A Small Fire
- Written by Adam Bock
- Directed by Trip Cullman
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 theatres 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. (As of February 2016)
Photo by Zack DeZon
Playwrights: The Pain of My Belligerence, Assistance, The Drunken City, Manic Flight Reaction, A Small Fire (Drama Desk nomination). Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Choir Boy, Lobby Hero, Six Degrees of Separation, Significant Other. Select off-Broadway: The Mother, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Atlantic); Days of Rage, The Layover, Lonely I’m Not, The Substance of Fire, Some Men, Bachelorette, Swimming in the Shallows (Second Stage); Punk Rock (Obie Award), Yen, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit..., Moscow... (MCC); Significant Other (Roundabout); Choir Boy, Murder Ballad (MTC); The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing, The Last Sunday in June (Rattlestick); Dog Sees God (Century Center); Roulette (EST); US Drag (stageFARM); and several productions with The Play Company. London: The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, PA (Tricycle). Select regional: Geffen, Alliance, Old Globe, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Bay Street, Williamstown Theatre Festival.
(Updated Mar 2019)
When a tough-as-nails contractor finds her senses slipping on the brink of her daughter’s wedding, the impact on her family is nothing less than seismic. A Small Fire is a human parable in which unexpected loss leads to an unlikely love story.
Featuring
Reed Birney
Celia Keenan-Bolger
Michele Pawk
Victor Williams
Has appeared at Playwrights Horizons eight times, most recently in Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation directed by Sam Gold. He was just in Tigers Be Still at Roundabout Underground. For the NewYork premiere of Sarah Kane’s Blasted at Soho Rep, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He was Dr. Sweet in the original New York cast of Bug and played Tony Blair in Stuff Happens at The Public Theater. He has received three Obie Awards and a Drama Desk Award. On film, he can be seen in Changeling and the current Morning Glory with Harrison Ford, as well as Jeff Lipsky’s Twelve Thirty. In February he will be in David West Read’s The Dream of the Burning Boy at Roundabout Underground. (As of December 2010)
Most recently appeared in Bachelorette uptown at Second Stage. Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble, Theatre World Award), Les Misérables (Drama Desk nomination). Off-Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (upcoming at NewYork Theatre Workshop), Saved (Playwrights Horizons), Juno (City Center Encores!), Little Fish (Second Stage), Summer of ’42 (Variety Arts), Kindertransport (MTC). Favorite regional credits include Johanna in Sweeney Todd (Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Celebration), Emily in Our Town (Intiman Theatre) and Clara in The Light in the Piazza (Goodman Theatre). TV: “Law & Order,” “Heartland.” Film: Mariachi Gringo. Celia is a graduate of the University of Michigan, musical theatre department. (As of December 2010)
Playwrights: A Small Fire (Drama Desk & Lucille Lortel nominations), Prayer for my Enemy. Broadway: Beautiful, Hairspray, Losing Louie, Mamma Mia, Hollywood Arms (Tony Award), Chicago, Seussical, Cabaret (Drama Desk & Outer Critics’ Circle nominations), Triumph of Love, Crazy for You (Drama Desk nomination), Mail. Select Off- Broadway: Picnic, 17 Orchard Point, Giant, The Paris Letter (Drama Desk nomination), Hello Again, Merrily We Roll Along. Michele is Board Chair of American Theater Group, and proud faculty member at Wagner College.
Most recently appeared in the Shakespeare on the Sound production of Othello (dir. Joanna Settle). He also appeared in the Public LAB production of Philip Roth in Khartoum by David Bar Katz (dir. John Gould Rubin). Other theatre credits include Satisfy Me by Johnny Garcia (dir. Andrew Borba, Lillian Theatre in Los Angeles); Ohio Tip-Off by James Yoshimura (dir. Kenneth Leon, Dallas Theater Center); and Troilus and Cressida (dir. Mark Wing-Davey, Delacorte in Central Park). TV/film credits include “ER,” “Girlfriends,” “The Flight of the Conchords,” “The King of Queens,” “Blue Bloods,” Copland, The Preacher’s Wife and Me and Mrs. Jones. The Shakespeare Lab, 2009. M.F.A., NYU. (As of December 2010)
Creative Team
Loy Arcenas
Scenic DesignerIlona Somogyi
Costume DesignerDavid Weiner
Lighting DesignerRobert Kaplowitz
Sound DesignerLori Ann Zepp
Production Stage Manager
Photos of (1) Victor Williams and Michele Pawk; (2) Michele Pawk and Reed Birney; (3) Michele Pawk, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Reed Birney; and (4) Victor Williams and reed Birney by Joan Marcus.
CRITICS' PICK! A theatrical combo plate that proves unusually satisfying. Quietly moving, raucous, funny and unexpectedly touching, life’s darkest terrors and most visceral delights both play a role. It’s hard to keep from getting appropriately teary.
Unforgettable. Watching A Small Fire, I almost felt that Adam Bock had written it to prove that we have, in New York, the best actors in the world.
With an ear for true-to-life dialogue, an eye for deftly developed characters and a nose for narratives that never lead where you expect, Adam Bock excels at taking audiences to surprising places.
