Burning Wild World Premiere

Saturday, October 19, 2024
Dogpatch Hub
1278 Minnesota St, San Francisco
3 times: 12:30 pm • 2 pm • 3:30 pm

How does climate disaster affect our sense of belonging?

BURNING WILD is an original performance that combines song, movement, audio design, text, documentary video and more to explore a collaged docu-myth about the land, displacement, trauma, and renewal.

Created in response to the California wildfires of 2020, it originally began as a community gathering circle to support Northern Californians affected by the wildfires.

Recent 2020 fire survivors themselves, Debórah and Noor draw from their lived experience using personal stories of their relationship to home and placemaking from the Middle East to the Bay Area.

In a time when a prolonged megafire season is an annual occurrence, Burning Wild offers an opportunity for resilience, hope and community healing. This is done by returning agency back to the audience and blurring performance distinctions such as dance, theater, audio design and song with social justice and cultural advocacy.

Conceived, Directed, and Developed by Debórah Eliezer in artistic collaboration with: Noor Adabachi, Pamela Hollings, Yiyo Ornelas, Nicky Martinez and Vidhu Singh, PhD.

• Guest Artists: Annabelle Berrios, Gabriel Cortez and Pepe Santamaria

• Walbridge Fire Dramaturgy: Vidhu Singh, PhD

• Script Dramaturgy: Pamela Hollings

• Production Manager: Sánchez Sánchez

• Sound Designer: Jules Indelicato

• Graphic Designer: Stephanie Whigham

• Video Editor: Nicky Martinez

• Workshop Director/Choreographer: Cynthia Ling Lee

Recipient of the Theatre Bay Area Homegrown Award

This achievement goes to productions that make a significant commitment to promoting, developing, and strengthening the talents of theatremakers right here in the Bay Area.

BURNING WILD was selected to work in a week-long residency at the prestigious Summer Residency Lab, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work which brings artists to Berkeley to work on projects in 1–4 week residencies. All residency artists went through rigorous covid-testing and only worked outside. Creations include sculptures from burnt ephemera, poetry, dance and a site-specific ritual rounded out a week marked by the 1-year anniversary of the Walbridge Fire in Sonoma Co.

With the support of 3 Girls Theatre, The California Arts Council and more, Aviva Arts brought Burning Wild to The 9th New Works Festival: Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent in March 18, 2023. Cynthia Ling Lee served as co-director and choreographer for this iteration of Burning Wild.

Now, thanks to an incredible grant on behalf of the Rainin Foundation’s New & Experimental Works program, Aviva Arts looks forward to Burning Wild’s World Premiere on October 19.

• This project is made possible by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Program and 3 Girls Theater. We’re also delighted to be creating our Community Council in support of education, community collaboration, and engagement for the Burning Wild Project! Check out our partners: 

• Shelterwood Collective, an “Indigenous, Black, Disabled, and Queer-led community forest and collective of land protectors and cultural changemakers”

• Stephen Most, author, filmmaker, and playwright whose environment-focused documentaries translate the natural world into stories for the stage and screen

• CK Blackmore, psychoptherapist, Terrapsyche contributing author, and Aviva Arts board member