The Survivor’s Way

The Survivor’s Way – Concept by Alex Oliszewski.

Creative Team
Directed by Julie Rada
Co-Media Design by Alex Oliszewski
Co-Media Design by Daniel Fine
Devising by Brian Foley
Animation by Vita Berezina-Blackburn
Art Therapist: Dana Keeton
Consulting Artist: Jeanine Thompson
Composer: Paul DeMarte

and others

ASU, Dept. of Theatre, School of Arts Media & Engineering
Lyceum Theatre

OSU, Department of TFMA, ACCAD
Motion Lab

(Coming Soon)
Fort Lewis College
Durango Community Concert Hall


2001-present

Design Overview

The Survivors’ Way is a visually poetic and aurally immersive journey through the inner world of a narrator reckoning with personal and generational trauma. Framed through the voice of a storyteller navigating a self-constructed city of digital and analog boxes, the work weaves together family ephemera, archival material, and fantastical imagery within a real-time digital performance environment. While rooted in a deeply specific personal story, the piece expands toward a universal message: that time is fleeting, connection is sacred, and the moments we have truly matter.

Research Focus

This project draws together my core research practices, including real-time performance systems, immersive media environments, and devised narrative structures. It draws directly from my work in VR performance, the development of experiential media systems, and performance-as-research methodologies.

The creative process follows a modified version of the RSVP cycles, a human-centered and embodied design process, I have been developing for the past 25 years.

The Survivor’s Way brings together my work as both an artist and researcher. Now in production, the fourth cycle is a continuation of questions I’ve been asking across the breadth of my work: How can interdisciplinary collaborative design processes lead to more human ways of expressing what’s hard to say? How do we create performances that hold space, in this case for grief, memory, and healing, without forcing resolution. What happens when we build media systems that listen and respond in real time as a way to stay in the moment. This project brings those questions into practice, inviting reflection and embodied human connection.

More Information

Project Proposal Website: The Survivor’s Way

Performance History and Development

2001

Initial cycle developed and performed at Fort Lewis College as part of my undergraduate thesis.

2007

Second cycle presented at Arizona State University in fulfillment of my MFA thesis.

2023

Fourth cycle currently in development, with a scheduled performance at the Durango Community Concert Hall in collaboration with Fort Lewis College.

2026

Third cycle produced and performed in ACCAD’s Motion Lab during my faculty professional leave.

  • Performance image from The Survivor's Way.

    Alex performs in shadow, reading and conjuring images from a story from his childhood.

    Cycle 3

  • Back stage performance photo from The Survivor's Way.

    Alex plays with a small model plane, which is projected onto the main screen via a wireless camera operated by a Shadow played by Christopher Quirouz. 

    Cycle 3

  • Performance image from the 2nd cycle of The Survivor's Way.

    Alex performs in shadow, running from two Shadows that have been chasing him.

    Cycle 2

  • Alex performs in shadow, remembering a story his father told about a belt and his grandfather, played by Francis Miller.

    Cycle 3

  • Performance image from the 2nd cycle of The Survivor's Way.

    Lost in a maze of analog and digital boxes Alex performs in shadow looking for connection with the Shadows he sees hiding in the darkness.

    Cycle 2