"Splintered and a Great Silence": The Production of Return to the Upright Position by Caridad Svich

• Main Author: Brewer, Catherine (Cate)
• Format: Others
• Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2009
• Subjects: Svich; Caridad; Cate; Brewer; 9/11 plays; Return to the Upright Position; Arts and Humanities; Theatre and Performance Studies
• Online Access: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1679; http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2678&context=etd

Like the Tribute in Light that grew phoenix-like from the ashes of the broken hearts of the artists who created it, Return to the Upright Position is a beautiful on-line collaboration amongst fourteen artists in the six months following 9/11. Conceived and edited by Caridad Svich, the play is moving and delicate and instantly brings us back to those moments when American history and sentiment were forever changed. Demoralized, terrorized, afraid, and alone, our country dragged its shocked and weary carcass from the ash, and pulled itself back up again. That is after all the American way, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, continuing to believe in a better, brighter future, in hope and possibility; returning to the upright position.