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The black box theater is a relatively recent innovation,^{[citation needed]} consisting of a simple, somewhat unadorned performance space, usually a large square room with black walls and a flat floor. Such spaces are easily built and maintained, and are usually home to plays or other performances with very basic technical arrangements, such as limited sets, simple lighting effects, and an intimate focus on the story, writing, and performances rather than technical elements. The seating is typically composed of loose chairs on platforms, which can be easily moved or removed to allow the entire space to be adapted to the artistic elements of a production. Common floor plans include thrust stage, modified thrust stage, and arena.

Colleges and other theater training programs employ the black box theater^{[citation needed]} because the space is versatile and easy to change. Many theater training programs will have both a large proscenium theater, as well as a black box theater. Not only does this allow two productions to be mounted simultaneously, but they can also have a large extravagant production in the main stage while having a small experimental show in the black box.

Most older black boxes were built more like television studios, with a low pipe grid overhead. Newer black boxes typically feature catwalks or tension grids, the latter combining the flexibility of the pipe grid with the accessibility of a catwalk.

Black box theaters became popular and widespread particularly in the 1960s and 1970s,^{[citation needed]} during which low-cost experimental theater was being actively practiced as never before. Since almost any warehouse or open space in any building can be transformed into a black box, including abandoned cafés and stores, the appeal for nonprofit and low-income artists is high. The black box is also considered by many to be a place where more "pure" theater can be explored, with the most human and least technical elements being in focus.

The interiors of most black box theaters are, true to their name, painted black. The absence of color not only gives the audience a sense of "anyplace" (and thus allows flexibility from play to play or from scene to scene), it also allows individual lighting cues to be that much stronger.

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