"Clicked into New Work" an Interview with Marissa Wolf

San Francisco's own Crowded Fire Theater’s artistic director Marissa Wolf sat down with me to shed some light on what it’s like to be an artistic director and what she’s looking for to put on at Crowded Fire.

Maeve Morgan:  How did you get started with Crowded Fire Theater?

Marissa Wolf:  I moved out here from the east coast and I connected with Crowded Fire at first and I asked if I could intern or assist on something, and the founding artistic director said, “sure, you can assist with dramaturgy for this show” and then she liked the work I did, so she invited me to assistant direct, and then from there she invited me to be a company member.  The other companies I was interning with at the time were playwrights foundation and fools fury so all three of those really informed my aesthetic, and I got very clicked into the new work.  That was my first relationship with Crowded Fire.

MM:  You mentioned “new work”, how do you find new plays to put on at Crowded Fire?

MW:  There’s no one way, but I read probably a hundred shows a year, new plays, or some that have been produced before so we would be a second or third production for them.  Agents send us stuff, I solicit, and we also have a director of new works who solicits from playwrights that we like and playwrights we’re interested in and want to know more about.  We scour new play festival lists from all over the country to see what looks interesting and who we might want to reach out to- that includes the playwright foundation in San Francisco who does a great job of supporting local and national playwrights.

MM:  What is something that you look for when you read all of these new plays?

MW:  In turns of my programming as an artistic director, I am looking for work that is politically and socially relevant- that is arresting, that is jarring and startling in some way.  I’m usually looking for work that’s not naturalistic because that is what most theatre is in this country right now.  I’m usually looking for work with teeth of some kind.

MM:  How do you manage directing so many shows and also being the artistic director for the entire company at the same time?

MW:  I try to be careful with my calendar and my schedule.  I say no to a lot of offers.  Every project will take as much time as you can possibly give it, so I have to be the one to draw the boundaries, and I’ve gotten a lot better at that over the years.  At first, like right out of college, most people (including myself) are just like YES, I can do every thing and anything, I don’t need any free time, and it was just not sustainable, it just was really, really unhealthy actually.  So I’ve gotten better about building that time into my calendar to just decompress.

MM:  What do you find most rewarding about being artistic director?

MW:  Producing the work.  It’s just absolutely thrilling when you have a new play that’s powerful and really hard and you see it sail forth and it opens, and people are excited and moved by it- it feels like every ounce of sweat and anxiety has been worth it. I love that part.  Basically, I think that as an artistic director you have a place to stand and move the world, and you can really carve out space for the voices you believe in in terms of new work.