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It's a huge leap for an actor or director to go from working on other people's productions to starting up his or her own company. And frankly, while putting on a show can be fun, there's a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy that comes with running a company.

 is a new company in town that offers to take on the business side of theater, and leave the artists free to do what they do best - the art.

Leigha Horton and Adam Whisner in The Peanut Butter Factory production "Gruesome Playground Injuries"

According to co-founder Christopher Kehoe, The Peanut Butter Factory was actually the name of a stillborn improv team out of

Then Kehoe collaborated with director Natalie Novacek on another show. They used The Peanut Butter Factory name because it was easier to market than "presented by Natalie Novacek and Christopher Kehoe."

After a third production the name stuck, and Kehoe says they realized they had a sort of theater company, but it was more of a straw-man placeholder for whenever they were up to a full production. And what was wrong with that?

Kehoe adds - and recognizes he could catch hell for saying it - that artists make lousy administrators:

Kehoe says this model allows artists to produce work without getting tied down to a long-term commitment. And he's careful to insist that the staff of The Peanut Butter Factory are not there to critcize the work - they're just there to smooth the bumps in the road on the way to getting it onstage an in front of an audience.

closing of Theatre de la Jeune Lune in 2008

, which sent shockwaves through the theater community. Kehoe says while the closing was unfortunate, the fact is that nobody died, and almost all of those talented artists continue to work in the Twin Cities today.

The Peanut Butter Factory's latest production, "

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The Peanut Butter Factory is a new company in town that offers to take on the business side of theater, and leave the artists free to do what they do best - the art.

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