Rock Wilk in"BROKE WIDE OPEN"

First the songs were born on the subway.  This story starts at the Classon Avenue stop on the G Train in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC.  And continued to the A Train, and the D Train.  And the Q Train, from Brooklyn to Manhattan to The Bronx, to Queens and back to Brooklyn, every day, that's where the seeds of creativity for Rock WILK have always been. And so naturally, that's where he began writing the songs that would eventually become his socially and politically charged, and personally revealing album, BROKE WIDE OPEN.  People began to say, "this sounds like a play", and in fact, for a while these hip hop infused melodies and words evolved into a performance piece called Ma'Plej, each letter standing for the name of someone in Rock's family, a visceral tribute of sorts to his beginnings. But the journey was really just getting started.  After going thru some personally difficult times, Rock decided he needed a change, a new place to reflect on where he was going next, both personally and professionally, and so he found himself exiting his beloved NYC for a while, and wound up in Asbury Park, NJ.  That is where Ma'Plej found it's way back to BROKE WIDE OPEN, where Rock finally decided to deal with some very deep life experiences that had been following him around forever, most significantly his biological beginnings and his family. 
 
During this process, BROKE WIDE OPEN has evolved into a play, a one person hip hop infused, poetic, multimedia story.  An "urban Wizard of Oz", a search for home, identity, Rock's search for his biological mother.  But it is also the story of a young woman who finds herself pregnant, her choices, and how those choices affected so many people. 

The first performance of this journey was held at The Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park, 2 summers ago, and since then has played to sold out venues all over New York City, the metropolitan area and beyond.  During this developmental process of BROKE WIDE OPEN, these performances have been in the form of a staged reading, but the time has come to get to the next phase, a full production, and so on Friday night, Feb. 5th, at 8pm, at the amazing and intimate Showroom Theater on Cookman Ave, in the burgeoning arts district of Asbury Park, you can see the final staged reading of BROKE WIDE OPEN before it is fully mounted in a larger venue. 
This is going to be a celebration of sorts, a "thank you" to all of the people and venues around the Tri City's area of Asbury Park/Red Bank/Long Branch who have been so supportive, encouraging and inspiring during this time.  From Artscap to SICA to The Red Bank Orbit to just hanging around The Twisted Tree Cafe, this New York City boy is paying tribute to New Jersey and all the love and life he has experienced there over the past couple of years.  So mark the date on your calendar and come celebrate happy endings and wondrous beginnings, this is going to be a very special performance.


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