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The Upstairs Department

Apr 26 - Jun 12, 2022

Luke hears dead people.
He thinks.

Playwright Chelsea Marcantel (Airness, Everything is Wonderful) channels the unexpected in an ethereal journey of familial love, the limits of cynicism and how to explain the unexplainable.

After a serious illness, a young man wakes up with the power to communicate with the dead (or so he believes). Desperate for guidance and to connect with their late father, he and his skeptic sister set out to test his paranormal talent at the Lily Dale Spiritualist community where their discoveries summon more than the afterlife.

Signature’s latest Heidi Thomas Writers’ Initiative play is an enlightening tale of an unlikely psychic directed by Holly Twyford.

“Her writing is both entertaining and heartbreaking.”
BALTIMORE THEATRE TALK

Written by Chelsea Marcantel
Directed by Holly Twyford

Performance Information

Seating Chart

  • Run Time

    Running time is approximately 90 minutes, no intermission.

  • Safety

    Signature requires all audiences (including children) to wear a mask AND provide proof of vaccination or negative COVID test to attend all live public performances and events at indoor venues.

  • Content Warnings

    This show contains adult language and discussions of illness and death from disease. Also contains theatrical haze and lighting of sage. Appropriate for tweens and up.

Content Warnings

This show contains adult language and discussions of illness and death from COVID. Also contains theatrical haze and lighting of sage. Appropriate for tweens and up.

Program

Flip through The Upstairs Department Program

Specialty Nights

Discussion Nights

May 11 & 24, 2022

Pride Night

May 20, 2022

Sponsored by

Cast Members

Annie Grove

Colleen

she/they REGIONAL: Falcon Theatre: Dial M For Murder. EDUCATIONAL: Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music: Ah, Wilderness, Romeo and Juliet. TV/FILM: GOAT, Funhouse Massacre. MUSIC VIDEO: Finneas: Shelter (Dancer), I Lost a Friend (Dancer); Angel Olsen: Untitled (Dancer); Sam Fischer: People Like Me (Dancer); Tori Wolf: Hangman (Choreographer); Enny Owl: Sandbox (Choreographer). EDUCATION: BFA Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. www.anniegrove.com @anniengrove

Joy Jones

Shiloh

she/her INTERNATIONAL: UK: Tantalus. NEW YORK: Rattlestick Theater: The Conjugality Test; The Public Theater: Reason for Leaving (workshop); Playwrights Horizons: Nreti (workshop). DC AREA (SELECTED): Arena Stage: Seven Guitars, Jubilee, Raisin in the Sun, Mary T & Lizzy K; Studio Theatre: The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Belleville, Invisible Man. REGIONAL (SELECTED): The Denver Center: Ruined, Tantalus; TheatreSquared: The Champion (World Premiere); Virginia Stage: Disgraced. TV/FILM: CBS: Blue Bloods; Hulu: Monsterland; Apple+ TV: Little America; DC Noir, The Confidential Informant. WRITING: Dream Flight (Screenplay, Finalist for NY International Women Festival). AWARDS: Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble (Invisible Man). EDUCATION: UNC-Chapel Hill: MFA Acting. UPCOMING: TV: We Own This City. FILM: Mailman. Thejoyjones.com @joyjonesig

Zach Livingston

Luke

he/him CHICAGO: BoHo Theatre: Cyrano; Oak Park Festival Theatre: The Fair Maid of the West; Lifeline Theatre: Midnight Cowboy, The Killer Angels; First Folio Theatre: Romeo and Juliet. TV/FILM: CHARGER, A Place to Be (En Algun Lugar). INTERNATIONAL/ONLINE: The Show Must Go Online, Edward II. EDUCATION: James Madison University: B.A. Theatre. Zachlivingston.com IG: @lefthookz TW: @Zach_Livingston

Anissa Parekh

Shiloh Understudy

DC AREA: Theater J: The Admission (staged reading), Denial (staged reading); Capital Fringe Festival: Thanksgiving at Macbeth’s, Things I Wrote Before My First Kiss; Port City Playhouse: Medea (Medea), Doubt (Mrs. Muller), War of the Worlds; Bind Pig Arts Collective: Frag. DC Black Theatre Festival: In the Balance of Recklessness; DC One-Minute Play Festival. TV/FILM: Netflix, House of Cards. EDUCATION: Williams College; Cornell Law School. TRAINING: Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory; Theatre Lab Honors Conservatory.

Anna Shafer

Colleen Understudy

she/they DC AREA: Olney Theatre Center’s National Players Tour 71: As You Like It, Walk Two Moons, The Diary of Anne Frank; Theater Alliance: A Chorus Within Her; Theater Alliance/IN Series: Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience; Three Muses Theatre Company: God Is Dead and April’s Getting Married.

Taylor Witt

Luke Understudy

he/him REGIONAL: Virginia Repertory Theatre: Tuck Everlasting. DC AREA: NextStop Theatre: First Date; Studio Theatre: Admissions (u/s); Toby’s Dinner Theatre: Newsies (Helen Hayes Nomination, Supporting Actor), The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Riverside Center for the Performing Arts: Grease; The Kennedy Center: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (u/s, 1st Nat. Tour); Adventure Theatre MTC: Make Way for Ducklings, Frosty the Snowman; Imagination Stage: Wonderland (u/s). TV: Investigation Discovery: House of Horrors. UPCOMING: The Keegan Theatre: Shakespeare in Love. EDUCATION: BM George Mason University. @witt_taylor

Creative Team

Holly Twyford

Holly Twyford

Directed by

SIGNATURE: Sex with Strangers, A Fox on the FairwayThe Little Dog Laughed (Helen Hayes Award), Twentieth Century, A Little Night Music. DC AREA: Ford’s Theatre: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Arena Stage: Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Matchmaker, and others; Folger Theatre: King John, Midsummer Night's Dream, and others; Round House Theatre: Or, and others.; Studio Theatre: The Steward of Christendom, and others; Theatre J: Lost in Yonkers, and others; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Recent Tragic Events, and others.

Signature Theatre

4200 Campbell Ave Arlington, Virginia

Press Reviews

A warmly funny and sweetly moving play full of spirit

DC Metro Theater Arts

Will stay in our hearts, minds and souls long after leaving

Washington Informer

Poignant and often funny

BroadwayWorld

Humorous and empathetic performances

MD Theatre Guide

Beautifully acted

Metro Weekly

The message we most need to hear right now

Washington City Paper