Who Are We?
What Have We Even Done?
Our Mission
The Factory Theater delivers unexpected, unapologetic theatrical experiences through original works forged and assembled by our shameless ensemble.
Our Commitment
The Factory Theater strives to put all artists at the forefront of any decision we make, with a focus on ensuring every person feels supported, valued, and safe. The IDEA committee serves to uplift, mediate, and foster equity for all who work with us. We will continue to educate ourselves and stand in support of underrepresented groups and advocate for greater inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in the Chicago storefront theatre community.
IDEA Committee
We do not tolerate bigotry in any form at The Factory Theater. This includes, but is not limited to: Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Sizeism, Ageism, Homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia (we all know these are not legitimate phobias), any ‘Othering’ practice. We also do not tolerate harassment or retaliation or any kind.
The Land We Stand On
We acknowledge that we are on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi nations. We offer respect and gratitude to these and all Indigenous Peoples of Illinois who suffered greatly so that we could grow from the seeds of these first American storytellers.
Generative AI Statement
Generative AI is an inherently unethical tool, designed to put profits before people. Developed and trained using creative works without the consent of the original artists, these platforms spew out hollow, soulless works devoid of any genuine insight or artistic merit. The processing power required to produce these shallow, substandard strings of words and pictures extract a heavy toll from the environment.
The Factory Theater rejects the use of generative AI in any of our works, considering it incompatible with the creative arts. Writers who use ChatGPT to develop their scripts will not have their work produced on The Factory’s stage. Designers who use Midjourney can look for work elsewhere. Vendors using Claude as part of their production pipeline will be rejected in favor of others with a functioning moral compass.
The Factory Theater will not use any AI tools in textual or visual communications, including marketing materials, donor outreach, and internal messaging. We will never use AI tools for grant applications or reports, and we will not consent to the use or any of our artistic or administrative work for the training of and Large Language Model (LLM).
Some LLM/AI-based tools can be used legitimately for accessibility purposes (e.g. text-to-speech functions for the visually impaired). The Factory may use said tools to provide reasonable accommodations for artists and patrons to ensure that our physical and virtual spaces remain inclusive.
At the Factory, we take the privacy of our patrons and partners very seriously. Circumstances may require us to collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from ticket holders, donors, or artists who work with us. The Factory Theater will never sell gathered PII to any third party or feed any such information into any AI tool.
