Since 2012, Blackbox Cph has provided designers, players, and curious visitors with a space to explore the borders between art, theatre, performance, and roleplaying games. And now it’s time to go again!

Blackbox Cph returns January 18-20, 2024, and we’re now accepting proposals for the programme. Whether you are an experienced or a potential designer, we encourage you to send in your ideas. Especially if it involves – or could involve – the use of theatrical light and sound.

We have no specific themes this year, so feel free to let your ideas run wild.

As an inspiration, we can mention that Blackbox larps often borrow from established genres – using and reshaping themes and tools from media such as film, tv-series, and theater.

Blackbox larps can be delightfully silly, camp, satirical, playful, fun, and/or deeply serious – and have been used beautifully to create scenes of the historical past and emotionally impactful stories. They’re a space of exploration where the rules of realism are easily bent, and often subtly reflect and re-interpret cultural tendencies, trends, and issues.

Some larps at Blackbox Cph have experimented with audience involvement or the use of NPCs. Most larps are created for the players only – but feel free to design towards including other types of participants as well.

Last but not least, Blackbox Cph has access to a large variety of high-quality technical equipment, managed by our excellent tech team. This gives you the opportunity to use light, shadow, sound, projection, and even smoke to create larps that are experienced by all senses.

Our tech team will be able to help you incorporate these possibilities in your larp, so please don’t hesitate to dream up ideas.

Ground rules:

• The Larp + workshop + breaks + debriefing + clean-up = Max. 4 hours in total.
• The participants should be able to play without having prepared anything in advance.
• Our concept involves the possibility of players buying a ticket up until the larp starts, and your larp should allow for a flexible number of players, as we cannot guarantee a fixed number of participants. Your design should accommodate at least 6 players, and the maximum number of attendees in our biggest room is about 30, while our smaller stages are ideal for larps with fewer players.
• Blackbox Cph is primarily a festival for premiere larps, so we will prioritise original larps when creating the programme. You’re still welcome to submit reruns, and we usually have 1 or 2 reruns each year.

For more inspiration, you can also read these guidelines.

Send in your pitch by Sunday, November 12 using this form. You can make changes later, so don’t worry about getting all the details perfect for now. Just make sure your idea is clear and that you’ve thought about practical design from the start.

You can expect an answer around November 19.
Once your concept has been chosen for the programme, you’ll be asked to write a short larp description for use on our website and to send in an illustration, which you’ll need to have the rights to. You’ll also be assigned a stage and the dedicated support of one of our technicians. Members of the Blackbox organising group will be available for design guidance and support throughout the process.

Although the questions are in English, you’re free to answer in Scandinavian.

Please note: As we don’t want the written word to limit creativity, you are welcome to send in your larp idea as a voice or video clip, as long as you still answer all the questions. In that case, please send it to ninawesterdahl@gmail.com.
If you have any questions regarding the submission feel free to write ninawesterdahl@gmail.com.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Kindly – The Blackbox Cph team