[Callboard] Black Box Grant CFP

[Lisa Quoresimo via Callboard]

Black Box Grant Call For Proposals

For Fall 2026 Projects

Deadline: Wednesday, April 22

Rough Theatre: “Through the ages it has taken many forms, and there is only one factor that they all have in common-- a roughness. Salt, sweat, noise, smell: the theatre that’s not in a theatre, the theatre on carts, on wagons, on trestles, audiences standing, drinking, sitting round tables, audiences joining in, answering back: theatre in back rooms, upstairs rooms, barns; the one-night stands, the torn sheet pinned up across the hall, the battered screen to conceal the quick changes.”

--Peter Brook, The Empty Space 65

Submit completed application form  and supplemental materials via email to lisaqu...@suu.edu.  

Mission: The Black Box Grant fosters creative experimentation with performance forms and processes through funding innovative projects that emphasize content over spectacle and work with limited resources in stripped down spaces.

The Department of Theatre Dance and Arts Administration is accepting applications for Black Box Projects, with a specific desire for proposals that imagine and reimagine the notion of Rough Theatre. We encourage creative use of a variety of spaces on campus and discussion of multiple potential venues within your proposal. We are also very interested in interdisciplinary work. Budgets of up to $500.00 USD will be considered. As the total budget for all grants for the entire semester is $500, it is likely that several smaller budget projects which employ the concept of limited resources and stripped down spaces will be selected. Successful applications will detail the following:

• Information on how this opportunity will supplement and enhance your training as a theatre artist.
• A mission statement that addresses the project's objectives and goals. This portion of the proposal should address the philosophical, social, and cultural implications of your proposed project. What is the value of your project to the community, university, department, and prospective audience?
• Discuss the audience your project will serve.
• Detail the number of students potentially involved in the project and how this experience will benefit those students (please note, funded projects must involve at least two students).
• Provide a justification for the space you are requesting.
• Provide a rough timeline description (when will you perform, rehearse, tech, etc.). 
• The feasibility of the project within the budget guidelines, including all budgetary needs, i.e., costs of color printing, musicians, prop or technical needs, and any other projected costs.
• How you intend to assemble production teams and any projected technical support. 
• If you wish to include non-student participants, please justify their inclusion.
• Faculty advisor for the project. Please be sure you have discussed the project with your proposed advisor.

The Black Box Grant Committee

Lisa Quoresimo, Chair

Peter Sham

Chris Mueller

Kathryn Tkel

Mallory Blue