With Lola Kelly, Leon Russom, Cliff Weissman, Christine Avila, William Salyers, Nicole Erb, Joseph D. Valdez, Michael Martinez, Dana DeRuyck, Nic D'Avirro, Tricia Cruz and Phil Ward.

A California story about how we live with fire, water, and family. A young woman returns home to find her family and community in a bitter fight over who owns the local groundwater during a devastating California drought. Caught between loyalty to her family’s ranch and fear – of wildfire, of loss of identity and culture, Connor finds her small town trying to figure out how to live with nature when nature doesn’t seem to want them there: “We’d get along with the environment a whole lot better if we didn’t have to live in it.”

CREATIVE TEAM

Producers - Kate Jopson & Camille Schenkkan

Associate Producers - Jen Kays  &  Ian-Julian Williams

Production Manager - JR Bruce

Assistant Production Manager - Jillian A Lindner

Scenic Designer - JR Bruce

Costume Designer - Melanie Watnick

Lighting Designer - Bo Tindell

Sound Designer - Cricket Myers

Casting Director - Andy Crocker, CSA

Production Stage Manager - Cassandra Scott

Assistant Stage Manager - Jillian A Lindner

THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Octavio Solis is a playwright and director living in Oregon. His works Alicia’s Miracle, Se Llama Cristina, John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The Seven Visions of Encarnación, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, La Posada Mágica, Prospect and Man of the Fleshhave been mounted across the country at companies such as the Center Theatre Group, the Theatre @ Boston Court, California Shakespeare Theatre, the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,  INTAR, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Theater Center, the Magic Theatre SF, South Coast Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Marin Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, Working Classroom, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Attic Rep, El Teatro Campesino, Teatro Vista, Teatro Dallas, Teatro Visión, Thick Description and Campo Santo at Intersection for the Arts. His collaborative works include Cloudlands, a musical co-written with Adam Gown and Shiner, co-written with Erik Ehn. Solis has received the 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Texas State University Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, the 2014 Pen Center Literary Award for Drama (for Se Llama Cristina), the United States Artists Fellowship for 2012, the 2003 National Latino Playwriting Award, the 2000-2001 National Theatre Artists Residency from TCG and the Pew Charitable Trust, the 1998 TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, the 1998 McKnight Fellowship grant from the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, the 1995-97 Playwriting Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Roger L. Stevens award from the Kennedy Center, the 1994 Will Glickman Playwright Award, and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays production grant. Solis is a Thornton Wilder Fellow for the MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists alum and member of the Dramatists Guild.His anthology, “The River Plays” has been published by NoPassPort Press. He is working on commissions for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Circle X Theatre, Magic Theatre SF and Yale Repertory Theatre.

THE DIRECTOR:

Kate Jopson grew up in Siskiyou County and is the new Artistic Director of Circle X Theatre Co. She specializes in experience-based productions, staging work on beaches, barns, and basements and most recently at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. In theatres, she uses the unique location or architecture to enhance the production. Directing Credits Include: Candide (Santa Cruz Shakespeare); Fefu & Her Friends  (Circle X Theatre/J.U.S.T Toys Productions, LA); 1984(Greenway Court Theatre, LA); An Accident (Griot Theatre, LA), Twelfth Night(Coeurage Theatre Co. LA); Second Skin (The West/The Flagship Ensemble); A Willow Grows Aslant(La Jolla Playhouse—Without Walls Fest.); A Midsummer Night's Dream,A Doll House, Casagemas, Elizabeth I,Cry Old Kingdom(UCSD); Jesus, She Said (Marin Fringe Festival: Critic's Choice, Best Director).B.A UC Berkeley; M.F.A in Directing from UC San Diego. 

THE INTERVIEWEES

We interviewed farmers, ranchers, leaders of the Shasta and Karuk tribes, wildfire fighters, business owners, educators, loggers, historians, mayors, environmentalists, and regulatory agency employees.Charlie and Marlene Martin, Tom Menne,  JJ. Lewis Nichols,  Betty Hall,  Greg & Sherri Hanna, Mike & Jan Lee, Don Flickinger, Gail Jenner, Marilyn Seward, Buster Attebery, Tammy Thackery, John & Cathy Fitzpatrick, Cliff & Maryann Munson, Kate O'Brien, Larry Kelly, Millie Whipplesmith Plank, The Siskiyou County Cattlewomen, and the "Bookies" of Scott Valley.  (pictured below: L-R) Lynn & Mike Bryan, Hayley Moyles, Ric Costales, Rosario Aragon,  Keith Whipple, Melanie Fowle, Prairie Spaulding, Mary Carpelan.

Thank You's

Jen Kays, Sara Bruner, Rod Gnapp, Annie Paul, Leon Russom, Christopher Salazar, William Salyers, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, VIVIS, Martha Marion, Jerry Clarke, Paige Lindsey White, Michael Evans Lopez, and Denise Blasor. Siskiyou County Cattlewomen's Association; Siskiyou Land Trust; Siskiyou Performing Art Center; Siskiyou County Arts CouncilThe California Arts CouncilAll our Rockethub funders!