Black Box Season
Welcome to the 73rd Season in the Stonzek Studio Theatre
The Black Box Series offers a unique selection of plays featuring the works of nationally and internationally established playwrights whose subjects or themes are both thought provoking and relevant to today’s world. All works selected and presented in the series make perfect use of the Playhouse’s 60 seat Stonzek Studio Theater, an intimate setting which provides the audience with a personal and visceral theatre going experience. The focus of the series is on the story, writing and acting of a chosen work with very basic technical arrangements.
Showings
THE SOUND INSIDE
February 5 – 15, 2026
Black Box Season
By Adam Rapp.
New York Times Critic’s Pick
When Bella Baird, an isolated creative writing professor at Yale, begins to mentor a brilliant but enigmatic student named Christopher, the two form an unexpectedly intense bond. As their lives and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella makes a surprising request of Christopher that neither knows if he can fulfill. Brimming with suspense, Rapp’s riveting play explores the limits of what one person can ask of another.
“A gripping mystery. An astonishing new play.” – The New York Times
“A gripping stunner!” – Chicago Tribune
THE EFFECT
March 19 – 29, 2026
Black Box Season
By Lucy Prebble.
What impulses define who we really are? As Connie and Tristan settle into their participation in a clinical drug trial, they begin to fall in love. But how can they be sure it’s the real thing and not an exhilarating side effect of the new antidepressant they’re taking? The supervising doctors begin to ask themselves questions too: where do they draw the line between love and ethics?
“Cosmic and atomically intimate.” – The New York Times
“Genuinely engaging and smart.” – The Observer
THE HOW AND THE WHY
April 30 – May 10, 2026
Black Box Season
By Sarah Treem.
Evolution and emotion collide in Sarah Treem’s thought-provoking and sharp play about science, family, and survival of the fittest. On the eve of a prestigious conference, an up-and-coming evolutionary biologist wrestles for the truth with an established leader in the field. This intimate and keenly perceptive play explores the difficult choices faced by women of every generation.
“A moving portrait of a woman meeting with equanimity an unexpected, often painfil series of questions about the choices she made in the past.” – The New York Times
“Sarah Treem’s play brims with ideas and emotional colors that eddy and refract like rivulets in a lively, plunging stream.” – Washington Post