Liberty opens Black Box Theater with suspenseful “Wait Until Dark”

• Liberty performs “Wait Until Dark,” thriller about a blind woman defending herself against three crooks trying to steal a cocaine-filled doll.
• “Wait Until Dark” is the grand opening of Liberty’s intimate Black Box Theater.

At some points in Liberty University’s performance of “Wait Until Dark,” the 1960s apartment set is showered in light from both overhead lights and the lamps that serve as part of the set.  During other parts, only a single match lights the set.  At other points during the show, the theater and set are cloaked in total darkness.

Light plays a silent but important role in “Wait Until Dark,” a play about a blind woman named Susy who must defend herself against three crooks. The criminals are trying to steal a heroin-filled doll from Suzy that had been given to her photographer husband by mistake.  The play, written by Frederick Knott, was made into a 1967 thriller movie of the same name starring Audrey Hepburn.

“There’s a part of the show that’s pitch black because it’s about this one lady who is blind, so when criminals are basically trying to get to her, she uses her disability to her advantage and she turns the lights out,” director Scott Hayes, dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, said.  “The audience gets to be part of the whole experience.”

Throughout the show, the suspense and buildup will keep the audience at the edge of their seats.

“(The audience) can definitely see a show that causes them to sit on the edge of their seats pretty much from Act 1,” said Laura Wingfield, the house and facilities manager.  “It’s definitely a suspenseful show and it keeps you guessing, and I think trying to, just like with Susy, see what’s in the head of the people who are on stage.”

Actor Judah Fox, who plays a thug named Mike Talman, enjoyed the intensity and suspense of the show himself.

“I’ve never been in a drama before,” Fox said.  “It’s been almost all comedies or musicals, so this was way different from anything I’ve ever been in, and I love it because of how intense it is.”

Following what Hayes calls a “shakedown performance” in May of the play “Stand Partners,” “Wait Until Dark” is the official grand opening of Liberty’s Black Box Theater, which provides an intimate setting to allow the audiences an up-close view of the play.

The Black Box Theater is situated in what used to be the indoor track.  The Department of Theater Arts was able to build it when the indoor track was moved and the School of Communication and Creative Arts decided to move its two departments from DeMoss Hall to Green Hall.

“When that whole move happened and this indoor track became available, we were able to carve out this piece, enlarge this shop, create a new costume shop, create the lobby, create this Blackbox space, and then also build a bunch of new studio arts classrooms and the collaborative space and television studios,” Hayes said.

The Department of Theater Arts desired the new theater because it would give the actors and technical crew experience in a small theater that translates well into work they will do after graduation.

“There’s lots of theaters all over the country where our actors and technicians will work that are smaller, like this,” Hayes said.  “We’ve been training them really, really well on the big stage, but for them to be fully trained, to be well trained, to go out in the world as ambassadors for Christ, as actors and technicians, it’s this space that they need to be familiar with. (Because of that), I was so pleased when the university granted the funds to be able to build (the Black Box Theater).”

Hayes believes the newly-opened Black Box Theater is the ideal location for this play because it gives students a small-theater feel, and the audience an up-close theater experience.

“In this particular play, you’re supposed to believe that you’re in a Greenwich Village apartment, so it has to look realistic,” Hayes said.  “You have to be able to buy the acting, but it also requires huge sound effects, lots of different light cues. It uses all of the special effects that you can do in this theater and yet expect it to feel like it’s happening right in front of you.”

With the new theater came new ways to work with seating, the set and technical aspects of the theater.

“(There’s) definitely a ton of new ways to try to figure out how to bring the same level of excellence that the Tower Theater brings to performances but without a lot of the commodities that a normal theater has, which is cool,” Wingfield said.  “It brings a much more down to earth, realistic feel when you’re in the Black Box, so that’s exciting.  I think that’s taken a lot of work to see if we can get the theater up and running.”
With a new venue to showcase its theatrical talent and enrich theater students academically, theater students can now perform unique shows like “Wait Until Dark” that might not work well on a larger stage, and Liberty students and faculty and Lynchburg locals can enjoy the unique performances.

“If anyone’s looking for kind of a thrill, I think they should come check this out,” Wingfield said.  “I think it’s a different show that we haven’t seen on Liberty’s stage in a while; it’s very much a thriller and very much a mystery.  It’s not the typical musical, and it’s not the typical straight show.”

Fox believes that once the suspense and thrill of the show are over, the audience will leave thinking about the themes of the power of light and human fortitude.

“Darkness cannot overcome the light, and even people who look and act the weakest are almost always the strongest,” Fox said.

“Wait Until Dark” opened Oct. 13 and runs through Oct. 22. Tickets are available online at the Department of Theater Arts’ webpage or call the box office at 434-582-7328 during the week or 434-582-2085 on the night of a performance.