ELE↓↑TOR

Title: ELE↓↑TOR
Writer/Composer: Chris Chappell
Director: Patrice Miller
Venue: The Brick, Brooklyn, NY
Producer(s): Tux & Tom Productions, The Brick
Actors: Justin R.G. Holcomb*, Bob Laine, Patrick Andrew Jones, Bill Weeden*
Voice-Over: Jeff Lewonczyk, Douglas MacKrell, Victoria Miller, Paul Murillo


Synopsis: Through immersive sound design and music, ELE↓↑TOR transforms the stage into a dangerously malfunctioning elevator making its way to the 80th floor of the Empire State Building. The original production coincided with the centenary of the Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo’s unveiling of his “intonarumori” noise generators at Modena’s Teatro Storchi in June 1913, a signal event in the history of experimental music and sound design.

ELE↓↑TOR follows three hapless passengers on a vertiginous and bewildering journey in which soporific Muzak, Industrial Age machinery, and the ominous echoes of the elevator shaft all vie for dominance of the sonic space. The result is a disturbing reminder of both our dependence on and our incomprehension of the technologies that drive the modern world.

ELE↓↑TOR was first presented as part The Brick's soundscape festival in June, 2013.