Burning Wild

How does climate disaster affect our sense of belonging? What is climate in the arts right now?

• Written by Deborah Eliezer, Pamela Hollings, Dr. Vidhu Singh

• Directed by Debórah Eliezer

• Dramaturg: Dr. Vidhu Singh

• Documentary Film Editor: Nicky Martinez

• Accessibility Consultant: Claudia Alick

• Ensemble: Debórah Eliezer, Pamela Hollings, Dr. Vidhu Singh, Cynthia Ling Lee, Noor Adabachi, and Guillermo "Yiyo" Ornelas

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

BURNING WILD, is an original devised performance, incorporating physical theater and dance, created in response to the California wildfires of 2020. It 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 told through devised text, song, movement, documentary video, and puppetry to tell a collaged docu-myth about the land, displacement, trauma, and renewal offering artists and audiences an opportunity for resilience, hope and community healing in a time when a prolonged mega fire season is an annual occurrence. 

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.

Now, thanks to an incredible grant on behalf of the Rainin Foundation’s New & Experimental Works program, Aviva Arts continues its work on Burning Wild, aiming to present its World Premiere in 2024.