Nominated for the
2008 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, From Up Here premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club
this spring with a flurry of praise for a great cast, engaging story and an
impressive new playwright, Liz Flahive!
"A darkly funny
and unexpectedly moving family story," From
Up Here is a captivating new piece about love, forgiveness and the
actualities of today's youth at home and school. The play stars Julie White as neo-mom Grace,
and Tobias Segal as Kenny, her troubled son – both in Drama Desk nominated
roles. Directed by Drama Desk nominee Leigh Silverman.
Playwright Liz
Flahive took a brief moment to correspond with BroadwayWorld and discuss the
process that has brought this appealing new production from the page to the
stage. 
From Up Here concludes its engagement at MTC on Sunday, June 8…
Eugene Lovendusky: Thank
you so much, Liz, for grabbing a few minutes to chat with BroadwayWorld about
your critically acclaimed new play From
Up Here! Just last week you received the John Gassner (Outer Critics Circle)
Award for your heralded new play. Congratulations! What kind of whirlwind have
you experienced since this success?
Liz Flahive: I
think the biggest change has been that when I'm in a room with people, some of
them know me as a playwright now. I think as a writer you spend a lot of time
trying to get your work produced and telling people you're a playwright and
trying hard to believe it yourself.
Eugene: From Up Here is dripping in familiarity;
from the every-days of home-life (like busted sprinkler systems!) to the
sometimes unbearable pressures of high school. What influenced your creation of Kenny, Grace
and the Barrett family?
Liz: I wanted to
create a family that spoke naturalistically. In my mind, that means overlapping,
deflecting, running up and down stairs. I think that, well at least in my
house, everything happened in the kitchen. Or everything that happened as a
group, happened in the kitchen. And Allen Moyer's brilliant set also
contributes loads to the familiarity. You can learn a lot about a family from
their kitchen.
Eugene: Tobias Segal, who expertly portrays
Kenny, told me in a previous interview that something about this play
"clicks." I have to agree – specifically
the "little things" like Grace watching Kenny stand tall on a chair or the
nerdy-ness of wooing a girl with a guitar… How did all these delightful
"life-moments" slip into the play?
Liz: I think I
always wanted the play to be a way to use smaller moments to talk about bigger
things. Standing on a chair in your kitchen isn't such a big deal but for Kenny
(and subsequently Grace) it's huge. If you're awkward, like truly seriously
awkward, there's nothing worse than having to ask someone to a dance. I think
using humor to buoy up the larger issues in the play was something I was very
interested in all along. I wanted the play to be hopeful but not sentimental.
To me there's little that's sentimental about being a teenager nowadays.
