The Magic Fire invites you into the lively home of an immigrant family in Buenos Aires of the 1950s. In this enchanting play, Argentinean-American playwright Lillian Groag explores the connections among memory, history, and art through the eyes of a child, revisited from the perspective of adulthood. By turns funny, loving, and politically alarming, The Magic Fire weaves a spell of tango and opera, treasured memories and hidden truths. Since its debut at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1997, The Magic Fire has been produced only a handful of times. Theatre@First is proud to give this magical work its New England premiere!

About the playwright: Lillian Groag is an American playwright, director and actor. Born in Argentina in 1945, she fled the country with her family in 1952. After several years in Uruguay, Groag came to the United States to attend Lake Forest College. She also studied at the University of Dijon in France and earned her doctorate in Romance Languages and Literature from Northwestern University. Besides The Magic Fire, Groag's plays include The Ladies of the Camellias and The White Rose, and she has published translations of many plays including Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding and Feydeau's A Flaw in the Ointment. Groag appeared in guest roles on several television shows, and she has acted and directed for regional theatres and operas, as well as on- and off-Broadway. Her plays have been produced around the world, with long-running productions in Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

About the director: Elizabeth Hunter is the founding Artistic Director of T@F. She has directed more than a dozen works here including our inaugural and 10th anniversary productions of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and, most recently, Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses in 2016. Elizabeth has also appeared in Mourning Becomes Electra (Christine), Trojan Women (Hecuba), and Equus (Dysart), as well as playing the title role in the Mrs Hawking series written and directed by Phoebe Roberts for Bare Bones: Staged Readings at T@F. She has acted and directed with various community and collegiate theatre groups throughout the Boston area.