Eugenie Chan, Linda Maria Girón, A-lan Holt, and Julius Rea, with support from Lisa Marie Rollins, Mina Morita, and Caro Asercion

Crowded Fire is thrilled to share four new works created by the playwrights in our Resilience & Development Lab!

Reserve Tickets

Our 2020-21 cohort of playwrights—Eugenie Chan, Linda Maria Girón, A-lan Holt, and Julius Rea—began meeting in December 2019, just before the world as we knew it changed irrevocably. This astounding group of artists continued to meet virtually throughout the pandemic, forming a community in which they held and supported one another through the year’s challenges, loss, and grief.

After countless rewrites, revisions, (and the occasional existential crisis), the playwrights are excited to share their works in development with the Crowded Fire Community. Join us for a month of readings and help us celebrate these artists and their powerful works!

The R&D Lab is co-facilitated by Lisa Marie Rollins (CFT Resident Artist) and Mina Morita (Crowded Fire Artistic Director).
The R&D Lab Readings are Line Produced by Caro Asercion (CFT Producing Artistic Associate).

Public Readings

Thursday, May 6, 2021 – amémonos // let us love each other by Linda Maria Girón
Reading – 7:00pm PST | Post-show Conversation – 8:30pm PST
Marcelo Javier, Director | Karina Gutierrez, Dramaturg | Kayla May Paz Suarez, Choreographer
Featuring Vero Maynez, Rose Portillo*, L. Duarte
With support from Stephanie Alyson H., Penelope Gould, and Natalia Delgado

Untimely. Uncertain. Unrequited. Unemployed. When newly discarded graduate Karina Inés makes an inconvenient pilgrimage back home, Kari is surprised to find Abuela Eulalia exactly as she was six years prior. Trapped between languages, time, and house keys, Kari and Eulalia are confronted with a choice; reckon with ghosts of a secret unrequited or lose each other in the haze of an uncertain future.

Reserve Tickets

Thursday, May 20, 2021 – Kaleidoscope by Julius Rea
Reading – 7:00pm PST | Post-show Conversation – 8:30pm PST
Leigh Rondon-Davis, Director | Caro Asercion, Dramaturg
Featuring Zaya Kolia, Nailah Harper-Malveaux, Ryan Marchand, Lilia Houshmand
With support from Toni Guidry, Solomon Casado

As industrious engineer Ervin explores his past, the memories of his two childhood best friends defend him through an exploration of his mother’s mysterious abandonment.

His joyful memories with Geo and Cielo juxtapose his urgency to find a deeply hidden memory. Tinged with humor and nostalgia, this narrative also explores the nuances of navigating young adulthood with queer and BIPOC identities.

Reserve Tickets

Internal Readings (by invitation only)

In memoriam a piece in development by Eugenie Chan
A series of elegies for the Asian American dead.

The Bottom of Heaven by A-lan Holt
Amissa Miller, Dramaturg
Featuring Gabby Momah, Dorien Blue, Kenny Scott
With support from Stephanie Alyson H., Penelope Gould

In the basement of a residential high-rise, two strangers find themselves alone in a makeshift bedroom. They lay on top a mattress and dream together; while dreaming they being to hallucinate; while hallucinating they soon fall in love. All of this happens while a party rages on in the room above them. Part love story, part lullaby to today’s youth generation, The Bottom follows Blue and Eunice’s first and final night together.

Community Events
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 – Artist Highlight: R&D Lab Playwrights
Crowded Fire’s Twitch Stream | 8pm PST
Join us on our weekly Twitch Stream for a virtual Fireside Chat! Learn more about the R&D Lab playwrights, their processes, and pieces in development, followed by an opportunity to ask questions and be in conversation with the artists.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers