Staff

Co-Artistic Director: Cassie Beck

Cassie Beck is the proud Co-Artistic Director of Crowded Fire. Past performance credits with the company include, Trojan Woman, Top Girls, A-A-America, One Big Lie, Slow Falling Bird, and We Are Not These Hands, directed by Kent Nicholson. Other Bay Area credits: All My Sons, Living Out and Be Aggressive at TheatreWorks, The Haunting of Winchester at San Jose Rep, Communicating Doors at Marin Theatre Company, 3F 4F at the Magic Theatre, Thursday at Encore Theatre Co., The Marriage of Figaro at Centre Rep, and On the Verge with the Napa Valley Repertory Theatre. Cassie recently workshopped the latest Adam Bock play, The Drunken City, in NYC at Playwright's Horizons. Cassie has participated in several new play readings, including TheatreWorks and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has also served as choreographer for several Bay Area productions.

Co-Artistic Director: Kent Nicholson

Kent Nicholson directed Crowded Fire’s World Premiere production of We are not These Hands by Sheila Callaghan. He also serves as the New Works Director at TheatreWorks, where he created The New Works Initiative, TheatreWorks' program to develop musicals and plays for World Premiere Production. Among the many projects he has developed are TheatreWorks successful productions of Striking 12, Memphis, and Baby Taj. He also directed the critically acclaimed productions of All My Sons, Vincent in Brixton, and Ambition Facing West for the company. In addition to his work for TheatreWorks, Nicholson has distinguished himself as one of the regions most prominent directors of new plays. His credits include the Off-Broadway productions of Five Flights by Adam Bock and Wet by Liz Duffy Adams. Locally his credits include: Five Flights and Thursday for Encore Theater; Stones in His Pockets for Magic Theatre; Dog Act, and Swimming in the Shallows for Shotgun Players; Small Tragedy for the Aurora Theater Company; and Tenders in the Fog for San Jose Stage Company. He also co-adapted and directed the long running hit Sacrament! with Dave Eggers and Campo Santo theater company, and The Good German at Marin Theater Company. His work has been seen in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Tucson, and Portland. He currently serves on the board of directors for The National Alliance of Musical Theater.

Managing Director: Tiffany Cothran

Tiffany Cothran joined Crowded Fire in April of 2007 with a focus in marketing, assuming the role of Managing Director shortly thereafter. You may have come accross her written work in marketing, dramaturgy and education at a variety of local theaters including CalShakes, the Aurora, and TheatreWorks. An arts education advocate, Tiffany served as the Associate Director of Education at TheatreWorks for three years before taking some time off to have her first child. She has also directed at the Aurora with Kent Nicholson and occasionally works with the Department of Theatre at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia.

Production Manager: Amanda Melton

Since graduating from SFSU with a degree in Theatre Arts and a minor in English Language Studies, Amanda spends her time working as a stage manger, production manager, and technical director. With Crowded Fire, she’s worked on Juan Gelion Dances for the Sun, Big Death & Little Death, and Anna Bella Eema. Other theatre company credits include Primitive Screwheads (The Chainsaw Massacres), Demon 13Z Productions (Crazy Go Nuts), Into the Breach (Otherwise, Andronicus), foolsFURY (Big Love) and Woman’s Will (Lord of the Flies, Richard III, Happy End, Twelfth Night). Amanda also dabbles in film & television. Some of the projects in which Amanda has appeared (both in front of and behind the camera) include Haiku Tunnel, Heart of the Possible, The Matrix Reloaded, Presidio Med, and Insomniac with Dave Attell.