Quantum Dragon Theatre presents FAHRENHEIT 451
Quantum Dragon Theatre, the San Francisco Bay Area’s premiere science-fiction/fantasy theatre company, launches its third season with a production of Ray Bradbury’s own adaptation of his classic science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. This flagship production, directed by QDT Artistic Director Sam Tillis, will open at the Potrero Stage—located at 1695 18th St, San Francisco—on Saturday, June 22 at 8 PM. The production, which welcomes Quantum Dragon Theatre into their new theatrical home for this season, will feature the work of Bay Area mainstay actor Dorian Lockett in the role of Fire Chief Beatty. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.quantumdragon.org.
In this dystopian classic, Guy Montag has worked for ten years as a Fireman, burning books on behalf of the state. However, when he meets Clarisse, a young woman filled with strange ideas, he finds himself drawn out of his numb complacency into a world of thoughts and feelings that pits him against his superior, the shrewd Captain Beatty, in a battle for both of their souls.
The fifteen-person cast features actors old and new from around the greater SF Bay Area. Among them are Annette Oliveira, who returns for her second QDT production after season two’s sold-out run of Ageless, and Dorian Lockett. Lockett, a mainstay of the Bay Area stage and member of Actor’s Equity Association, has graced the stages of theatres across the Bay Area, including the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Lesher Theatre, Role Players Ensemble, Custom Made Theatre, and Ubuntu Theatre Project, and has garnered multiple Theatre Bay Area awards nominations for his performances. On joining the cast of Fahrenheit 451 he says, “I am a super sci-fi/fantasy nerd! Being a part of the only theatre experience that specializes in that is beyond exciting.” He will be playing the role of Beatty.
On Quantum Dragon Theatre’s decision to produce Fahrenheit 451, director Sam Tillis says, “It’s a great honor to be entrusted with this fantastic adaptation of one of the seminal works of science- fiction literature. Fahrenheit 451 seems to become more relevant by the hour as our own world creeps ever-nearer to Bradbury’s dystopia in which the enemy is not any individual person or government, but our society’s trend towards conformity and anti-intellectualism.”
Fahrenheit 451, an Equity-approved project, is presented as part of PlayGround’s Potrero Stage Presenting Program by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.
Fahrenheit 451 runs June 22 (8pm; opening night celebration) and 23 (2pm); 27 (8pm), 28 (8pm), 29 (8pm), and 30 (2pm); and July 3 (8pm; pay-what-you-can tickets), 5 (8pm), 6 (8pm), and 7 (2pm). Tickets available April 22 at quantumdragon.org; season passes available now at patreon.com/qdt.
About Sam Tillis
Quantum Dragon Theatre Artistic Director Sam Tillis is an actor/director/writer native to the SF Bay Area. Directing credits for QDT include Universal Robots (nominated for four SFBATCC awards), Spell Eternity (a rumpus.net theatre recommendation), Speed of Light (a KQED Arts recommendation), and Civil (a TBA Awards Recommended Production). He has also directed for the stage at the SF Olympians Festival and SF Theatre Pub and for the screen with Way Up There Productions. He has acted for local companies including Shotgun Players (The Coast of Utopia), Custom Made Theatre Co. (Slaughterhouse-5), Wily West Productions (Everybody Here Says Hello!), and The Breadbox (‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Oh Dad…). When not involved in theatrics, he teaches English and History at Fusion Academy Berkeley.
About Ray Bradbury
In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. (Text from raybradbury.com)
About Quantum Dragon Theatre
Quantum Dragon Theatre is a theatre company dedicated to bringing new and classic works of science-fiction and fantasy to the SF stage, along with works in any other genre appealing to the Bay’s ‘nerdy’ subculture. Following the successes of our first and second season—plays ranging in theme from high fantasy to space opera to time travel— we’re proud to be able to present the first play of our three-play third season. For more information visit www.quantumdragon.org, ‘like’ us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or send us an e-mail at info@quantumdragon.org.