Empty Sky … The Rising
September 12th, 2005
I hope everyone took some time yesterday to remember and reflect on the events of four years ago. I was fortunate to spend the afternoon attending a performance of “Empty Sky … The Rising” at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. Described as “a 9/11 dance theater experience performed to eleven songs from The Rising by Bruce Springsteen,” the production was conceived and choreographed by Bob Boross, with proceeds to benefit The Memoria Project of Highlands, New Jersey.
It was a very well done production, extremely moving in places, joyous in others, and Bob did his source material proud — not an easy task, by any measure. The biggest disappointment was that more people didn’t see it: The theater at yesterday’s matinee was less than half full. What a shame. Even so, this deserves to become an annual performance tradition somewhere, somehow.
October 25th, 2005 at 8:53 pm
Hello,
This is Bob Boross, choreographer for Empty Sky…The Rising. Thanks for the kind words. You are right on all counts. The performance was wonderful, and yes, there should have been more people in attendance. We had created a pretty strong marketing campaign, and had two big articles in the Asbury Park Press and the Newark Star Ledger, but the combo of Labor Day and the following back to school week diverted the attention of the audience. I don’t know if I will do this again – I only had the rights for this one weekend performance. The future of the piece is in Springsteen’s management’s hands.
Bob Boross