mina morita - director
she/her/hers
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MINA MORITA is the Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater, a critically acclaimed and vital company specializing in adventurous new play production in San Francisco. She is dedicated to the development of a contemporary theatre canon that reflects the diverse world in which we live. Previously, she served as the Artistic Associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and was part of the originating team for its Ground Floor Program, which is a center for the creation and development of new work. During her time at Berkeley Rep, Mina has artistically coordinated the Fireworks Festival, directed "Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again", and directed a staged reading of "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later." As assistant director there, she has worked with a number of directors including Tony Taccone for Tony Kushner’s "The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures", and with Les Waters for Sarah Ruhl’s "In The Next Room, or the vibrator play" (which received a Tony nomination). In 2012, Mina worked with Anna Deavere Smith as the artistic coordinator for her play "On Grace" at Grace Cathedral.
As a freelance director, she has worked at Shotgun Players ("By and By", "The Great Divide", and "The Norman Conquest’s Round and Round the Garden"), Just Theater ("Underneath the Lintel"), TheatreFIRST ("Fire Work"), Sleepwalkers Theatre ("The Nature Line"), Aurora Theatre Company’s Global Age Project, Playwrights’ Foundation, Impact Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, and Bay Area Children’s Theatre, among others. She is currently directing Crowded Fire's "The Shipment" by Young Jean Lee and looks forward to directing Center Rep's "Sisters Matsumoto" by Philip Kan Gotanda. She is the proud recipient of Theatre Bay Area’s 2014 award for Best Director of a Musical: Tier II for her development of "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" a new musical produced by Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and this year was recognized as a TBA 40@40 for her impact on Bay Area Theater. Currently, Mina is directing Crowded Fire alum Christopher Chen's Aulis: An Act of Nihilism in One Long Act at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Playhouse. She is also thrilled to be directing J.C. Lee’s Crane at Ferocious Lotus Theatre and Idris Goodwin’s Blackademics at Crowded Fire Theater Company later this year. Mina recently served as Board President of Shotgun Players and is one of the original founders of Bay Area Children's Theatre where she served as interim Executive Director in 2011. She is currently enjoying a three-year tenure on the Zellerbach Family Foundation’s Community Arts Panel. She holds a degree in directing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, was awarded the Bret C. Harte Fellowship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, received the National Arts Strategies Future Leadership Fellowship, and participated in the 2014 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. In 2015, Mina was honored to share her story on TEDx, and this year, she was chosen as one of the YBCA100, for "asking questions and making provocations that will shape the future of culture." 
Christopher Chen's AULIS: AN ACT OF NIHILISM IN ONE LONG ACT. Photo by Pak Han.
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