INFO PLEASE: Czech Black Box Troupe

[Gary Chambers]

   A friend of mine who is a retired graphic arts prof.,
has told me about a theatre troupe from Czechoslovakia
which he saw in London, England, in the early to mid
1950's.

   The troupe was quite well known at the time.  It was
called The Black Box.  He feels it probably toured in
North America as well.

   My interest in this troupe has to do with its use of
multimedia images as part of a live performance.  The way
my professor friend describes their performances, there
were times the audience had trouble discerning what was
live action, and what was a projected film image.

   For example, he remembers one incident, in which a live
actor threw a ball. The ball travelled across the stage
as a video image, and was caught by another live actor
at the other side.  He cannot recall any visible break
between the live and the projected images of the ball
in flight.

   I am very interested in techniques like this, that have
been used, or continue to be used, to integrate multimedia
images in live performances.  If anyone can tell me more
about The Black Box, or where I might learn more about
their early multimedia techniques on stage, I would be
most appreciative.

   I'm also interested in other people who are working
in this field.  So if you know of some plays or dramatists
breaking new creative ground with multimedia, I'd love to
collect a list of their titles and names.

  My e-mail address is: gchambers at upanet.uleth.ca

Gary Chambers

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Gary Chambers            e-mail: GCHAMBERS at upanet.uleth.ca
Public Access Internet
The University of Lethbridge