In the fall of 1983, Steve and Tricia Crawley put a notice in the Mesquite newspaper inviting any interested persons to a meeting at their home to start a community theater in Mesquite. Approximately six people came that first night, including a friend or two of the Crawleys. Tricia Crawley provided the artistic leadership of the fledgling group, being our resident actress, and Steve marshaled the other members to raise funds, find rehearsal and performance space, and get the word out that Mesquite now had a community theater. They also made flats, scrounged props and costumes, recruited directors and actors, and tried harder to raise money. The bylaws to make Mesquite Community Theater a nonprofit corporation were signed on January 24, 1984. The first rehearsal space was the fellowship hall of a local church. This church also loaned the sanctuary on Friday and Saturday nights for performances. This meant the set had to be built every Thursday night and torn down after the performance on Saturday night. There was a nightmare of an old light board that worked sometimes and lights on two opposing poles that resulted in maddening shadows on stage. This is how the first play, EAT YOUR HEART OUT was produced. Later the auditorium at Mesquite High School was rented (some of us still remember the flying roaches backstage) for wonderful plays such as HARVEY and BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE. In those days it was thought important to have an audience for dress rehearsals, so Senior Centers members were invited free of charge. These were sometimes the biggest audiences of the run. Then the theater was back to performing in churches, except for a wonderful time when we rented the abandoned church owned by the City of Mesquite, now used by Mesquite Social Services. The theater group had to build the stage and risers, and borrow hard chairs every week, but they were getting pretty good at both building and borrowing. Then more churches and building and tearing down sets every week of the run. The theater tried to buy an old tumbledown building, planning to renovate it, but the City condemned the building--which was probably just as well. After that the theater was a storefront on Galloway. It was never a very comfortable space, but a more suitable, permanent home could not be found. At last some of our prayers were answered when the city bought an old hospital, renovated one part to be our Black Box Theater, and built the rest as the Mesquite Arts Center. In 1996 the lights came up on our first season in our brand new theater. This is where we perform today. Throughout these past years the Black Box Theater and it's merry band of actors, directors, producers and technicians has gained a reputation for maintaining high production standards and presenting quality plays season after season. They and the theater have received accolades from the theatre going public as well as much of the Metroplex acting community.