Chocolate Factory

Chocolate Factory

549 49th Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101
718-482-7069

EVENTS

DONATE

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.

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.

Source: www.chocolatefactorytheater.org