VTL was a highly successful program from 2000-2017. The program was an advanced technological certificate that combined cinema and computer technologies such as 3-D, Performance Capture, and Virtual Reality with live stage shows. The VTL has been written about by scholars the world over and its productions are often compared with those of the great theatre designers such as Edward Gordon Craig Adolph Appia, and Joseph Swoboda.

"We have the VTL equipment," Popovich said, "and good use is being made of it. The screen and projectors are now part of our stage equipment and Technical Theatre curriculum. The computers have been distributed to faculty and programs in Theatre and Telecommunications."

"There are over 60 professional theatres in the Detroit area and 95% of them are Black Box," Popovich said. "We now have the ability to train our student actors in this intimate art form. The Black Box productions will allow us to present shows six times a year."

Gerard Dzuiblinski, HFC Technical Director, is directing the first production in HFC's Black Box. The following one act plays will be presented:

Contract: Theresa Rebeck

Rainbow: James Armstrong

Janitor: August Wilson

Mount Language: Harold Pinter

DMV Tyrant: Christopher Durang

Scar Tissue: Gabriel Rivas Gomez

Performances will be held Thursday through Sunday, May 3-6, 2018, 8 pm Thursday through Saturday, 2 pm on Sunday.

All seats are $5. All performances are held in the Studio Theatre, Room F-161 in the MacKenzie Fine Arts Building, building F. To purchase tickets: https://theatre.hfcc.edu

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