Mission & History

Founded by theater et al in 2003, The Chocolate Factory supports the creation of new work in a variety of disciplines including theater, dance, music, multimedia and the visual arts. The Factory's 5,000 square foot facility is home to new work by the company's founding artists; and provides support to visiting artists in the form of dedicated access to space and technical equipment free of charge; marketing and press assistance; administrative support; and a guaranteed artist fee. Curated by Artistic Director Brian Rogers, the Visiting Artist Program (now in its 4th year) supports new work in a variety of formats including rehearsal residencies, full engagements, and multi-artist festivals.

The Chocolate Factory values the process of creation and the spirit of experimentation. The work of our founding artists and our dedication to supporting the creation of new work by Visiting Artists bears this out. theater et al, the company from which The Chocolate Factory emerged, was for many years an itinerant producing organization, renting theaters and rehearsal spaces by the hour. The Factory was founded in part to alleviate many of the challenges - lack of affordable space, lack of adequate time for creative and technical rehearsals, expensive technical equipment - typical of independent theater production in New York. The Factory's founding artists needed a space in which to create and present their work on their own terms, with full technical support, over an extended period of time. Our work with Visiting Artists is an extension of this principle.

Artists invited to work at The Chocolate Factory receive dedicated rehearsal and performance residencies and are encouraged to put our space and technical resources to use in imaginative ways, with very few practical limitations. To this end, our multi-use spaces are designed for maximum flexibility.

The work of the Factory's founding artists emphasizes multi-disciplinary collaboration - combining movement, music, video and text to devise a means of storytelling that is immediate, collage-like, highly visual, and dependent on new technologies. When successful, our work is not easily categorized as theater, dance, new music, or video art and is rather a thorough intermingling of these disciplines. By extension, our curatorial values when it comes to Visiting Artists leads us to work that exists across or between disciplines - work that requires new methods, more time, and a new kind of audience.

[1] Resident Artists

The creation of new work by our founding artists was the founding mission of theater et al (1999-2004) and is The Chocolate Factory's primary program activity. Under the leadership of founding artist and Artistic Director Brian Rogers, the company begins with a large-scale social or political question (in the case of our most recent project, 2 Husbands: the beginnings and ends of life), and develops a performance which attacks that question - using movement, music, video, and text - from as many disparate points of view as possible. The result is a collage of interweaving stories and scenarios which emphasize alternative or unpopular viewpoints, and which do not attempt to answer the question at hand so much as they provide a comprehensive illustration of that question, seen from many angles; speaking, hopefully, to the concerns of contemporary New Yorkers. Over a period of months, characters and scenarios are improvised, material is generated and discarded, and a performance gradually takes shape. Typically, 10-12 months (broken up into separate rehearsal periods of 4-6 weeks, with long gaps in-between for script and design development) are devoted to the creation of each new project. Each piece is given numerous public showings in various stages of development prior to its official opening. These showings provide us with direct audience feedback on the progress of the piece, which is then incorporated as rehearsals and development continue. In this sense, our production process is a social and creative event for artists and audience alike.

[2] Visiting Artists

When not in use for resident artist productions, The Chocolate Factory provides support to visiting artists in the form of dedicated access to our space and technical equipment, substantive creative residency periods, marketing assistance, administrative support, and a guaranteed artist fee. Our curated Visiting Artist program supports the creation of new theater, dance, music and multimedia performances in a variety of settings including early works-in-progress, full engagements of 1 - 4 weeks, and festivals of new work.

Space & Technical

The Chocolate Factory is a 5,000 square foot renovated industrial building. Detailed specs can be found here.

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Live Sh-- Alternative Presenter Fair

1/10 & 1/11 2009

THROW

February 17 2009, 7PM