World Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's THE TAMING Plays Crowded Fire Theater, Now thru 10/26

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) presents the World Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's crackling modern farce THE TAMING, opening Monday October 7 and running today, October 3-26 at the Thick House in San Francisco's Potrero Hill. Directed by Marissa Wolf, THE TAMING hilariously takes on America's overheated political rhetoric, some surprising truths about our founding fathers, and the passions of three slightly insane women who just might be revolutionary geniuses. THE TAMING was commissioned and developed through CFT's The Matchbox: Commissioning and Developing New Plays Series.

THE TAMING marks Lauren Gunderson's return to Crowded Fire with this commission after the wildly successful 2011 world premiere of her rollicking EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR (the first full Gunderson production in the Bay Area) which has had many productions regionally and nationally. "We were eager to work with Lauren again," said Crowded Fire Artistic Director Marissa Wolf. "She writes with such startling humor and breathtaking poignancy, and her use of sharp, nuanced language is a splendid fit with Crowded Fire's aesthetic. Lauren's plays always offer rich roles for women and give tremendous agency to underrepresented female voices in both a modern context and throughout history. It's a match made in heaven."

*Simultaneous world premiere productions presented at Crowded Fire Theater (SF) and ArtsWest (Seattle) Concurrently with CFT's run of THE TAMING, New Yorker cartoonist and author Tom Toro will have an exhibit of his cartoons at the legendary coffee house Farley's in it's Gallery at 1315 18th St. San Francisco on Potrero Hill. Tom Toro's cartoons will also be shown in the Thick House lobby.

Initially inspired by The Taming of The Shrew, Gunderson's farce THE TAMING grew out of her desire to wrestle with potent elements inside the Bard's playful and problematic battle of the sexes. Inside the heightened, cheerfully absurd world of THE TAMING Gunderson spanks America's sound bite politics with the switch of actual history and proves Shakespeare's point that true debate is hot. Hey, y'all, can we talk? THE TAMING features actors Marilet Martinez, Marilee Talkington and Kathryn Zdan with dramaturgy by Laura Brueckner.