Above Ground, by Ginna Hoben, directed by Heidi Winters Vogel.
Above Ground is an examination of death, anxiety, and the infinite mark left by social media (or any media) activity– a comedy! In 1995, Virginia made a “dead sister pledge” to carpe diem. At the same time, she began a practice of daily writing. Above Ground uncovers her decades of journal entries as she investigates her choices in the years following her sister’s fatal car accident. Did she seize the day …?
The Creative Team
We’re thrilled to welcome some familiar faces this season, including a returning director-designer team and a playwright who is well-known in the region, although new to our theater. If their names seem familiar, here’s why (read their full bios here).
Local theater fans might remember Ginna Hoben’s The Twelve Dates of Christmas, performed frequently at the American Shakespeare Center. She is also a regular performer there, creating 38 roles in 33 productions.
A long-time friend and collaborator, Heidi Winters Vogel directed the acclaimed Artemisia’s Intent in 2023. She also taught and directed at Eastern Mennonite University for over a decade. Heidi is an outstanding director whose creativity, storytelling, and vulnerability create moving theatrical experiences and engage audiences.
Prior to moving out of state, designer David Vogel created lighting and set designs for dozens of shows in the Harrisonburg area, at many theaters including Bridgewater College, Eastern Mennonite University, Valley Players, and more. He was the set designer for Artemisia’s Intent.
Performances May 22-24 and 29-31, 2026. Music begins at 6, and the play begins at 7.
As with all of our shows, this one will feature an hour of live music beforehand. Some performances will have ASL interpretation, virtual captioning, and audio description for the blind. Exact dates for these accessibility accommodations will be announced soon. See our accessibility page for more information.
Credits and Bios
Ginna Hoben – Playwright
Ginna Hoben is an actor/director/playwright based in Queens, New York. Her specialty in solo performance covers the writing, acting, directing, and consulting of one-person plays. She premiered her solo play The Twelve Dates of Christmas (Playscripts, Inc.) at American Shakespeare Center in 2010. The play has since enjoyed over one hundred productions nationally and worldwide. Her critically acclaimed solo play No Spring Chicken (Playscripts, Inc.) premiered in D.C.’s 2015 inaugural Women’s Voices Theatre Festival. Above Ground, her most recent solo play, has been developed as part of The Dramatist’s Guild’s Friday Night Footlights, Forestburgh Playhouse’s New Works Festival, a benefit performance at The Green Room in Staunton, VA, and its first fully staged production with City Gate Productions in NY.
Other produced plays include the four-female holiday comedy, Decked! (Theatre B in Fargo, ND); pierced! (New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals); the wind-chill factor (The Actors Theatre of Louisville); and the short plays: telephone (ATL); Spit Spat Splendor Spite (from “Shakespeare in Mind,” Dramatic Publishing); and A Song of Good Life (Vermont Shakespeare Company.)
Previously a writer/post-producer for Food Network’s Hungry Games and National Geographic’s Emmy-nominated Brain Games, Ginna also writes and voices for the children’s podcast Who Smarted? www.ginnahoben.com. IG: @ginnabeans.
Heidi Winters Vogel – Director
Heidi Winters Vogel is a director, improv. storytelling performer and Theater faculty at Wabash College in Indiana. Recent productions include: As You Like It, Where is Our Beloved Community (devised), ANON, and The Pitman Painters. Virtual productions: international collaboration of The Romeo and Juliet Project, director (Organizational Theatre), The Race, director (Wabash College), Everybody Be Nice (reading with playwright Julia Lukshina and translator Anne Fisher), CLUE, director (Crossroads Repertory Theatre) and performer of Playback Theatre for global audiences. Heidi has also directed professionally for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Next Stage, Avalon Theatre Company and Unreal City, among others.
David Vogel -Designer
David Vogel earned his B.A. in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota and his M.F.A. in theatre production from Penn State University. He has been teaching theatre design and production (scenery, lighting, & technical direction) for thirty years, most recently at Wabash College in Indiana. Professional credits beyond Silk Moth include the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, the St. Louis Ballet, and the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre in Indianapolis. Recent designs include scenery for Artemesia’s Intent in 2024 on the Silk Moth Stage and, at Wabash College this season, Lenin’s Embalmers and
Windswept Beaches, a devised setting of Owen Booth’s epic poem. From designing to engineering and building, David’s career seeks to make use of all that theatre has to offer to audiences and communities alike.
Silk Moth Stage 