While some of them booed the empty stage, others stood anxiously, holding their cell phone-cameras in the air for minutes at a time.

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Mr. Carsen's spellbinding production made Blanche's fear visual, using light, shadows and a large, menacing crowd that pressed toward the characters from the edges of the mostly empty stage (Michael Levine designed the set).

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Military officials in Kabul said insurgents in Pakistan have also used empty Pakistan border bases to stage attacks, which may have been the working assumption of the coalition forces who called in the airstrike.

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They stood on the stage and scanned the empty seats.

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They think it promotes a certain amount of showboating and people taking the stage, essentially, in a virtually empty chamber to make a speech that's intended not for anyone else to hear but just people back in their home district.

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Inside the arena, Springsteen is walking around the empty seats, a microphone in his hand, giving stage directions.

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