Down There

(Sylvia Linkens school picture)

I like to think of myself as sweet and good-natured; preferring happy endings and stories of redemption to slasher movies and ghost stories. That being said, I can not deny the intense fascination I have always had with the extremely morbid. When playing pretend as a kid I always made myself the Mayan Princess, instructing my friends to kill and sacrifice one another for my well being. The peeled oranges we bit into afterward would be the hearts of my people, and we would eat them with quiet respect while being provided eternal life.

I often lose myself in the morbid; the endless wikipedia trail of serial killers, cannibalism, court cases chronicling terrible abuses, war stories and the worst kind of mental disorders. But I'm totally normal. It's just a quirk, right?

A terrible event which I often mindlessly slip into the google search bar, looking to see if there are any new articles, is the abuse and death of Sylvia Likens.

I learned of the Sylvia off-handedly from a teacher in high school, and became obsessed with the story. To summarize Sylvia's experience is to belittle it, I really suggest you read the whole story.

How far gone someone has to be to allow this to happen, and how, either brainwashed or apathetic, the kids involved were not to question it. Several films have been made of the event, the most accurate being 2007's An American Crime.

I can see how this case can be the inspiration of many books; both on law and pshychology, and was represented very well in a film, where make-up and actual elapsing of days while filming benefit the harsh narrative of the final days of Sylvia's life, but I was very interested to learn a play based on the events entitled 'Down There' by Randy Sharp is running in the Village at the Axis Theatre.

The theater offers a summery of the play on their website, and though the names of each character have been changed, the story seems to follow what did happen in that suburban basement in Indiana.

I have yet to see the play and I am not quite sure I want to. Audience reviews call the play confusing and leaving much of the graphic abuse to the audiences imagination. I realize it would be difficult to actually stage and act much of the violence, but I think the voyeur in me (as well as the rest of the audience) would find that aspect disappointing.

Another problem with the play is that tries to answer the baffling question of how such a thing could happen. Why Gertrude was so sadistic, why none of the kids, neighbors or Sylvia's sister did anything, what moral compass allowed kids to drink soda on the street, go down to a basement and torure a peer, and then do it all again the next day. And even more so why Sylvia was so submissive?

These are questions years of analysis, as well as the participants of the horrific events themselves have not been able to answer. And attempting to do so in a 80 minute play seems to turn the event into a race towards a meaning and what it really was, just plainly one of the most terrible crimes in American history. Critics tend to agree.

While writing this blog entry I realized I have no intention of going 'Down There.' Whatever it is that keeps me revisiting Sylvia's story is something I do not wish to have contorted by a play, I think the event enough is more powerful and heartbreaking than any staging and script can convey, and any conclusions a playwright draws will never be the real answer as to why it happened, because there really is none.

Imagine Peace- Love, Yoko

October 9, 2010 marked the 70th birthday of the late John Lennon. Every year hundreds if not thousands of New Yorkers make a pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields in Central Park to be together, honor Lennon and celebrate his music and take part in an impromptu birthday party.

(Lennon's 67th birthday in 2007. www.strawberryfieldsnyc.com)



This year New Yorkers were treated to a free screening and the public premiere of a documentary chronicling Lennon's life in New York City called LennonNYC at Summer Stage in Central Park.
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I spent the day in Central Park and attended the screening, which brought an audience of over 5,000 New Yorkers and tourists alike. An old friend of Lennon's, New York musician Lou Reed addressed the crowd, and though John's late wife Yoko Ono was not in attendance, she was in Iceland lighting a Peace Tower dedicated to John, she sent a video message.



The documentary itself was wonderful, it humanized Lennon in way few other documentaries have done. I think my generation, who were more than a decade from being born when Lennon was assassinated, tend to keep him on a musical, revolutionary pedestal so being able to see more intimately in his life, both for better and for worse, was refreshing. His bandmates, producers, friends and Yoko spoke of his happiness in New York and green card issues, his problems with drinking, drugs and infidelity, and the joy he experienced living as a stay at home dad with his second son Sean and his love for Yoko.





Through private home videos and recordings there was almost a feeling that John was there with the crowd right then.


Yoko believes that even 30 years after his death, John is still alive and spreading his message every day. "I was so impressed with how good John was," she said of watching the film's previously unseen footage and recording outtakes. "I knew him as a husband. I wish I could tell him, 'Hey, you're so good.' But he is not there . . . I still think John's songs are giving power to the people." -Yoko Ono

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/12089


After the film, much of the crowd reconvened in Strawberry Fields and spent hours singing Lennon songs together, it was a very fun night for me, and cathartic to many New Yorkers who loved John while he still walked the park. "I come here a lot and play and sing," said a man named Ray who was one of several guitarists playing through the night. Ray has been visiting the memorial regularly for over twenty years. "John is such a part of New York to me, and he's given so much to me, this is the least I could do."

'History just got all Sexypants'

(taken from Steinway Street Subway station in Astoria, Queens)

This week while discussing the current theater scene with other New York Musical Theater Festival interns and employees, a show being discussed really engaged my interest. The show, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, first premiered as a reading in 2006 and staged in Los Angeles and 2008 before being brought to New York and having a run at The Public Theater, an established venue that brings to life plays and musicals that go against the contemporary theater structure and are innovative in their own way. The Public is well known for bringing shows such as HAIR to stage in 1967, A Chorus Line in the 1970s and Passing Strange in 2007, each show went on to redefine musical theater to the world and maintain world wide recognition to this day.

(Hair's first incarnation at the Public in 1967)

(A Chorus Line at the Public)

(Passing Strange, 2007)

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a musical about our 7th President, though it is not always completely accurate but shows him in several important parts of his presidency, like his involvement of the Indian Removal Act and populism.
A NYMF employee described her favorite line during the Public Theater production as the first words spoken, Christopher Walker, playing Andrew Jackson struts on stage and, while surveying the audience states, "You people are sexy as SHIT."
The show is described as very sexy, with Jackson leaning towards an 'emo' personality. Subway posters show the backside of jackson in tight pants, an American flag bandana hanging out of his pocket.

The show moved to Broadway during the fall of 2010, is in previews now and officially opens October 13th. The buzz is already great and many people are anxious to see the show. On Friday, October 1st, after finishing our intern duties, a friend and I went to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater on 45th Street, hoping to get student lottery tickets (20 or so tickets are available an hour before each performance for $20, a great deal for poor students, but they are not always easy to get, we did not win tickets, and neither did 3/4ths of the crowd, which shows that there really is great interest in this sexed up, electrified show. I am really excited to see it eventually, and think it's great that a show can rise from a simple reading to a full blown Broadway show in only a few years, while still maintaining it's original spirit.




I think from the buzz surrounding Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, it is obvious sex sells and theater audiences are enjoying alternative ways to learn about history. Professional reviews of the show will not be published until after opening night but I am certainly going to see it, regardless of what critics say.