Bob's Blog "Trip Out Through the Windshield"
Bob Berger is a founding member of Collective: Unconscious. He has served as Technical Director and New Media Director of Collective: Unconscious.
Bob co-conceived, co-produced, co-directed, and co-starred in the theatrical documentary Charlie Victor Romeo, a dramatic recreation of the actual transcripts of several airline emergencies. Charlie Victor Romeo has been heralded as an important technical and dramatic work by Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, The Hollywood Reporter, ABC News, PBS's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," and many other sources, including professional pilots. He is instrumental in the development of this project across several media, including a national tour of the theater piece, the development of a feature film project, production of video-based pilot training tools (in conjunction with the United States Air Force), and development of a web-based visualization tool which correlates the recreations with actual flight data in real-time. In May 2000, Bob accepted the prestigious Drama Desk Award for Most Unique Theatrical Experience for Charlie Victor Romeo. The work also earned Best Sound Design. Charlie Victor Romeo has also received the Best Drama and Best Sound Design from the New York International Fringe Festival as well as other honors. Most recently Charlie Victor Romeo was chosen as one of the best plays of 2004 by Time Magazine for it's 4 month engagement at PS122 in New York City from May 2004 - September 2004.
Before creating Charlie Victor Romeo, Bob was one of the original creators, writers, producers and directors of the long running serial play Manifestations at Collective: Unconscious. Manifestations had five successful six/ten-month seasons of production at Collective: Unconscious amounting to over 40 separate episodes and over 150 performances. Manifestations took audiences into elaborate alternate reality scenarios using the archetype of the 50's serial film as a stepping off point. From the H.P. Lovecraft inspired first season to the paranoid, cold war era 1950's and 60's, Manifestations always went right for the jugular with its brand of horror, science fiction, comedy and history.
Bob worked for CNN in New York as a Studio and Field Engineer for seven years before leaving to pursue a Master's Degree in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. After spending some time working as a satellite engineer he now works for a NYC based company developing robotic systems to migrate obsolete magnetic media to archive quality digital files, and working on his next play.
