Crowded Fire is committed to collective leadership rooted in distributed responsibility and shared stewardship. At the heart of CFT’s practice is the insistence to build collective power, not just among the leadership team, but also with the artists and audiences.
The theater field is undergoing momentous transformation in leadership positions nationwide. Recognizing this opportunity, we seek to disrupt systems of gate-keeping and power-hoarding upheld by people in leadership positions (traditionally white male-held roles) by empowering an incoming generation of historically-marginalized future leaders who are questioning the very structures of those systems.
As institutions sustaining ourselves largely with public funding, and therefore held in the public trust, we have a responsibility to ensure that our artistic work exceptionally and boldly engages in the concerns and complexities of our often under-represented communities. This means supporting the vision of leaders who are a part of these communities and naturally serve with this at heart.
In Spring 2023, CFT began this new and revolutionary model in order to disrupt systems of gate-keeping and to empower an incoming generation of BIPOC and historically marginalized leaders through mentorship, peer-learning and institutional support. This shift was emblematic of the organization’s longstanding culture of innovation, collaboration, and equity. Over the past three years, CFT has learned that effective shared leadership is not only about structure, but also about culture, practice, and accountability.
After three years of experimenting with a Shared Leadership Team that included five to seven leaders, CFT announces a transition in 2026 to a smaller leadership cohort of three Co-Executive Directors. Crowded Fire remains committed to collective leadership rooted in distributed responsibility and shared stewardship. At the heart of CFT’s practice is the insistence to build collective power, not just among the leadership team, but also with the artists and audiences.
This organizational restructuring comes at a time of great introspection in the field around the role of arts organizations during national upheaval. CFT has learned what the Bay Area theater ecology needs and believes they will be able to better serve the artistic community with a smaller, more nimble team. As the world changes and the needs of CFT’s artists shift, the leadership structures will continue to evolve.
The Co-Executive Directors will focus on specific functions (with overlap, and cross-training) and share high-to-mid-level organizational and programming decisions:
View the team’s bios by clicking on their names above.
From Board President, Karina Gutierrez:
Crowded Fire Theater’s commitment to artistic risks extends beyond its courageous productions and is reflected in the organizational structures that sustain its mission. This new structural recalibration comes after much collective reflection and emanates from our unwavering commitment to equity, transparency, and accountability, and provides our Co-Executive Directors with more well-defined roles and responsibilities to better mentor, support, and grow our local artistic ecosystem. I am confident this thoughtful transition will deepen the company’s artistic impact, locally and nationally. The Co-Executive Directors, who all began as Crowded Fire artists and have played a role in shaping this new era of shared leadership, are poised to lead Crowded Fire with compassion, creativity, and vision.
From the three Co-Executive Directors Julie, Nailah, and Riley:
We are thrilled to be embarking on this adventure together! For nearly 30 years, Crowded Fire has been the fertile ground for artists to nurture their courage and make radical transformative theater that bridges the local and national theater ecologies. In this next phase of Crowded Fire, we will continue this legacy of creating rigorous and resonant programming that is deeply embedded in the needs of our local arts community. We are honored to tend this soil, so that the next generation of artist-activists have a home to play, risk, and practice in community.
“Being good at sharing isn’t always glamorous enough to make headlines, but for years Crowded Fire Theater has low-key excelled at it. The 26-year-old San Francisco theater company and Campo Santo co-employ resident playwright Star Finch, and shares administrative space and an office worker with Golden Thread Productions. Alongside Magic Theatre and Playwrights Foundation, it also created an antiracist training program called Making Good Trouble.
Now Crowded Fire is taking what might be its boldest step yet by dissolving its traditional hierarchical management in favor of a seven-person shared model where all have “leader” in their titles.”
– Another S.F. theater is ditching the hierarchical leadership model
Lily Janiak, The San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, September 14, 2023
“The single voice that hovers over the company’s inclusive and diverse theatre makers has been multiplied by seven. Equal distribution of power is the thing, and with the fiscal health of the company being solid, this was the right time to implement changes.
What’s on the horizon is thrilling, an opportunity to completely re-examine how theaters can share leadership in the most ideal and supportive way.“
– ‘An incredible process’: Crowded Fire shakes up leadership structure
David John Chávez, Bay Area Plays.com, August 9, 2023
Photo by Cheshire Isaacs
