Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) kicked off the 2013 Season with the Matchbox Reading Series (MBRS) playing to capacity houses January 28 - February 5, at CFT's new home the Thick House, a theater in San Francisco. MBRS featured new works by three extraordinary local playwrights, Christopher Chen, Lauren Gunderson, and Geetha Reddy, and by the internationally acclaimed Australian playwright, Lachlan Philpott. Committed to diversifying the canon of contemporary plays, Crowded Fire champions playwrights whose work offers a vital contribution to the American theater landscape.
"We believe art is always political," states Crowded Fire Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, " in order to move toward a more just society, theaters must offer a wider range of aesthetics and voices on our stages." The 2013 Season productions reflect the social, the personal, and the political. Crowded Fire Theater's Mainstage season launches in April with the West Coast Premiere of THE BEREAVED a wickedly funny take on Sex, Drugs, and the American Dream by Thomas Bradshaw (April 4-27 Opening April 8) staged by Marissa Wolf. The summer begins with the world premiere of 410[GONE] a frenetic and richly poetic look at the bonds of love between siblings in a landscape ruled by the Goddess of Mercy and Monkey King by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (June 6-29, Opening June 10) directed by Evren Odcikin. The season concludes in October with the The World Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's THE TAMING (October 3-26 Opening October 7) a Crowded Fire commission directed by Marissa Wolf, The Taming is a mashup of America's cracked political rhetoric and the sexy power play of Shakespeare's Shrew. "Southern Fried Politics."Videos