Erin Rogers - Composer/saxophonist

Through stories, songs and scenes, this new work explores the reactions of isolated individuals in the wake of a devastating storm that affects them in drastically different ways. A woman crushed under a building, a bureaucrat from FEMA experiencing victimhood for the first time, a musician channeling his energy into a relief concert, and a shop owner insisting on rebuilding storm after storm…. In short vignettes, the opera captures ordinary people thrown out of their “comfort zone,” while addressing issues such as the voyeurism of storms, the anxiety of privilege, and the emotional distance humans tend to keep between themselves and disasters.

From Sep. 24-27, thingNY took over the 50,000 sq. ft. renovated factory of the Knockdown Center to create a hypnotizing live sonic landscape of voices, acoustic sounds and electronics surging through the space. The audience moved into five spare scenes to experience the songs and stories of six characters as they grappled with the inevitability of storms and feelings of empathy, guilt and grief.

Created and performed by
Gelsey Bell, Andrew Livingston, Paul Pinto, Erin Rogers, Dave Ruder, and Jeffrey Young

Directed by 
Ashley Tata
Sound 
Daniel Neumann
Video design
Brad Peterson
Lighting design
Sarah Abigail Hoke-Brady
Set design
Jesse Greenberg

“thingNY’s latest production This Takes Place Close By has resurrected that sound world with a stunningly effective mélange of singing, acting, electronics, and extended vocal techniques, bringing its audience poignantly back to the exigencies and devastation of the flood.”

“Scene by scene, I was consistently caught up in a conviction that I have rarely, if ever, seen an encyclopedic array of experimental effects so intimately linked with their expressive potential.”
-Jennifer Stock, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN

“One of New York’s most daring young opera companies.”
-Critics’ Pick, TIME OUT NEW YORK

“…provacative, often hilarious… the six-piece ensemble lead the audience from one set to another, creating a surround-sound atmosphere, voices and instruments leaping unexpectedly from the shadows. The live electroacoustic score – a pulsing, rather horizontal, minimalistic theme and variations – is gripping and often reaches a white-knuckle intensity, and the distance between the performers has no effect on how tightly they play it.”
​-LUCID CULTURE