Brian Rogers' HOT BOX Returns as Part of PS122's COIL Festival, Now thru 1/15

As part of the eighth edition of the COIL festival, Performance Space 122 (PS122) and The Chocolate Factory present a return engagement of Hot Box, from Brian Rogers. Hot Box is a loud, dark, drunken live performance (and endurance challenge) that takes inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo-particularly the extreme physical trials the actors underwent in order to create a genuine experience on screen. Hot Box features dancer Madeline Best and non-performer Rogers, taking center stage in his own work for the first time.

Performances of Hot Box will take place today, January 12-15, 2013 (see schedule above) at The Chocolate Factory. The running time is approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. The Chocolate Factory is located at 5-49 49th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. Tickets, which are $15, are available online at www.ps122.org/coil and by phone at 212.352.3101.

Created as a companion piece to Rogers' critically-acclaimed Selective Memory (2010/11), Hot Box begins hours before the audience enters the crypt-like basement space at The Chocolate Factory. Rogers and Best will enact a strenuous series of physical tasks, part choreography and part exercise, while drinking alcohol. Much alcohol. When the audience arrives at 8pm, Rogers and Best will be considerably drunk and extremely exhausted. Then the performance will begin.

Divided into two viewing areas, the audience will witness real-time projected images of Rogers and Best via a live video feed. Using live interactive video technology as its primary vehicle of expression, Hot Box expands Selective Memory's use of tightly choreographed pans, zooms, and cuts. Disjointed sounds will accompany the images to create a violent, noisy, and chaotic sense of disorder. Within this frenzied environment, Rogers and Best will attempt to create a focused stillness, a place where the audience can view a body coated with an intense physical and emotional residue. At some point, the original, extreme, physical actions, and drinking will begin again and the performers' stillness will try to exist amidst the mayhem.

Hot Box premiered at The Chocolate Factory in September 2012 as part of FIAF's Crossing the Line festival.

In addition to creating original work since 1997, Brian Rogers co-founded and serves as artistic director of The Chocolate Factory Theater, which is "one of the most vital arts organizations in Queens," (The New York Times, 2010) and "has become a leader among a new generation of scrappy, homespun artist-run spaces and is viewed by some as the spiritual heir to bigger, more entrenched institutions." (The New York Times, 2010).

Brian Rogers is a director, video artist, and the artistic director of the Obie and Bessie Award-winning Chocolate Factory Theater, which supports the creation of theater, dance, music and multimedia performances at its 5,000 sq. ft. facility in Long Island City, Queens. Since 1997, Rogers has conceived and/or directed numerous large scale performances at The Chocolate Factory and elsewhere including the Bessie-nominated Selective Memory (2010/11) redevelop (death valley) (2009), 2 Husbands (2007), Gun Play (2006), Audit (2004), and Fundamental (2002).

In addition to his own work, Rogers curates The Chocolate Factory's Visiting Artist Program (now in its 7th year), which supports the work of more than 100 theater, dance, music and multimedia artists each yeaR. Rogers co-founded The Chocolate Factory in 2005 with Sheila Lewandowski who serves as executive director.

As a video, sound and performance artist, Rogers has collaborated with numerous artists, including Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty (the horror the horror, Movement Research Festival 2010, Abrons Arts Center 2011), Aynsley Vandenbroucke (Danspace Project, March 2011), Tara O'Con (Danspace Project, January 2009), Jillian Sweeney (September 2009), and the Movement Research Spring 2008 Festival (24x4x4). ). Brian will have his first solo exhibition at Ventana 244 Gallery in November 2012.

Rogers has served as a panelist and/or recommender for numerous organizations including NYSCA, Queens Council on the Arts, ART/NY Nancy Quinn Fund, DTW Outer/Space, the A.W.A.R.D. Show, NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs, Fresh Tracks, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MacArthur Foundation, Made Here, Creative Capital and others; and is a graduate of Bennington College.

The Obie Awarding-winning Chocolate Factory Theater values the process of creation and the spirit of experimentation; and is a leading incubator for new developments in experimental performance. The Factory's 5,000 square foot facility is home to new work by the company's Founding Artists; and provides support to over 100 Visiting Artists each year. The work of The Chocolate Factory's founding artists emphasizes multi-disciplinary collaboration combining movement, music, video and text to devise a means of storytelling that is immediate, collage-like, highly visual, and dependent on new technologies. When successful, the work is not easily categorized as theater, dance, new music, or video art and is rather a thorough intermingling of these disciplines. By extension, its curatorial values when it comes to Visiting Artists leads to work that exists across or between disciplines-work that requires new methods, more time, and a new kind of audience. www.chocolatefactorytheater.org

Performance Space 122 (PS122) provides incomparable experiences for audiences by presenting and commissioning artists whose work challenges boundaries of live performance. PS122 is dedicated to supporting the creative risks taken by artists from diverse genres, cultures and perspectives. We are an innovative local, national and international leader in contemporary performance.

Beginning in 2011, PS122 embarked on one of the most unusual and potentially radical shifts in its history, including a re-structuring of artist support, a business model overhaul, and the renovation of our building. As PS122's East Village home undergoes a much-needed interior renovation supported primarily by the City of New York, DCA and DDC, PS122's core activity continues to be providing audiences with contemporary live performance.

For over 3 decades, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the cultural community. Under the curatorial vision of Vallejo Gantner (Artistic Director 2005 - present) PS122 has developed a set of programs designed to re-establish the value of live performance, provide singular experiences for audiences that inspire critical thinking, and sustain the creative process for artists throughout their career. Largely in partnership with peer organizations, PS122 currently presents artists in all disciplines in spaces all over the city during an annual fall & spring season and COIL festival in January.

In addition to the commissioning and presenting of artists from NYC across the US, and around the globe, PS122 has increased our activity off the stage to provide audiences with a variety of access points and context for the work on stage. These activities include both talkbacks with the artists as well as in depth conversations that bring together luminaries from non-arts disciplines to discuss a variety of topics including everything from religion, to migration, to queer real estate and cultural diplomacy. PS122 encourages the asking of questions and debate of contemporary society's issues in both artistic practice and audience experience.

For more information, visit ps122.org, or find the organization on Twitter: @PS122 and Facebook: www.facebook.com/ps122.

Photo Credit: Paula Court

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