About the HBB

The HopKins Black Box (HBB) is a not-for-profit experimental theatre and performance lab classroom managed b the Performance Studies area in the Department of Communication Studies at LSU. Established by Dr. Mary Frances HopKins in 1992, the space is dedicated to providing students and faculty with a place to ask questions, unimpeded and with passion, through the practice of live performance.

The HBB plays host to a full slate of undergraduate and graduate courses in performance studies as well as an annual season of public performances. Our course curriculum addresses four main trajectories in performance studies: everyday life and cultural performance, stage adaptations of texts and other materials, the avant-garde and performance art, and the history, theory, and practice of film and video.

Our public performances range from informal workshop presentations, to performance showcases highlighting classroom work, to multi-media installations, to fully staged scripts written or adapted by the performer or director, to academic and professional artists/scholars in residence.