Composing the Artist Medium by Trisha N. Campbell

Composing the Artist Medium by Trisha N. Campbell

illustration of a mouth in black and white

Charlie No Face: The True Story behind the Green Man Legend
by Lauren Muchnok

Lauren was interested in the circulating legend of Charlie No Face, who is allegedly a ghost that haunts the Piney Fork tunnel in Pittsburgh. He is said to emerge from the salt tunnel at night, his body glowing green and his face severely disfigured. Yet, as Lauren put it, "few people know the true story behind this ghost, the life of Raymond Robinson." Her performative sound piece is the imagined script of Raymond Robinson and his reactions to being the infamous Charlie No Face. While Lauren does not use her own voice to perform Raymond, she did write the script and had her grandfather perform as Raymond.

This piece did invite the audience into a new relationship with Charlie. Students reported beginning to "feel" with Charlie as a person. While Lauren does not mention the word empathy in her reflection, she ends by saying that through her performative sound piece, she "gives voice to Charlie" and tells a story that is "rarely told."

Transcript of "Charlie No Face"

[opening slow, eerie music]

Raymond Robinson [an older man's voice]: In Pittsburgh, they call me the Green Man. At night, drive down Piny Fork Road in South Park and stop at the abandoned salt tunnel. It's the one with the concrete slabs strewn with graffiti and the arch that looms above piles of salt that leads into shadow. Now turn your headlights off. Tap the car horn and wait for me to appear. [two honk noises] Some say I emerge from the tunnel, my skin growing green from the electrical accident I suffered as a boy. Others say that I press my head against their car window, [horrified screaming] a faceless specter with a jagged hole instead of a nose and skin where eyes should be. That's how most folks remember me, but I'm telling you I was a real man.

[old movie-style music]

In 1910, I was born Raymond Robinson in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania . My father worked in the sand quarries and my mother stayed home. I don't remember my father much. He died when I was seven. So my mother married Uncle Orin. My six siblings and I liked to play in the woods near our house and with all the neighborhood kids. [music stops]

When I was eight years old, the accident happened. [eerie static plays mixed with the rumble of children's voices and playing] It was a June day when the neighborhood boys and I were on our way to the swimming hole. While we walked through the woods [footsteps], we passed over the Morado Bridge, in a long narrow path over Wallace Creek in Pittsburgh. Trollies would pass and shake the wooden slats, but there were no trollies that day. There were no sidewalks or side rails either. Just tall poles that held electric wires at the top. It was a three-story drop from the bridge into the water below. The boys were getting rowdy on the bridge, and we started playing truth or dare. My friend, Willie Petrovich, said:

Willie [child's voice]: I dare you to get the eggs out of that bird's nest up there. Right near the pile of leaves and twigs on the top of that pole. It's just above the radioactive wires.

Raymond: The other boys cheered me on as I shimmed up the pole. It wasn't too hard because my body was so light. [ominous music joins in with buzzing and sounds of children playing] The last thing I saw was my hand reaching for the nest. The cloud spinning in the sky. The thick electric wire coming closer. [silence] And the horizon swirling into a rush of color.

[hospital beeps] I woke up in a hospital bed. My whole torso was scorched. I lost my left forearm. My nose was a jagged hole, and my mouth was sunken in. My chin was a bulbous mound, but I couldn't see any of it because my eyes were gone. Later, the doctors would sew skin over my face. When it healed, I would pass my right hand over my eyes and marvel that I would never be able to cry again. I don't want to sound all self-pitying, though. I got used to things pretty quickly.

[old-time radio music] I lived with my family through my adulthood. During the day, I liked to listen to the radio, make leather crafts, play brain teaser puzzles, and hike through the woods. At night, I went for walks along Route 351. [door opens, footsteps] My family hated my walks because some people would beat me up, and I even got hit by a car a few times. [car roars by] If I heard a car coming, I turned my face away so that I wouldn't scare them. But if I heard the same car coming twice [another car sound, closer] I'd turn my face toward them because I realized that they wanted to see me.

Still, I made some great friends around here. [beer can opens; upbeat music starts]. We hung out a lot drinking Budweiser, smoking cigarettes, and eating cheeseburgers. A lot of people said they were surprised at how nice and polite I was. A lot of people were scared of me. And others came from as far as away as Chicago just to look at me, calling me Charlie No Face. [music fades out]

I got used to my injuries. But I'm still surprised that people turned me into an urban legend. What is it about facial injuries that makes people so scared and curious? Maybe it's because they've just never seen a faceless person before. [light music starts] When you think of your friend, the first thing you think of is his face. His eyes , nose, and mouth. But if someone doesn't have a normal face, then it messes with how you view people in general. If not everyone has a face, then how can you think of people? If not everyone looks like you, can you trust them? [light singing begins]

Reflection
by Lauren

I wrote "Charlie No Face: The True Story behind the Green Man Legend" for the ear. I opted for short, simple sentences and words, and I structured the piece to balance scene and reflection. The story of Raymond Robinson's life already lends itself to scene, so I just looked for the most interesting parts of my research and structured them to heighten tension.

I structured the story into four sections: 1) the legend of the Green Man, 2) Raymond's childhood and accident, 3) his life after the accident, and 4) a reflection about facial deformities. As the plot unfolds, the listener wonders, how did Raymond's life become an urban legend? How did he become disfigured? How did people treat him while he was alive? What did he think about his deformities? I slowly answer these questions to keep the listener interested to the very end.

After recording the script with my grandpa Dan Muchnok and sister Jane Muchnok, I altered their voices in Audacity. I slowed them down and lowered their pitch. This made Raymond's voice sound more ominous and Willy's sound more boyish. Next, I layered music and sound effects to create an environment for the listener. During the Green Man legend section, atonal instruments become gradually louder. Nighttime noises and an engine hum make the listener feel like she's sitting in the car. A heartbeat appears as the Green Man emerges from the tunnel, intensifying the listener's fear.

Before young Raymond's accident, cicadas chirp and footsteps patter along a bridge, making the listener feel as if she is walking with the children. A low, ominous note plays when Willy speaks, which foreshadows the horrible even to come.

When Raymond explains how people treat him, a beer can clicks open, a popular jive plays, and partygoers chatter. This creates a 1950s party scene, as if Raymond is walking around and meeting people. The ambient mood is casual and positive, which shows that most people were surprisingly nice to Raymond. Because the reflection is a monologue instead of a scene, there is no music for the first half. This emphasizes Raymond's speech. In the second half, a faint piano emerges to transition the speech into the outro music. Some moments needed silence instead of music or sound effects. During the most intense scenes (such as when Raymond falls into the live electrical wire), the music fades away and only Raymond speaks. This heightens tension and makes the listener pay close attention to the script.

This story unveils "missing information" behind a common urban legend. Behind the Green Man story is the life of Raymond Robinson, who endured horrible pain in his life but was remarkably kind to everyone he met. My project gives a voice to Raymond, who is much more than a disfigured face. His story shows the complex and contradictory ways that we treat disfigured people. He exemplifies a group of people whose stories are rarely told.

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