Mission

UP Theater Company offers fully produced professional theater to its community in Northern Manhattan, and develops new plays –  employing many theater artists who live here. Despite our parochial concerns, UP is no “community theater.” We eschew crowd-pleasing chestnuts in favor of daring new work that challenges its audience’s preconceived notions about what they think they think. Established in 2010, UP has fully produced over 10 world premieres and has demanded attention with its diverse theatrical endeavors – from cunning adaptations of The Canterbury Tales and its summer readings of re-imagined classic plays, to its Showing UP opportunities where artists share their works in progress, to our Dead of Winter Reading Series, our audacious “Subway Wedding” and the annual, ecstatic Onward & UPward gala benefits.

UP receives support from the Miranda Family Fund, the Office of the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s Manhattan Community Award Program, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, The Nancy Quinn Fund of A.R.T./NY, The Neighborhood Fund of Columbia University Medical Center, Manhattan Mini Storage and Project Resources Group.