David Dower
(Co-Producer and Executive Director)
Like the Fingers founders, David Dower’s journey as a theater producer began in San Francisco, where he founded Z Space and produced over fifty productions over a twenty-year span.
From his place behind the bar at Zuni Cafe, David launched the original Z Collective, comprised of waiters, bartenders, and maitre d’s, producing a dozen shows over five years before morphing into The Z Space, which is still in operation in the Mission District. In that time, David began a long collaboration with monologist Josh Kornbluth, with whom he developed and directed new works for the stage including Ben Franklin: Unplugged, Love & Taxes, Citizen Josh, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?, Sea of Reeds, and staged the films Red Diaper Baby and Mathematics of Change in 2006. David also developed and directed new works by many Bay Area artists and ensembles, including Anne Galjour, Gary Leon Hill, Charlie Varon, and Word for Word.
David led Z Space for 12 years before leaving to assume the role of Associate Artistic Director at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. In six seasons there he oversaw the production of three Tony-winning shows (33 Variations, Next to Normal, and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff) and the development of three shows that ultimately earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Next to Normal, Fun Home, and Sweat). He also oversaw the production of the long-running hit Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, which re-established DC’s long-dormant Lincoln Theater, Ellington’s home theater, and the record-breaking hit Oklahoma, which opened the new Arena Stage building and ultimately sold over $5 million in tickets in its two extended runs there.
David then became Artistic Director at ArtsEmerson, in Boston, where he presented a season of international theater in four venues in the city’s theater district, including The 7 Fingers’ shows Sequence 8, Traces, Cuisine & Confessions, Réversible, and Passengers. He returned to San Francisco at the end of 2020 to assume the role of Executive Producer for The 7 Fingers US operations and lead the Club Fugazi project.