The Actors
Dixon Phillips - John
Desiree Rogers - Emily
Leigh Rondon-Davis - Jenny
Nick Trengove - Billy
The Creative Team
James Ard - Sound Designer
Courtney Carson - Lighting Designer
Marisely Cortés - Costume Designer
Natalie Greene - Intimacy Choreographer
Liora Jacob - Assistant Stage Manager
Rachel Mogan - Stage Manager
Malcolm Rodgers - Scenic Designer
Mary Ann Rodgers - Director
Brittany Watkins - Props Designer
The Sponsors
Season Sponsors
Anonymous
Craig & Kathy Moody
Don Kaufman & Carol Amyx
Chard Nelson & Jan Berman
Show Sponsors
Susan Taylor & Bob Fabry
Richard & Kate West
Tamara White
Watch the trailer
Either click on the above photo to watch the trailer, or head over to YouTube!
About the Play
Adam Bock’s meticulously crafted script follows Emily Bridges, a woman used to running all things — from her construction business to her family — until she suddenly begins experiencing mysterious changes. As her world shifts, her relationships transform in poignant and revelatory ways.
A Small Fire explores the ways in which illness deepens and strengthens one family’s bonds. Director Mary Ann Rodgers discusses the play’s meaning for her, saying, “The play asks so many questions: What's essential? What will sustain you when what you believe to be essential is taken away? So many of us have undergone transitions these past couple of years, loss of work, health, loved ones, a sense of stability. What gives you hope? How do you know you can endure or begin again?”
On discussing what inspired the play, Adam Bock points to his own father’s stroke and the questions that arose as a result. “What happens when your body betrays you. What happens to the people around you? What happens to the balance of power?” The play contains an element of magical realism, something the playwright calls, “the physicalization of metaphor.” Adam Bock created a female character of a certain age “who isn’t accommodating to others around her,” a concept he finds “radical.” He elaborates, “I know women are not accommodating, but the representations of women are.” In a challenge to this stereotypical portrayal, the playwright has created a strong, complicated, and flawed woman in advanced middle age.
Watch an Interview with Playwright Adam Bock & Director Mary Ann Rodgers
Either click on the above photo to watch the trailer, or head over to YouTube!
About Adam Bock
Adam Bock is a playwright best known for A Small Fire, The Receptionist, The Drunken City, The Thugs, and Swimming in the Shallows. He writes both comedy and drama, blending whimsical surrealism with dark and painful exploration of character. Charles Isherwood described A Small Fire as “a theatrical combo plate that proves unusually satisfying ... raucous, funny and unexpectedly touching.” Adam has had more than ten plays produced at prestigious theaters including Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep., Second Stage Uptown, Rattlestick, and Yale Rep. He has received the Obie Award, BATCC Award, Clauder Prize, Glickman Award, and Guernsey Award, and been nominated for the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Adam has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists and an artistic associate at Shotgun Players and Encore Theater.
About Mary Ann Rodgers
Mary Ann Rodgers is a native San Franciscan, director, and actor. Other credits include Symmetry Theater (bilingual Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías in San Miguel de Allende, MX), SPARC Theater (Associate Artist), Ross Valley Players, Contra Costa Civic Theater, Utopia Theater Project, ShotzSF, and more.
Adam Bock & Shotgun Players
Adam Bock and Shotgun Players share a long relationship, including productions of Swimming in the Shallows (1999), A Fairy’s Tale (2002), The Shaker Chair (2007), Phaedra (2011), and now A Small Fire. Shotgun Players even coaxed the playwright onto the stage for Euripides’ The Bacchae in 1999.
