Young actors at Bainbridge High are giving a nod to a modern-day teen angst classic with their presentation of “Topia.”

“It’s like a very dark update of ‘The Breakfast Club,’” said Elizabeth Ellis, referring to the mid-1980s coming-of-age film about five high-schoolers held in detention and their definitions of others.

Ellis and seven Bainbridge High School students have been working on the production for the past six months. The futuristic play follows the emotional journeys of five teenagers as they explore and discuss the central theme: fear of rejection. After much debate, the cast named their creation “Topia,” drawing from the contrasting ideas of “utopia” and “dystopia.”

These eight theater enthusiasts are part of a brand new program through Bainbridge Performing Arts, which was launched because of a lack of teen engagement with theater on the island.

“There were teenagers who were bright, artistic people, but there was no program to serve them,” Ellis said.

Eventually, she found a group of seven motivated students to develop the program: Dylan Lehotsky, Eli Pitasky, Madelaine Figueroa, Rose Strasen, Kit Patterson, Catherine MacLeod and Miranda Petersen.

Ellis knew from the beginning that she wanted the group to put on a performance.

“I think that actually going through a performance is the most crucial way to get experience,” Ellis said. “But we also supplemented that with classes like an improv workshop, Meisner method-acting workshop, and writing workshop.”

The group quickly decided to create their own production using devised theater, rather than to perform a known work.

“The idea behind devised theater is a group of people coming together and improvising a show based upon a common idea,” Lehotsky said.

Once they had decided on fear of rejection as their theme, the group came up with a list of archetypes that they wanted their characters to represent. “We would come together and have sessions of improvising where we would discover characters through improv, and then we wrote a script based on that,” said Pitasky. They recorded over 40 hours of improvised scenes, to which they later listened, discussing what worked and what didn’t. These meetings often morphed into spirited debates, as everyone had strong opinions to contribute. “We were seven different people with a common goal, but so many different ideas about how to reach that goal,” said Lehotsky. All agreed that learning to work together was one of the most valuable lessons they will take from this experience.

Five different characters were eventually developed: a rebel (played by MacLeod), an average man (Lehotsky), a princess (Petersen), an introvert (Strasen), and a utilitarian (Patterson). The remaining two members, Figueroa and Pitasky, are directing the show.

Even in the final stages, edits are still being made to the script. In run-throughs, Figueroa and Pitasky shouted out lines they want changed, and actors were free to make adjustments on their feet.

During the process, the group has grown very close. In the improvisation stage, many tears were shed, insecurities overcome, and barriers broken down.

“I remember saying at the beginning that we need to be open with each other, because there are really emotional things that could happen,” Figueroa said.

By the end, these seven students were more than comfortable with each other.

“We got to the point where I feel like any of us could do anything totally bizarre in front of each other,” said Ellis.

All of the time, effort and emotion put into this show will surely be visible on stage, since the writers themselves will be acting.

“I think the reason this worked is that we all had the same level of passion for it,” Petersen said.

“Topia” takes the stage at BPA at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13. Admissions is a suggested donation of $5.

A question-and-answer session will follow the show, where the audience can meet the students and gain more insight into their creative process.