AMERICAN THEATRE: Actor-writer Eric Ulloa was catering a holiday party, just days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012, when he was taken aback by how “everyone was laughing and dancing and enjoying themselves. I thought, ‘How could the world keep spinning after this horrific thing had just happened?’”
Of course, he understood life does go on, but he could not stop thinking about how 20 children and six adults had just been killed. He aired his feelings on social media and obsessively followed the news as the coverage shifted from stories about the murders, the killer and the victims’ families to stories about gun and mental health legislation.
5 comments:
First off, I want to say that I think this is a beautiful article and I enjoy reading it. One of the many points that I thought was interesting when reading it was the idea of Facebook as a tool. The ability to ask if Ulloa could come and interview rather the showing up changes the dynamic. It adds a layer of sympathy because having someone just show up after something terrible happens probably can seem insensitive. Lots of people try to profit off of horrific events like this and being able to present his case before showing up probably helps the people feel in control of the situation. If Ulloa just showed up the people would probably get scared and feel pressured to answer his questions even if they did not want to. I also thought it was interesting that he wanted a perspective that was a couple of months after the shooting. The media tends to cover the initial moments and leave when the next story comes. Seeing the story slightly longer into the healing process would give a narrative that we don’t often here. Lastly, I thought it was interesting that Ulloa doesn’t necessarily want the play to go to New York, but rather the heartland where he thinks that it would be more powerful. I really enjoyed this article and I hope to see 26 Pebbles in the future.
I am from Newtown. 12.14 Foundation A Rocking Mid Summer Nights. Newtown Film. Ingrid Michaelson Somewhere Over the Rainbow. And now this. This is not the first time someone wants to create art out of what happened. They have good intentions, but all they end up doing is monetizing off of a massacre of children. It started days after the shooting, before the list of names was even released, people were creating art based on the events that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Not one of them has ever had people from Newtown work on the project, have profits go to our organizations, or try to do it for the town. I appreciate the efforts and can see why its interesting, because the amount of emotion and feelings it brings about, but its hurts those who have already been hurt from the tragedy. Their is not an answer, their are some people from home who want to keep telling the stories and some that want to never remember it ever again, I know that I'm somewhere in the middle. Newtown was shattered, and it still has effects, ones that I never thought of - the housing market is crushed (no one wants their child to go through our school system now) the kids who were in class that day are now teenagers entering high school. Everyone's heart is in the right place, wanting to help in anyway, and I don't have an answer on how to help. But I know the effects of everyones art; when the 12.14 Foundation came, they were a group of Broadway professionals who came for the summer to put on a show with the kids of Newtown, what an incredible opportunity to give these kids, right? It destroyed the community theater in Newtown that was teaching and bringing joy to children far before any gun was brought in school.
Ullona I hope you got what you wanted out of my town, and I hope you have a great show, I honestly do - because maybe the audience will get something out of it, just know what you took from us to get that.
While I think that this is a great concept, and I'm sure the play is a great work of art about a horrific disaster that I don't think has been discussed enough, I can't help thinking about Annie's comment on this piece and pieces like this in general. While I think art exists to make good from bad and to comment on the world around us, I can't help but think about what consequences it must have on those living there. A show like this would only further publicize and profit from this terrible tragedy, and while I think the playwright had good intentions, I'm not sure that he considered this as he created this production. If nothing else, I wish that productions like this could have had some benefit to the community, besides the publicly. While I definitely support art, I think we as artists have to consider those consequences before creating art like this.
While this looks like a great way to memorialize this tragedy, it's hard to define the line between acknowledgment and exploitation. Despite this concern, it does seem that this particular production does come from a place of good intentions. I'd like to see how the influence from the Tectonic Theatre Project who created the Laramie Project. After seeing the Laramie Project it seems like they did a respectful job of honoring the tragedy of Matthew Shepard, but I'd be curious to see what the opinions of the residents of Laramie, Wyoming are and how they feel about the success and acclaim of a play based on a controversial tragedy from their quiet small town. I would like to know if the profits from this productions will go back to the benefit of the Newtown community in any way shape or form. I do understand though that perhaps sometimes a way of dealing with pain is to express the feeling through art, but it would be upsetting if this production negatively affects the community and turns the opportunity for acknowledgment into a case of exploitation.
I'm honestly so torn about what to think about this production. At first glance it does seem like a money grab through exploiting a community that experienced a great tragedy. However, this article showed that this artist really did his best to approach this in the most sensitive and tasteful way that he could. If there is a right way to do this then I think that he did. I think that people forget that this event happened less than five years ago, so it's still very fresh on the minds of the people of Newtown. It's almost like reopening the wounds and forcing them to relive that horrible day. It seems like it's too soon to present a play about this. Right now there's a movie in theatres, Patriot's Day, which is about the Boston Marathon Bombing. When I first saw the advertisments for it I was disgusted by it and couldn't believe they would use that terrible attack to make money. I don't feel the exact same way about 26 Pebbles, which might be because it's being presented as a play rather than a huge blockbuster. I think if the artist wanted to make money he would have focused on making a movie and marketing it, but it does seem to me that his heart is in the right place. Once again, I'm not sure how to feel about this play but I do believe that his intentions were good.
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