After years of planning, hundreds of hours of meetings and months of construction, Fairhope High School now has the long-awaited Black Box Theatre. Many people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August 2008 to celebrate the county's first high school arts wing, the result of a partnership between Fairhope High School, the Baldwin County Board of Education and the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation
The classic black box theatre, funded by donations to FEEF, is an open performance space that will be used for intimate productions such as monologues, small plays, and poetry readings and larger productions that include musicals and Shakespeare.
“The black box was designed to be flexible and to allow a multitude of ways to accommodate platforms, risers and seating at the behest and imagination of the director and cast,” Sherilyn McNally, executive director of FEEF said. “The theatre will offer students and teachers many configurations for sets and stages allowing young actors to exercise their creativity.”
“The theater also includes a large array of girders above the stage from which to hang backdrops, lighting and curtains,” McNally added.
"The enthusiasm for this project from the Fairhope High administration has been awesome from the very beginning,” Andrea Shane, president of the FEEF board of directors said. “And the public’s support was overwhelming and greater than we ever anticipated. We are very proud to once again celebrate the arts in Fairhope, and we look forward to years of entertainment by local students.”
“The possibilities for this place are amazing and endless,” said Jodie Briggs, the new dance and drama teacher at Fairhope High School. “I am happy my students will have such a state of the art place in which to perform.”
"My hope is that the facility will be used to its greatest potential," Bob Callahan Jr., a member of the Baldwin County Board of Education said. "This theatre can be used for everything from drama productions, to music performances to evening poetry readings. It's the perfect complement to a fine arts wing, and gives students a venue in which to showcase their natural talents and what they learn in their classrooms.”
FEEF is continuing its campaign to enhance the multi-purpose theater. The public is invited to support the new theater through FEEF’s “Take a Seat!” campaign. For a $250 donation to FEEF, you can sponsor a chair in the FHS theatre and honor a friend, your family, an organization. All sponsored seats are fully tax deductible. For information contact FEEF at 928-3333.
As part of its mission to provide cultural enrichment opportunities for Fairhope public school students, The Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation (FEEF) is sponsored a musical which featured the talents of 40 Fairhope students, 4th through 9th grades. “Into the Woods” is the junior version of the popular Broadway production which debuted in 1987 and was nominated for several Tony awards. 
