BFA acting students (from left to right) Rylan Thomas, John Liam Jones, Leon Trautwein, Cole Bailey rehearsing for the Black Box performance series. Pictured at the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (DAVE GAUTHIER/ The University of Windsor)
By Lindsay Charlton
Dramatic arts students are delving into what it means to be free — and captive — through a set of immersive performances ranging from a trapped toy to the inner world of a medieval prisoner.
The production, opening this week, is the third instalment of the Black Box performance series. This student-led theatrical showcase brings together various voices in an intimate and collaborative production exploring a single theme.
“The students are taking on roles that they've never taken on before in their training, which is super exciting,” said instructor Laura Quigley of the School of Dramatic Arts.
“The class is brand new in terms of content for these students. The class consists of fourth-year BFA acting students. In this course, they are getting the chance to write, direct, design and consider all aspects of what it takes to make independent theatre, which is different from large-scale commercial theatre,” Quigley said.
“Independent theatre can be raw, experimental and always surprising. In Black Box, these students are emerging artists, almost finished with their studies, and I wanted to create a course that would help them consider what kind of work they want to make.”
Students in Quigley’s class started with a single prompt: “freedom.”
BFA acting students (from left to right) Rylan Thomas, John Liam Jones, Leon Trautwein, Cole Bailey rehearsing for the Black Box performance series. Pictured at the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (DAVE GAUTHIER/ The University of Windsor)
How they used that to shape their pieces was mostly up to them.
“It’s really fun to get a prompt. The tough part is working within the parameters,” said fourth-year drama student Reena Dyck, who also serves as assistant director. “But from a creative perspective, it helps shape the idea, and it’s been interesting to see where the students have taken it.”
The 14 performers had to work within specific creative constraints — the inverse of freedom, using the full theatre space, incorporating song and shaping their work to fit within a specific genre.
“For instance, we start talking to people in the class and hear that one person wants to do a musical, another wants to explore cave people and what freedom looks like to them, so now we have a musical that’s about freedom for cavepeople,” Dyck shared.
This style of performance has offered an exciting challenge from the director’s chair, she said.
“The best part of this experience has been that I’ve had the chance to work on so many different things, because I’m helping everyone. I’ve worked on a comedy, but also a devastating piece about domestic violence,” Dyck explained.
BFA acting students Leon Trautwein and Rose Malinowski rehearsing for the Black Box performance series. Pictured at the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (DAVE GAUTHIER/ The University of Windsor)
A curated selection of the class’s original works will transform the Hatch Studio Theatre with one free public performance on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m.
With each piece running five to 10 minutes, the eight selected works come together to shape a cohesive, surprising and immersive evening of theatre.
“The students working on these pieces have had such intense growth and come so far. They’re really proud of the work they’ve done,” Dyck said.
The pieces move between humour, tension and introspection, giving audiences a glimpse into the different ways students chose to explore the idea of freedom.
“All of these pieces, even the ones that seem silly, they all come from a vulnerable place.”
BFA acting students (from left to right) Rose Malinowski, Rylan Thomas, Kas Friesen, Patricia Arndt, Ever Maracle-Moore. Pictured at the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre in Windsor, Ont. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (DAVE GAUTHIER/ The University of Windsor)
The showcase reflects the strength and vibrancy of the arts on campus, with students continuing to create thoughtful work that pushes their craft in new directions.
“The arts are such an important way for humans to examine our world,” Quigley noted.
“I hope the wider university community comes to Black Box. It’s such a unique way to spend a Friday night. The work is playful, surprising and full of invention, and audiences will experience something fun and unexpected, and maybe even find connections to their own fields of study and to their lives.
“Art-making and witnessing art can build bridges in places like universities, where we often feel siloed. Black Box invites us to gather, to imagine and to see each other differently. Everyone is welcome!”
The class is also using the showcase as an opportunity to give back.
While the performance is free, students will be collecting donations for the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOHAC), which supports Indigenous youth and families in the region.
The community is invited to attend the performance, which takes place in the Hatch Studio Theatre in the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre on Friday, Nov. 28, at 7 p.m.