Anne Barnard, NY Times, January 23, 2009

The Chocolate Factory Theater unveils its experimental performances in the shrewdly chosen locale of Long Island City, Queens: post-industrial enough to lure Manhattan culture mavens in search of grit, yet reassuringly just a single subway stop from Grand Central Station.

That is, unless the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is working on the tracks.

A few weeks ago, as the theater directors worked on a new show that opens Feb. 12, they learned that their section of the No. 7 line, Queens's lifeline to Manhattan, would be closed on weekends through early March. The shutdown of four stops - Grand Central and three Long Island City stations - cuts off the most direct link between Times Square and the Queensboro Plaza hub, marooning Long Island City riders and complicating many commutes between Queens and Midtown.

M.T.A. shuttle buses will run from the Long Island City stops to Queensboro Plaza, where riders can take the N line to Manhattan (and with a bit of a walk to transfer, the E), but the trip to Grand Central, ordinarily about five minutes, can now take closer to 40. And the theater's founders know from experience that the slightest complication is enough to scare away 50 percent of their audiences, who were not that confident about finding their way to Queens in the first place.

"Part of how this neighborhood is being sold is on its convenience," said Sheila Lewandowski, the theater's executive director, who has lived in Long Island City for 11 years. "You have to do maintenance. But there's no forward thinking that includes the community. If I knew a year ago, we could have rescheduled our opening."

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