ABOUT

A true story

of one of America’s most notorious murders– through the eyes of some redneck kids who lived it.

A nostalgic, irreverently funny, and heartwarming true crime musical, FALL OF ’94 is the very personal coming-of-age story of five twelve year olds in rural Union, South Carolina.

Set in the days that the Susan Smith tragedy was unfolding, the eyes of the world are on their tiny mill town.

The kids focus on perfecting their annual Halloween “spook house”, but all around them, the excitement of a media frenzy is unfolding,  bringing the town’s dark secrets to the surface.

…and just beyond their backyard, in John D. Long Lake, lay the answers to the nation’s questions…

Artist's Statement

Ashley Robinson

I grew up in the country. The sticks. The boondocks. No red light from my front porch for 11 miles – that’s the spot where Susan Smith said a black man stole her car and two babies. 

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Social relevance

Biotry, racism, and the furthur divide run rampent through the United States. Fall of ’94 addresses the social prejudices no less relevent now than in the 90’s. 

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FALL of '94 MAILING LIST

for news, updates, and annoucementments

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

When the boys’ bodies were found, it was at the bottom of a lake, just spitting distance from my best friend Joshua’s backyard where we used to make our yearly haunted houses. I was a queer kid in a small, bigoted Southern town where even my preacher was a loud and proud racist. When this is your reality, you have to find ways to cope.

Horror was the answer for me. It was my only real outlet for expression. It’s how I learned it was possible to embrace fear with both arms, to hold it close. You can wield fear. It can be your friend. That’s the sort of knowledge that you want to shout from the rooftops. And so that’s what Horror became for me, a path that led me to storytelling.

Some stories aren’t so easy to tell though. Susan Smith’s is one of those.

When the “black man stole a white woman’s kids” story broke loose, our neighbors were on national TV. Every channel—24/7. Susan Smith’s face was on all the tabloids in the grocery store. Our sheriff and neighbors were constantly on national TV, radio, papers and magazines. For nine days straight. It was exciting as hell for us kids.

Only this wasn’t a movie. It was actual horror. It was real. There’s a moment in every kid’s life when they learn how ugly the world can be. When it finally occurs to them that they’re at the mercy of an often brutal and unforgiving world. Susan Smith was that moment for me.

The experiences at the heart of this tale are inspired by my own. They’re some of my most intimate moments. Moments that made me who I am today. The questions I explore here are part of a life-long conversation that I’ve been having with myself. What do we owe each other? How do you exorcise the evils instilled in you by the people you love most? How do you summon the courage to face the horrors of this life?

Social relevance
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SOCIAL RELEVANCE

Recent far-right movements didn’t come out of nowhere. The attitudes and prejudices that gave them life go back decades. As a kid growing up in South Carolina in the 90’s, you’d better believe that backwards worldview was all around me. This is the seat of the Bible belt, after all. 

Union is a deeply religious community with more churches than stoplights. This small town in South Carolina is a microcosm for our country. That’s a big reason why it’s important to share Fall of ‘94 with the world. 

Bigotry and economic decay in Rural America are among the many themes explored in this work.    

At its core, Fall of ‘94 is the story of a tiny mill town that’s losing its mills. For people in the community, this isn’t just about lost jobs… it’s about lost identity. These people are scared, sure, but they’re also proud. For the last several decades, though, that pride has been fading…

Too often, this fear of lost identity manifests as hate. Hell, John D. Long Lake itself was named after a South Carolina state senator who was a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate flag champion. The community is essentially still segregated to this day. 

Racism, homophobia, and general fear of anything different still permeate every aspect of daily life.

In 2021, Americans are in the midst of an identity crisis of epic proportions.

Fall of ‘94 is meant to complement the national conversation, because, ultimately, the only way to heal deep divides is by bringing them to the surface and facing them.

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