(A)loft Modulation

Written by Jaymes Jorsling | Directed by Christopher McElroen

Performances began September 26, 2019 | the american vicarious | NYC

the american vicarious | Artistic Director: Christopher McElroen | Producing Director: Erica Laird | Executive Director: Tony Micocci

Scenic Design: Troy Hourie, Costume Design: Elivia Bovenzi, Lighting Design: Becky Heisler McCarthy, Sound Design: Andy Evan Cohen, Video Design: Adam J. Thompson, Music Director/Band Leader: Jonathan Beshay

Featuring: Kevin Cristaldi, Spencer Hamp, Charlie Hudson III, Elisha Lawson, Eric Miller, Buzz Roddy, PJ Sosko, Christina Toth & Julia Watt

The Loft Band: Jonathan Beshay (saxophone), Kayvon Gordon (drums), Adam Olszewski (bass)

  • "Scintillating, magical and transporting" - Broadway World

  • "It looks and sounds terrific" - The New Yorker

  • "You should try not to miss this unique theatre experience" - Theater Pizzazz

  • “(A)loft Modulation, unleashes Smith’s story from linear time, changes the names to poeticize the innocent, and blasts it full of jazz, all the while exploring what it means to be an American, and what it means, simply, to be.” -OffOffOnline

2020 AUDELCO Nominations:

Best Set Design: Troy Hourie

Best Sound Design: Andy Evan Cohen

Featured Actor: Charlie Hudson III

Featured Actor: Elisha Lawson

Inspired by Sam Stephenson's The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965

In January 1955 W. Eugene Smith, a celebrated photographer at Life magazine, quit his longtime well-paying job in search of greater freedom and artistic license. Two years later, in 1957, he moved into a dilapidated, five-story loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue in New York City’s wholesale flower district. The building was a late-night haunt of some of the biggest names in jazz—Charles Mingus, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk—and countless fascinating, underground characters. From 1957 to 1965, Smith exposed 1,447 rolls of film at the loft, making roughly 40,000 pictures. He wired the building like a surreptitious recording studio and made 1,740 reels (4,500 hours) of audiotape, capturing hundreds of musicians, icons and obscure figures alike.

(A)loft Modulation traces the roiling obsessions of the artists in the building against the backdrop of the social chaos growing in American culture at large.