Quality Indie Theater is What's Being Made at the Factory

In Manhattan, there’s Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway.

Here in Boston, we have the Theater District, the BCA and then a handful of indie venues. The Theater District seems mainly focused on family fodder while the BCA concerns itself with more subversive work. But the independent groups, the equivalent of ‘Off Off Broadway’ venues, aren’t burdened with a need to cater. It’s a much more open-ended approach to theater programming. You might call it ‘fringe.’

“Our mission is to provide affordable theatre to both enthusiastic patrons as well as small theatre companies producing honest, small-scale performances,” Greg Jutkiewicz told me during a recent conversation. Jutkiewicz is the in-house lighting designer, sound designer, master electrician and overall Grand Poobah at the Factory Theatre.

A little history: for those yet to be initiated, the Factory Theatre is located inside the (the Piano Factory) at 791 Tremont Street. When it was originally finished in 1854, the Jonas Chickering Pianoforte, as it was then called, was the second largest building in the world. It was surpassed only by the United States Capitol. It was also the first structure to ever combine all the aspects of piano manufacture in one spot.

Jutkiewicz has been working on productions in the Tremont Street space since 1999, through its previous lifetimes as the Threshold Theatre and the Devanaughn Theatre. In 2007 he took over the 49-seat black box room and gave it its current name.

“I really believe The Factory Theatre is the most intimate, unusual, charming, affordable and accessible theatre in Boston,” he told me.

“Part of the charm is the ‘hidden’ factor. While most small theatre goers know where it is and how to get in, most newcomers have trouble finding it. Many residents don’t even know it exists! We really are a theatre free of all that corporate red-tape that you find in venues run by larger organizations."

But apparently there’s a demand for indie theater in Boston since the Factory has kept increasingly busy of late.

“I’m really jazzed at the growth the theatre has seen in the last few years,” Jutkiewicz said. “There are shows every single weekend, and most last 2-3 weeks before the next one comes in.  There are very few ‘dark’ weeks left throughout the year.”

The Factory Theatre is home to four resident indie stage companies: Whistler in the Dark, 11:11 Theatre, Happy Medium Theatre, and Counter-Productions Theatre Company. Jutkiewicz expressed particular enthusiasm for an upcoming project that brings Whistler in the Dark together with Jamaica Plain’s Mill 6 Collaborative entitled “Stories, Fables and Lies” which is said to explore, “… two very different plays about the power and the danger of the stories we tell.”

Specifically, Mill 6 is presenting Mary Jett Parsley’s “The Monster Tales” while Whistler will perform Wallace Shawn’s “Aunt Dan and Lemon.”

Jutkiewicz is also looking forward to the annual FeverFest fundraiser. The week-long festival of plays runs in August and directly benefits the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston, which encompasses most of the companies that perform shows at the Factory, resident and otherwise.

The space also boasts an art gallery, which is a completely separate entity from the theater. Although not many Craft Guild residents perform in the Factory Theatre productions, the building is now largely inhabited by career artists, a number of whom use the gallery space to show their work.

For more information about the Factory Theatre, visit the venue website or check out them out on facebook.