The name “First Kiss” originated from our founding team members’ shared belief in a reverence for the ordinary and art that finds the magic in the mundane. In the same way that a first kiss is a nearly universal (and in that sense ordinary) yet heavily mythologized experience, FKT seeks to platform art that elevates the everyday and artists who are always asking, “Where’s the magic?”

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​First Kiss Theatre Company was born online in 2020 via “Theatre is Dead,” a virtual festival of new work created by (and largely for) emerging artists, many of them college students or recent graduates, feeling unmoored in the freshly pandemic-fucked theatrical world and seeking new pathways to getting their work produced. Since then, our season has expanded to include multiple festivals and theatrical events throughout the year, both online and in person. Since 2021, we have hosted a hybrid residency program with an in-person summer retreat and culminating staged readings presented in New York City which make up our fall season. Members of our admin team live in New York, New Jersey, Boston, and Los Angeles, and we have collaborators all across the US and abroad.

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​Through programming like our annual February Festival, Play in a Day, and Play-Mates podcast, FKT connects and facilitates new collaborations between artists working across multiple disciplines (and sometimes across multiple time zones) to create bold, new theatrical work. Our community includes playwrights, directors, performers, dramaturgs, musicians, puppeteers, and more. Some of our artists do all of the above. At the heart of everything we do is a belief in process over product, in experimentation and play, and in embracing the DIY.

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​FKT emerged during a time when many traditional avenues for young theatre makers were disappearing. As internships shut down and fellowships lost their funding, First Kiss came together with the goal of providing whatever space and resources we could to artists interested in forging their own path. When someone needs a sound designer, someone else learns how to sound design. When one of our artists is searching for an incredibly niche prop, someone in our community (or a friend of a friend of someone in our community) is bound to have it. We’re scrappy, and we know it. As a relatively young, independent company, we have both the challenge and the privilege of working with what we have to create work that is exciting, innovative, and above all,​​​​​​​