The Center of distance

Back in 2008, a locally based artist named Alan “Rock” Wilk approached the Stephen Crane House with the idea of presenting his first solo performance piece, entitled “Ma Plej.” That unique melding of music, memoir, and multi-media would evolve into BROKE WIDE OPEN, a work that would go on to a successful Off Broadway run...in addition to presentations at stages from coast to coast...after being seen inside our intimate Lecture Room Theatre for the first time anywhere.

Following a relocation to NYC, and a Crane House debut for his acclaimed play BROOKLYN QUARTET, the playwright, poet, producer, musician and rapper returned to 508 Fourth Avenue once more in 2019, for a workshopped reading of his latest and most purely personal project; an autobiographical monologue on an adopted son’s quest for the birth mother he never knew...and his mission to reclaim and relate the story of a nearly forgotten woman whose passing from this world was but a whisper, but whose spirit lives on within the soul of the eternally searching artist.

Here in 2022, that monologue has manifested itself as THE CENTER OF DISTANCE: A Rock Wilk Film, the debut feature from the multi-talented creative force, and a project that has garnered awards on the cinema festival circuit from L.A. to Tokyo to Paris to Milan. On the evening of Friday, October 14, we invite you to join our longtime Friend of the House Rock Wilk as he presents the film’s NJ premiere at TRINITY CHURCH, 503 Asbury Avenue (at Grand Avenue) in Asbury Park, for a single 7:00 pm screening.

Filmed in the fall of 2021...and boasting an original music score by Shore area composer/ musician Steve Peckman...THE CENTER OF DISTANCE follows Wilk as he walks the streets of his Bronx neighborhood, performs at spoken word slams, wrestles with the creative process, and makes a pilgrimage to the gravesite of Judith, the woman who was his biological mother. Part voyage of discovery, part meditation on life’s pathways, and part detective story, the film uses its author’s own painstaking research to trace the outlines of her life...a life touched by devastating loss and tragedy; marred by neglect, and ultimately rescued by the ways in which all of us seek out and find a sense of FAMILY in our lives. All who view the film will get to know Judith, a person who...thanks to the questing heart of the son who refused to be left behind...will NOT fade from memory. - Tom Chesek, The Coaster, Asbury Park, NJ