Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. said that when smoke from a spate of wildfires turned the skies over the Bay Area an ominous orange on Sept. 9, 2020, he woke up in the morning thinking it was the middle of the night.

The eerie experience motivated Jackson — the artistic director of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company — to create a musical about that memorable day, he said.

“This was a snapshot in our very recent history when the representation of the turmoil we were dealing with — an orange sky — was undeniable,” Jackson said. “It was the universe, God, Buddha, Allah’s way of saying, ‘Wake up, notice what's going on. Don't pretend we can continue business as usual. Do something, make a plan.’”

“That day activated me to make a play to get people to care about the climate and our world,” h

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