Tess Dworman

Performances will take place at The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City.

Everything Must Go is a dance theater work that emerges from satirical questioning into the consumption of experimental performance. It examines the ways in which capitalism provokes a savior complex in artists, urging us to demonstrate goodness amidst crisis. My investigation into persona and the solo improvisational form continues with this stark inhabitation of character and an inventory of feeling inside the power play between performer and audience. A teacher becomes a life coach becomes The Artist becomes your mom. The work lays bare the tangential renewal of live performance.

Choreographed and Performed by Tess Dworman. Co-performed by Sonya Gadet Molansky and Ned Riseley.

Everything Must Go was first presented by Pageant in November 2023.

This project was developed as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center Residency program. It was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

A Note On Ticket Prices

The Chocolate Factory Theater now offers a tiered ticketing price structure, with the goal of remaining accessible to every person who wishes to attend our events while acknowledging the very real value of the service – namely, artistic and administrative labor – that a ticket purchase represents; and adjusting for the realities of inflation and the ever-increasing cost of…everything.

We ask that you select the option that best reflects your individual circumstances. This is not a “pay what you wish” scenario; rather, it’s “pay as much as your circumstances allow”. For context: in the absence of outside funding, a true cost ticket to a Chocolate Factory performance would be $275.

Our tiered options are as follows:

1. $35 (base price – the equivalent of one hour of labor for a lead artist, performer, design collaborator or technician)
2. $20
3. $10
4. $50
5. $100
6. $275 (true cost ticket)

Our intention here is not to create walled gardens or tiers of access based on monetary status; we’re merely trying to make our practice – of paying artists, technicians and administrative staff a fair wage (more than 80% of our annual budget goes to labor, fyi) – more sustainable (or truthfully, less unsustainable), while remaining (we hope!) accessible and welcoming to all.

As a ticket buyer, you’ll receive the same experience regardless of the price you pay. It’s general admission for everyone.