Support The Chocolate Factory Theater

Help us to reach our goal of $30,000 by December 31!

Donors at the $150 level or above are eligible to receive a copy of our limited edition book Don’t Look Back: The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2004-2021!

Donors at the $150 level or above are eligible to receive a copy of our limited edition book Don’t Look Back: The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2004-2021.

If the last twelve months have taught me anything, it’s this: nothing stays the same, ever. I suspect you can relate to this, because you knew it already. Change is constant, like the weather; it just keeps coming. It’s also scary as hell, which is its own kind of constant, because change is inseparable from risk.

Well, artists – and those who endeavor to support them (and, in my case, both) – know a thing or two about risk. We have one job: to stand at the cliff’s edge, and jump, and only THEN ask if anyone remembered to bring the parachute. We punch the clock and return to this task, day after day, and in so doing we contribute to the vitality of this city (at the very least, we keep it interesting!) and help the world to turn.

This has been a year of colossal change for everyone, including us: we said goodbye to our home of seventeen years, in style. We threw wide the doors to our new space (which we own!) and welcomed audiences again – a glorious and surreal undertaking. We commissioned big projects; employed dozens of artists; and launched new local, national and international partnerships. So much to be grateful for, and challenged by.

We’ve been doing this work for eighteen years. Whether that is cause for celebration, or alarm, is anybody’s guess. My money’s on door #1.

The Chocolate Factory is small, and because it is small it can be flexible, and because it is flexible it can bend to meet artists where they are, when they get there, without breaking. This is important. Its modesty of scale belies the unapologetically immodest ambitions of the artists who give everything they have, and can imagine, to the possibility, and inevitability, of risk.

Because The Chocolate Factory is small, it cannot survive without the support of individuals like you. Please consider a year end gift of any size that feels meaningful.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In 2021, we:

Commissioned new projects by Sibyl Kempson, Kristen Kosmas, Stephanie Acosta, Aya Ogawa, AUNTS, and luciana achugar;

Hosted creative residencies by Yanira Castro, Matt Shalzi and Millie Kapp, and Angie Pittman;

Launched partnerships with Abrons Arts Center, Flux Factory, ISSUE Project Room, Japan Society, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, On The Boards, Onassis USA and PICA;

Completed the design process for the future renovation of our new permanent facility;

Celebrated the closing of our 49th Avenue Space;

In Spring 2022, James Allister Sprang, Justin Allen, Jon Kinzel, Justin Cabrillos, Donna Uchizono, Laurie Berg, Abigail Levine, Larissa Velez-Jackson and Martita Abril will receive creative residencies and/or premiere new works at our new permanent home;

With major support from the Lambent Foundation, we are now paying all lead artists, performers, designers and technicians a fair hourly wage for all residency weeks within The Chocolate Factory’s spaces.