The company was formed in October, 1990, with a staged reading of Howard Barker's Crimes in Hot Countries. its first fully mounted production, the Northern California premiere of The Widow's Blind Date by Israel Horovitz, was produced at La Val's Subterranean Cabaret in January and February of 1991, and named a "critic's choice" selection by Bay Area theater critic, Robert Hurwitt.

From 1991 to 1996 we amassed an ensemble of Bay Area theater artists interested in working together to form a new company, began a series of play readings as we searched for material, and mounted eight full productions: a newly revised version of And Baby Makes Seven, by Paula Vogel, the American debut of Howard Barker's Crimes in Hot Countries, the California premiere of Halcyon Days by Steven Dietz, Andromache, (a radical adaptation of Jean Racine's potboiler), written and directed by ensemble member Gary Graves (and lauded as "a model of superior, low-budget theater attuned to the needs of contemporary audiences," and as "very nearly flawless"), Lonestar and Laundry & Bourbon and An Evening of Moliere One-Acts, finishing our fifth season recognized in the San Jose Mercury news as "one of two upstart companies producing some of the most interesting work in Bay Area theater..."

The following season we presented the West Coast premiere of Kafka's Dick, a comedy by Alan Bennett, which was dubbed "uproarious" and "...an evening of stimulating comedy," along with a new work, again written and directed by ensemble member Gary Graves and entitled The Golden Era. It was hailed as "impressive...," "magnetic and memorable...," and with the praise, "there's gold in Grave's Era."

The 1997 season brought a new direction to the company: with the resignation in January of our founding Artistic Director, Søren Oliver, we forged a new policy, already loosely in place, but now a governing force within the ensemble. All members accept specific jobs and areas of responsibility, but any major decision, either administrative or artistic, are consensus driven, with equal opportunity provided for all members to offer input and opinions. We then decided to extend this policy even further into the artistic arena by developing a company method for the collaborative creation of new works for the theater.

Our earlier productions offering new plays written within the ensemble had allowed for the collaborative participation of the group in the final revisions of the script. Now, borrowing form the "Joint Stock" method developed by the British-based Joint Stock Theatre Company (which has fostered such talents as actor Simon Callow, director Mark Wing-Davey, and writer Caryl Churchill), we have developed an exciting and novel approach which we hope to use as an ongoing method of production for Central Works.

After the company collectively commits to a topic of common interest, the collaborators enter a "Workshop Phase," exploring the subject matter through research assignments, interviews with experts or character models, field research, group discussions, exercises and improvisations. These are all incorporated to generate material for the rough draft of the play. During the second stage of the process, the writer rewrites, refines and polishes the script. In the final stage, the new script goes into a more traditional rehearsal process, although further revisions and expected to come out of the rehearsal experience. All collaborators, regardless of their specific roles in the productions, are creatively and collectively involved and invested in the development of the project.

Roux, our first piece to be developed employing this method, was produced in the 1997 season, playing to sold out houses. Workshops began in February, and performances ran in August and September. The audience response was wonderful. Likewise, the critical response was tremendous. The S.F. Weekly found that "...King's dialog simmers with confidence and vivid detail," while the Express described is as "...a taut, tense, intriguing scenario reminiscent of early Pinter or Albee," and the Hill Publications, recognizing the collaborative nature of the play, wrote "kudos to all concerned with this production." Reviewing both the critical and financial success of this project (we closed our seventh season, as all before it, solidly in the black), we have spearheaded a new long range project named "New Plays for the Third Millennium." Using Roux as our model for collaboratively developing plays, we have now created eight new pieces. We intend to compile a publishable body of new work with the Central Works method.