What your donation goes towards:

$10 – Snacks or Coffee for our Actors and Creative Team during our long Technical Rehearsals.

$25 – 1 of Sugarpie’s 5 books in the show or a piece of a prop that will make up the trash mountain!

$50 – Actors time and energy

$75 – Goes directly to the playwright for royalties for her play

$100 – 1 costume piece for an actor in ‘Tiny Fires’

$250 – Helps pay our Dramaturg who has been working alongside the playwright to refine the script since our Undiscovered Works Festival in 2021!

$500 – A portion of our 4 designers budgets. Building everything from an in-depth scavenger land to immersive soundscapes reminiscent of Manila.

$1,000 – Helping us rent the space at CounterPulse for our 2 weeks of shows and 1 week of Technical Rehearsal.

Why Tiny Fires

Tiny Fires has been circling the Bay Area theater since 2017 and we could not be more thrilled to be producing the world premiere, but to fully produce this play we need to raise $3,000 more.

Please consider donating as every dollar goes directly to paying our incredible actors and creative team. 

The pandemic was one of the hardest times for our company. As many theater’s doors shuttered, we remained strong, waiting until we would be able to embark on the journey of producing this show.

After being wildly received during out 2021 Undiscoverd Works Festival, Tiny Fires was meant to be fully produced by Custom Made Theatre Co. in Spring 2022 and again in Fall 2022, but due to spikes in COVID we were forced to stop production. Unsure if we would be able to produce this beautiful piece, we waited until we were awarded a recent grant and were finally able to produce Tiny Fires. But as arts spaces have closed around us, the costs of producing has skyrocketted immensely. Even with out grant, we are overbuget by $3,000 on basic needs like space, props and scenic budget, and designer pay. 

Written by local playwright, poet, and activist Aimee Suzara and directed by Z Space Curritorial Director, Nikki Meñez this show is home-grown Bay Area. We would deeply appreciate your generosity to give this show it’s world premiere right here in the Bay Area!

Please consider donating today to help us reach our goal of $3,000. Every dollar counts and means the world to us and the artists we are working with.

Some Words from our Creative Team

Playwright, Aimee Suzara

“I have been interested in sharing the stories of people living near landfills since the time I visited the real-life Payatas landfill in 1999, shortly before the tragic landslide that killed at least 218 people. Scavenger communities represent 24% of the world’s population and serve an important role by saving recyclable materials from landfills–they are also often the most vulnerable to natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. In telling this story, I wanted to uplift the resilience and humanity of those who are literally cleaning up the waste of the world, living unseen in society. I also wanted to recognize the deep bonds and structures of love that are formed in the face of tragedy and survival. I hope this story helps us better face the problems we share as humans occupying this planet.”

Director, Nikki Meñez

“Aimee’s voice in this play paints a vivid picture of the lives of people of the Payatas landfill, but also an inner world within the brutal reality of these scavenging communities that is filled with poetry, magic, and color. Though the characters Sugarpie and Trixie have very different world views and coping mechanisms, the way that they treasure their dreams and their relationship with one another catch the light like a prism – at once both blinding and beckoning the audience to see the world through their experiences.”

Interim Artistic Director, Ciera Eis

“This play has been circling the Bay Area theater since 2017 and we could not be more thrilled to be producing the world premiere! Tiny Fires is such a relevant story about discovery in all its forms; from the climate crisis, cultural assimilation, scavenger culture, and the timely debate of following your dreams or deciding when to let go of them. Aimee’s expert use of language and poetry sings through her text, creating a beautiful and harsh world that leads the audience down a poignant story of activism and adventure, with some fun twists. I couldn’t imagine a better way to close out the season!”