Burn Scar: A Comedy of Catastrophic Proportions at Theatre of NOTE

Burn Scar is a new solo show written and performed by Christine Dunford, playing three performances in the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Festival. On the morning of January 7, 2025, Dunford grabbed her dogs, her medications, and her nerve, and drove three hours through gridlocked LA traffic to escape the largest wildfire in the city's history, an experience that became the basis for this show. The piece weaves together the chaos of the evacuation, the nightmare of insurance claims, sharp political observation, and the unexpected grace of a single human encounter, featuring real photos and footage from the evacuation. Dunford, a Juilliard-trained actress with credits ranging from Shakespeare at the Public Theater and Caryl Churchill on Broadway to over 100 television episodes, uses the Palisades fire and its aftermath as a lens for examining the broader hardening of the American landscape. Running time is 60 minutes.