We decided to give it a shot, but not tell the newspaper’s management about our plans. The grip of the media crisis had only just begun to ease, and the threshold for starting new ventures was still high. We wanted to move rapidly and lightly, as if we were a feisty internal start-up within a large corporation, in the spirit of experimentation. We didn’t want to waste time fine-tuning something that would be dismissed as a far-fetched fantasy. Our work evolved into that of an undercover strike force, with us gathering in secret to fine-tune the concept, form a working group, and explore ideas. The Black Box’s fundamental concept was to transport our publication to the theater stage. We began looking for a venue after we had decided on our plan. Mika Myllyaho, the revered director of Finland’s National Theatre, was immediately enthused: “Great idea, let’s do it!” he exclaimed. In the spring of 2016, we reserved the theatre’s little stage for three evenings. The time has arrived to propose our proposal to the editors of the newspaper. Fortunately, when we explained our plan to editor-in-chief Päivi Anttikoski, her eyes lit up and she told us, “Go for it!” We had no directions or manual to follow, so it was a journey of trial and error, and at times, blind faith. We put the tickets on sale a month before our first concert.
