Theatre AACC will produce four plays entirely written, directed and acted by students starting this fall.

Theatre AACC will recruit students this semester to act as the directors and stage managers for a Black Box Series of plays, which will show on Feb. 23 and 24 in Humanities 112.

Any students can submit an original script, lasting 10 to 15 minutes, to the program’s advisers, who will pick the four plays. The deadline to submit scripts is Dec. 22.

“This is really, you know, AACC theater students’ opportunity for the shows to be entirely their own,” Sean Urbantke, one of the program’s advisers, said.

The program gets its name from black box theater, which is usually performed in small venues with black-painted walls. Black box shows typically use fewer props and simpler sets.

Urbantke, a theater professor, said the advisers picked the name “black box” for the program because “it implies experimentation, it implies taking a risk. It implies, like, fringe-style theater or working on a shoelace budget.”

Urbantke added, “You get to make those decisions about ‘what do you need to tell a story?’ What kind of elements are absolutely necessary?”

Madeline Austin, one of the program’s advisers, said she hoped the shows would shine “a light on all this talent that’s in Anne Arundel” Community College.

“We’re just trying to support and give budding theater artists … room to experiment and take risks in a safe space,” Austin, a theater professor, said.

The student directors will hold auditions for actors for the four plays at the start of the spring term.

Urbantke said the program would “become a yearly thing.”

“We’ll go year by year,” Urbantke said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Fourth-year transfer studies student Nathan Garcia, who will play Juror No. 3 in Theatre AACC’s mainstage production, “Twelve Angry Jurors,” in Nov., said he wants to be a part of the black box program.

Austin said every student can benefit from participating in the black box series, not just theater majors.

It “helps in so many ways,” Austin said. ”Being able to work as an ensemble, work under pressure, work as a team. Learn about how to articulate, [or how] to get up and perform something in front of a live audience. … Those are all skills you need anyway, for any job.”

Urbantke said any students interested in participating in the black box shows should send an email to him or Austin.