Crowded Fire Theater is thrilled to announce the appointment of Laura Brueckner in the freshly created staff position of Director of New Work. Starting in 2012 as Director of New Work, Ms. Brueckner will manage and produce The Matchbox: Commissioning and Development programs, cultivate relationships with new writers locally and nationally, act as lead dramaturg for our season productions, manage the Literary Committee, and offer an integral voice in CFT’s season planning process.
Previously a Resident Artist with the company, Ms. Brueckner has recently acted as dramaturg on the development and world premiere productions of Forever Never Comes by Enrique Urueta, and Sticky Time by Marilee Talkington. “This position will have a tremendous impact on the long-term programmatic innovations within the company,” says Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, “Laura brings incredible new play savvy, fierce intelligence, and a buoyant sense of humor that will serve to bolster and grow our new play programming.”
The Director of New Work will be able to take a more engaged role with each playwright, promoting in-depth conversations about a new play’s needs, thereby strategically creating and implementing workshops and meetings tailored to each new play’s unique journey. By creating this position, CFT furthers our deep investment in play development, promoting a deeper integration between commissions, development, and production, in addition to offering greater access for playwrights nation-wide who wish to connect with the company.
About Laura
Laura Brueckner is a dramaturg specializing in new play development and digital dramaturgy. Since her internship for dramaturgy and literary management at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, she has enjoyed working with numerous Bay Area theatre companies and festivals, including ACT, Berkeley Rep, Crowded Fire Theater, Last Planet Theatre, PlayGround, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the National Queer Arts Festival. Laura joined Crowded Fire in 2010 after her maiden voyage with the company, serving as dramaturg for the world premiere of Enrique Urueta’s Forever Never Comes, directed by Mary Guzmàn. Laura earned her BA with Honors from UC Berkeley in Dramatic Literature, and is currently studying for her Ph.D. in theatre at UCSD, where she has dramaturged for several productions, including Medea, directed by Isis Misdary and Danton’s Death, directed by Dominique Serrand. She has taught theatre history at UCSD, and story analysis atSonomaStateUniversity, and is currently the Associate Editor at Theatre Bay Area.
About The Matchbox
Over the course of our last three seasons, The Matchbox has become a more formalized component of our artistic programming. The program’s growth includes an expanded Matchbox Reading Series, featuring free public readings of four new plays; a robust Matchbox Commissions program, through which we commission 1-2 playwrights per season; and several in-house Matchbox Workshops which provide playwrights with a full team of collaborators for up to one week in-house development of scripts.
The Matchbox offers substantive work for artists in the Bay Area community. Between 2007 and 2012 The Matchbox will have hosted 15 new plays in development, offering roles to 230 professional actors. By our 2013 season, 9 of these plays will have been produced in our mainstage season, drawing audiences between 500-700 patrons to each show. Another three plays developed in The Matchbox Reading Series have received premieres at other theaters.
