Theater artist Mina Morita is a director, but also so much more. Over the last two years, she has served as Leader of Artistic Curation & Strategy at Crowded Fire Theater, a theater group in San Francisco that focuses on new plays, as part of a shared leadership model, and prior to that, Morita had served as artistic director since February 2015.
Morita’s focus is now on new play development and long-term relationships with playwrights. “New Play theaters that say ‘yes’ to the wild, subversive, form-bending first productions of playwrights are still unique in our field,” she said. “Especially unique are those that have the ability to produce exceptionally, while centering the creating artists.”
For Morita, it’s the collaborative nature of theater that makes it magic. “I had a choice in college to pursue the visual or performing arts and initially chose the former, but as a student of the Rhode Island school for the arts, I was remarkably lonely,” she admitted. “It was suggested by the Dean at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts that I consider a directing focus when I transferred to the theater department there.”
Her early childhood experiences suggest that this is no surprise. “The sense of belonging, of creating together as part of a choral group in elementary school, is really my earliest memory of performance,” Morita remembered. “It is that spark, that thrill, that encouraged me to participate as a quiet and shy kid in theater in middle school.”
But now, Morita has years of experience, and before joining Crowded Fire, she served as the artistic associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and its center for the creation and development of new work, The Ground Floor. “When artists are brought together in true community, eating together, making in the building together, something shifts in the DNA of group and of the institution,” Morita mused. “It was a place to say yes often, even if it meant finding contributing musicians or a cast of six in a day.”
Morita’s work at Berkeley Rep reinforced for her the importance of community. “It is a reminder that we are surrounded by the brilliance and vibration of many who are in pursuit of our interconnection and the questions of our own humanity,” she said. “It is also a magnificent reminder that there are many ways of exploring these questions through this art form.”
At both Berkeley Rep and Crowded Fire, Morita has focused on centering accountability and combating white supremacy and anti-Blackness. “The most critical part of the work continues to be self-awareness in each effort of creation, building, and shaping with a team; as well as acting on our intentions,” Morita emphasized. “As Crowded Fire and the field continue to struggle through recovery during this ongoing pandemic, the shift in audience engagement due to the pandemic, and increasing material costs, it is important to Crowded Fire to stay committed to building up financial equity for our artists and staff, and budget for equitable and inclusive processes in everything we do.”
This means that the shared leadership team of seven people at Crowded Fire is paid the same hourly rate, and that everyone is involved in larger decisions that affect the organization. “This is hard work that requires additional time to talk through all the facets of each larger, strategic and programmatic decision,” Morita acknowledged. “This can mean we move more slowly on the front end. We are learning.”
And the work hasn’t always been easy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Without a doubt, supporting the survival of the artists that make up Crowded Fire throughout the pandemic was one of the hardest and most exhausting periods of my experience,” Morita recounted. “What has come out of it is a renewed sense of agency and fluidity as we have not only come together, but also built up our team into this shared leadership model. Each strategic shift has centered equity, the wisdom of the group, and the time to do so as thoughtfully as we can.”
This means that Morita prioritizes process over product, and generativity over goals. “It is important to me to focus on purpose over career, and my purpose has been and continues to be to serve and facilitate the building of artistically vibrant communities that are engaging us in culture shift through joyfully subversive and heart-rending art,” she elaborated.
And that means being hands-on. “I love being in the rehearsal room,” Morita said. “It is where I feel most alive. I love bringing together a team of people who are able to create at their best.”
