a world premiere by Meridith Friedman
directed by Pesha Rudnick
a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere

What people are saying

Review: Local Theater Company's The Firestorm Heats Up Dairy Arts Center, Westword
Identity crisis, Boulder Weekly
Review: The Firestorm by Meridith Friedman, ColoradoDrama.com
Meridith Friedman's The Firestorm begins performances at Dairy Arts Center, Broadway World

About the show

Gaby and Patrick are married. A hot political couple on the verge of moving into the governor’s mansion. But when the campaign is hit with an impending political scandal, the race—and Gaby and Patrick’s marriage—begins to fracture. Tensions rise. The personal becomes explosively political. And a husband and wife must confront just how strong their alliance really is.

Location

The Carsen Theater
The Dairy Arts Center
2590 Walnut Street
Boulder, CO 80302

Ticket prices

$18 / previews
$45 / opening night (includes cocktail reception)
$32 / adults
$15 / students

For group discounts of 10 or more, contact The Diary Box Office at (303) 444-7328.

Cast

Jada Suzanne Dixon (Gaby) is thrilled to be making her Local Theater Company debut. She is an artistic company member at Curious Theatre, recently seen as Shatique in White Guy on the Bus. Other Curious credits: Oba in Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet, Mama Mojo/Nia/Women Who Reminds You in In The Red and Brown Water, and Cadence in House with No Walls. Other theater: Metamorphoses (Nursemaid), The Color Purple (Darlene), A Christmas Carol (Mrs. Crachit), and Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Sister Lily Ann Green), all at Aurora Fox Arts Center; Black Odyssey (Aunt Tina/Scylla/Alsendra Sabine/Circe/Carib’dis/Calypso/Understudy), Fences (Rose/Understudy), Gem of the Ocean (Black Mary/Understudy), all at Denver Center Theatre Company; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Nurse Ratchet) at The Edge Theatre Company, Two Trains Runnin’ (Risa), Waitin’ 2 End Hell (Diane), and Macbeth (Lady Macbeth) at Shadow Theatre Company; and Doubt (Mrs. Mueller) at Off Square Theatre Company. Jada is a graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and The Institute for Advance Theatre Training at Harvard.

Iona Leighton (Leslie) trained at the State University of New York at Purchase acting conservatory where she earned her BFA. After college, she acted in theater, film and voice overs in New York City and Boston. Four years ago, she moved to Denver to earn her master’s of education degree in special education. She can currently be found recording voice overs in her home studio and working as a teaching artist with The Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Timothy McCracken (Patrick) is thrilled to be a part of the The Firestorm, after working on the play in 2015’s Local Lab. This is his Local debut. Other theatres in Colorado: numerous productions at the DCPA, Curious Theatre, CSF, Arvada, and Stories on Stage. Timothy spent 16 years in New York where he worked as an actor, teacher, producer and playwright. Off-Broadway productions: The Dining Room (Drama Desk Award), Troilus and Cressida (New York Shakespeare Fest), The Sea and The Triangle Factory Fire Project (TACT), John Merrick in The Elephant Man (Synapse Productions), and many others. Regional work: Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, TheatreWorks Hartford, Capital Rep, GeVa Theatre, Studio Arena, Alabama Shakespeare Fest and many more. His play Composition, was produced by BeaconNY Productions in New York and subsequently had its world premiere at TheatreWorks Hartford. Film/TV: Small, Beautifully Moving Parts, Fishing Naked, Tia and Marco, “Law and Order,” “Delocated” and many others, as well as numerous national commercials. Timothy received his MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, and is currently the head of acting for the adult acting program at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Maduka Steady (Jamal) was seen on Broadway in Amy’s View. NY credits: In Darfur at The Public Theater, Living Room in Africa at Theater Row, Mud River Stone at Playwrights Horizons, Scapin at Roundabout Theatre, and A Fair Country at Lincoln Center. Regional credits: Belleville at Studio Theater of DC, Stick Fly at Contemporary American Theater Festival; Intimate Apparel at Capital Repertory Theater; Noises Off at Studio Arena Theater; and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Utah Shakespearean Festival. Film/TV: "Cortex," "The Blacklist,” "Pan Am," "All My Children,""Freedomland," "Law & Order," "Sesame Street," and Lorenzo's Oil.

Production team

Meridith Friedman (Playwright) is originally from Honolulu, Hawaii and currently resides in Manhattan. She graduated from Northwestern University with an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage. Her next play, The Luckiest People, a commission from Curious Theatre Company in Denver with funding from National New Play Network, will premiere at Curious in May 2017. Meridith was the NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Curious Theatre Company for their 2010-11 season, a 2012-13 Dramatist Guild Fellow, and the recipient of a 2013-14 Downstage Left Playwriting Residency at Stage Left Theatre. Her work has also been developed and workshopped at The Kennedy Center, Chicago Dramatists, The Greenhouse Theatre Center, the NNPN National New Play Showcase, New Repertory Theatre, The Lark, Actor's Express, The Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, The American Southwest Theatre Company at NMSU, The Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, Florida Repertory Theatre, The Ashland New Play Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, and Florida Studio Theatre.

Pesha Rudnick (Director) has directed, for Local Theater Company, the world premieres of Elijah: An Adventure by Michael Mitnick, Faith by James McLindon, Peter and The Wolf (with CMF) and produces the annual new play festival Local Lab. In addition to her work at Local, Pesha has directed over 20 new works nationally, including the recent world premieres of The History Room by Charlie Thurston at Creede Repertory Theatre and O.P.C. by Eve Ensler at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. Nationally, she’s worked at the Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Curious Theatre Company, Rattletick Playwright’s Theater, 59E59, The Hangar Theater, Boulder Ensemble Theater Company, and many others. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from New York University. Pesha is a member of Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab in New York City, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).

Sophie Hernando Kofman (Stage Manager) graduated magna cum laude from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2014 with a degree in theater arts. She has been working professionally since then in many different capacities of theater, some of which include: costume assisting in The Game's Afoot and Sunday in the Park with George with Peninsula Players, stage managing for The Fantasticks, Private Lives and Sylvia with Third Avenue Playhouse, and props designing for Faith with Local Theater Company. She has also been Local's company manager since March.