Who we are: Board Members
Emily Rosenthal
President
Emily Rosenthal makes a home in Oakland, California. She is an HR professional focused on Talent Development throughout the U.S. for EY, a global accounting firm committed to doing its part in building a better working world. Emily graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Dance, and a focus on Contemporary Modern dance technique/choreography. Following university, she served the bay area arts institutions as a performer – acting, dancing, and drumming –and continued to perform while establishing her second career in corporate America in 2007. Emily became a mother just 2 years ago and has recently joined the board of Crowded Fire Theater. Although these things seem unrelated, they are quite tied. Emily was looking for a way to balance being a full time working mother with her desire to remain involved and active in the arts community. The opportunity to serve Crowded Fire as a board member seemed a perfect fit to accomplish that lofty goal at this time in her life, and she is very excited to team with the staff and artists in support off the company’s continued evolution. Emily’s first Crowded Fire experience – the one that hooked her on Crowded Fire – was Forever Never Comes in the 2010 season. Emily is inspired by the diversity represented in all aspects of Crowded Fire’s artistic choices. When she is not working or seeing shows she is sleeping, traveling to exotic locales, spending time with friends and family, and being a foodie about town.
The thing that I love about Crowded Fire is that the company and the artists are fearless. In their honesty and social critique, in their weirdness, and in calling on us, the audience, to engage. It is theater you experience viscerally, and talk about for days after. It is theater that challenges your perspectives and inspires you.
