Zhaila Farmer

Early in the drama Topside, a young girl curls up on a dirty floor in a sunbeam slicing into the underground tunnel where she lives. Later, she talks about seeing the stars, but she’s barely seen the sky. It sounds like a dystopian science-fiction setup, but Topside is all too real, an unflinching slice-of-life about a homeless mother and daughter living in the subway tunnels below New York City.