the Up Above

Created by playwright Sonia Victoria Werner and Directed by Alex Oleksy, the Up Above is a new theatrical work written for high school students. When group of high schoolers Genevieve, Clay, Dolores, and Ilona find themselves trapped in their school’s basement (a space coined “the down below”), it’s up to them to figure out how and why they got there, whether it’s safe to leave, but most importantly, how to live with the new normal. Acting as an incubator of youth and juvenility, “the down below” means different things to each of the teens. As time ticks away and a fifth (slightly younger) member is introduced to the already tense social dynamic, the anxieties of modern teenage life take control of the underground bunker. A below-the-surface look into queerness and identity in a transient, unfamiliar space, the Up Above centers in on teens as they navigate their new circumstances and complicated feelings for one another, the mysterious world above, and the urge to sacrifice the collective in order to save the individual.

The play was developed through a series of workshop readings where I included high-school students in the developmental process. These readings were presented in September and December 2022

As the producer, I brought our team to middle schools and high schools throughout the city, locations where many of the students had never seen a play. We visited schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.