SMALL SONGS By Brian Rogers To Be Presented At The Chocolate Factory Theater

The Chocolate Factory Theater concludes its Fall 2023 Season with the premiere of Small Songs, an album launch and performed auditory environment by Chocolate Factory co-Founder / Artistic Director Brian Rogers. Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.chocolatefactorytheater.org.

In his first major project since Screamers, an experimental feature film (which premiered at Abrons Arts Center in 2018, and was screened nationally throughout 2019), Brian Rogers continues his habit of interdisciplinary makeovers with Small Songs, a long form recording of textural synthesizer music.

In late 2019, while at an artist residency, Brian Rogers assembled more than 100 hours of audio material, recorded solo, generally late at night, via modular synthesizer. Throughout 2020 and 2021, these recordings were meticulously (and exhaustively) condensed and sequenced into twenty nine very short compositions (or “small songs”), which unfold as a kind of abstract, auditory, autofictional narrative of shifting interior states, informed by a month-long cross country road trip Rogers undertook, solo, in 2021. Writer and cultural critic Claudia La Rocco composed the song titles in the form of a 29 line poem; the recordings were mastered by Stephan Mathieu; and the album was pressed in a very limited edition of vinyl LP's which, due to a global vinyl shortage, only recently arrived.

For the public launch of Small Songs, Rogers and longtime collaborator Madeline Best will transform The Chocolate Factory into a multisensory listening environment centered around a custom designed and constructed hi fi speaker system and an array of LED light strips, surrounded by a series of intimate “salons” filled with sofas, carpets and comfortable chairs. Cocktails and natural wine will be served; and the album will be played, its contours amplified by, and reflected within, the Chocolate Factory's industrial architecture and a stark, subtly advancing lighting score.

Small Songs (the album) is composed, recorded and mixed by Brian Rogers; mastered by Stephan Mathieu; and features song titles by Claudia La Rocco, and cover art by Michael Reardon.

Small Songs (the listening event) features music and co-direction by Brian Rogers; and co-direction and Lighting Design by Madeline Best. Sound Engineer and Audiovisual Technologist: Mike Rugnetta. Object Design and Construction: Matt Shalzi. Poem performance by Claudia La Rocco. Sofa Whisperer: Joanna Levinger.

Brian Rogers is a director, video and sound artist, co-founder and artistic director of The Chocolate Factory Theater, which supports the creation of theater, dance, music and multimedia performances at its post-industrial facility in LIC, Queens. Since 1997, Brian has conceived and/or directed numerous large scale films and performances at The Chocolate Factory and elsewhere including Screamers (2018, Abrons Arts Center / 2019, Baryshnikov Arts Center / national tour), Hot Box (September 2012, co-presented with FIAF's Crossing The Line Festival / January 2013, PS122's COIL Festival / February 2013, EMPAC Center, Troy NY – supported by a MAP  Fund grant), the Bessie-nominated Selective Memory (July 2010, Mount Tremper Arts / September 2011, The Chocolate Factory / January 2011, PS122's COIL Festival) and the horror the horror (Movement Research Festival 2011, Abrons Arts Center / 2012). Brian recently composed the soundtrack for Shaun Iron & Lauren Petty's film Standing By: Gatz Backstage; and has collaborated as a sound and video artist with numerous experimental dance and theater artists in NY and elsewhere. In addition to his own work, Brian curates The Chocolate Factory's artistic programming (now in its 19thyear) which supports the work of more than 100 theater, dance, music and interdisciplinary artists each year.

 

The Chocolate Factory Theater is an artist-centered organization, built by and for artists.  Co-founders Sheila Lewandowski and Brian Rogers began making work together in 1995 and quickly saw the need for a creative home to support their work and the work of fellow experimental performance-based artists.  The Chocolate Factory therefore has grown and developed within and through a creative process that centers the development of new work, as guided by makers.

The Chocolate Factory Theater exists to encourage and support performing artists in their process of inquiry. We engage with a community of artists who challenge themselves and, in doing so, challenge us. We believe that by supporting the labor of artists and the public presentation of their work, we contribute to elevating New York City as a thriving and more equitable wellspring of ideas.

The Chocolate Factory embraces artistic practice as an integral part of the artist's whole life, an essential component of the life of our community and a key element of a larger national and international artistic dialogue. As such, we host artists as our equal partners with shared autonomy, trust and appreciation.

Since its founding in 2004, The Chocolate Factory Theater has supported the development and presentation of new work by a community of local, national and International Artists working in dance, theater, performance, and related practices. 

The Chocolate Factory Theater continues its pioneering commitment to addressing labor conditions within the independent performing arts community by paying all lead artists, performers, designers and technicians a fair hourly wage, on the books, for all rehearsal and production hours within our spaces.

An extensive archive of The Chocolate Factory's past performances is freely available at vimeo.com/chocolatefactory.

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