Crowded Fire Theater Announces Regional and World Premieres for 2025 Season

Crowded Fire Theater has announced its 2025 season, the first selected and produced under its new radical Shared Leadership model. In addition to two mainstage productions, we're expanding its reach with the continuation of artist-centered Initiatives and the return of Matchbox Reading Series. The company is also strengthening its Shared Leadership team by adding Rose Gibson as the new Leader of Management & Operations.

First in the season is the experimental, form-breaking West Coast Premiere of The Last Of The Love Letters: A Meditation On Loneliness by Ngozi Anyanwu, directed by Nailah Unole Dida-Nese'ah Harper-Malveaux. Hold on? Or leave it behind? Two isolated humans unravel and examine the thing they love the most. With fierce humor, aching poetry, and piercing honesty, theatrical powerhouse Ngozi Anyanwu asks, “How does love transform us—and the world—both in its presence and absence?” Offering a plea and a painful goodbye wrapped into one, The Last of the Love Letters gets to the heart of what it is to love and be loved.

Next is the thrilling World Premiere of limp wrist on the lever by Preston Choi, directed by Becca Wolff. This raucous dark comedy by rising star Preston Choi puts teens at the helm of a revolution. A queer trio's escape plan from a conversion camp takes a left turn as they face off against a straight-laced counselor with an unusual sadistic streak. limp wrist on the lever questions the necessity of violence and the paradox of tolerance, with the ever-present doubt: how can you ever be sure you've really changed someone's mind?

The Shared Leadership team shares about the upcoming productions: “These are bold, timely plays exploring questions of revolution and liberation, asking us, ‘What is at stake? What are we building towards? What will we do to accomplish it, and what are we willing to lose? How will we know when true change has happened?'”

Beyond mainstage programming, CFT is gearing up for an exciting year of development, continuing its deep investment in Bay Area artists and leaders. The compaby recently hired Rose Gibson as the new Leader of Operations & Management, while Julie McCormick stepped into the Leader of Finance & Fundraising role. “After joining the team in August 2024, Rose's role includes an essential administrative focus on ticketing, facilities, and human resources. With this final addition, we're looking forward to learning and growing as a Shared Leadership team throughout Rose's first full season at CFT,” shares Leader of Artistic Curation & Marketing Leigh Rondon-Davis. 

In addition to two mainstage shows, Crowded Fire's 2025 Matchbox Reading Series will return in the late fall, featuring new plays in development by local and national writers. CFT will announce artists and dates for the series later this season. 

Finally, as part of its Initiatives serving local artists, the 2024 Ignite Fund awarded nearly $8,000 to support the growth of and enhance the working lives of Bay Area theater designers and technicians through a competitive grant process.⁠ ⁠We're honored to announce Dilpreet Anand (video design), Dan Holland (sound design), Jules Indelicato (sound design), Inéz Nuñez de Arco (sound design), Tajianna Okechukwu (projection design), and Ray Oppenheimer (lighting design) as the seventh cohort of Ignite Fund awardees. They are preparing to open the 2025 Ignite Fund application and the Audition & Solo Performance Intensive applications later this year.

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