Welsbacher Black Box Theatre was
celebrated Sept. 10 at its location in WSU’s
Hughes Metropolitan Complex.
Named after Shocker stage legend Dick Welsbacher, professor emeritus and director emeritus of the WSU School of Theatre, the brand-new Welsbacher Black Box Theatre, located at 29th and Oliver in the WSU Metropolitan Complex, is set to open up more experimental opportunities for university productions this season.
Welsbacher, who arrived at the University of Wichita in 1958, was appointed director of theater two years later. As director of the program then headquartered in Wilner Auditorium, he added more productions, an experimental theater and a summer theater program.
In 1987, when theater and dance were combined into the WSU School of Performing Arts, he became chair of the school.
Welsbacher retired from WSU in 1991, after directing more than 150 productions and performing more than 200 roles. During his 33-year tenure at Wichita State, he championed talent, dedication, hard work, production value – and original experimentation, which is precisely the idea behind the newly renovated “black box” theater.
Dedication of the new theater space was celebrated Sept. 10, with the WSU College of Fine Arts and the School of Performing Arts hosting the event. The original Welsbacher theater at the metroplex had been dedicated in 1999.
The first play slated to be staged in the Welsbacher Black Box Theatre is “Something Slavic.”
Winner of the WSU School of Performing Arts National Playwriting Competition, this original script by Josh Brown, a sophomore at New York University, appears to be the perfect debut project for the experimental theater, which can be set up in a variety of configurations, including as theater-in-the-round.
Described as an “absurdist dark comedy,” Brown’s play will be directed by Judith Babnich, WSU theater professor, and carries an R rating. “Something Slavic” opens at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 30 and runs nightly through Dec. 3, with 2 p.m. performances on Dec. 3 and 4.
