The Triangle Factory Fire Project

On March 25, 1911, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a fire ripped through the Triangle Waist Factory killing 146 people, mostly immigrant young women. The Triangle Factory Fire Project uses eyewitness accounts, court transcripts, and other archival material to create a dramatic moment-by-moment account of this historic fire and the social upheaval that followed. This powerful docu-drama paints a heartbreakingly clear picture of a disastrous day in American history and explores the human toll of such a tragedy.

Triangle Ensemble Statement

We, theater-makers and audience, meet as collaborators and global citizens to bring awareness to the plight of garment workers over a century ago and its parallels to today. The Triangle Factory of 1911 inspired the passage of labor and safety legislation that laid the foundation for the benefits we’ve come to expect: mandated fire drills, maximum occupancy, fire sprinklers/extinguishers in our workplaces, a forty-hour work week, and strong unions.

Though conditions have improved for most garment workers in the U.S., the working conditions for garment workers globally echo those of the Triangle Factory: unsafe working conditions and the exploitation of the vulnerable.

We believe that the people making our clothes have the right to earn a living wage, to work in a safe environment, and to be treated with dignity.

So, we ask -

Who is making our clothes?

How many hands touch our garments?

Is the low cost of our clothing worth the vulnerability of their lives?

Who pays the price for our clothing?