Aurora Theatre Company Announces 2013-14 Season

Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company has announced the lineup for its 22nd season. The company opens the season with the highly-anticipated Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog's AFTER THE REVOLUTION, directed by Joy Carlin.

Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross helms the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Obie-winning A BRIGHT NEW BOISE. The company is also poised to present the Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams' provocative GIDION'S KNOT, directed by Jon Tracy. Josh Costello makes his Aurora directing debut with the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, by David Davalos. The 22nd season concludes with David Mamet's searing drama AMERICAN BUFFALO, directed by Barbara Damashek. As a special addition to the season, Aurora Theatre Company presents its first fully-staged production in the company's new Second Stage performance space, Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing; award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to direct this sixth addition to the season, John W. Lowell's taut two-person drama THE LETTERS.

The regular season will be staged August 2013 through July 2014 at the intimate Aurora Theatre in the downtown Berkeley arts district. For single tickets ($32-$60) or subscriptions ($150-$260), the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Subscriptions on sale March 28; single tickets on sale August 1.

In chronological order, the Aurora 2013-14 season is as follows:

AFTER THE REVOLUTION
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Joy Carlin
Bay Area Premiere
August 30-September 29, 2013 (Opens: September 5)

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog's (4000 Miles, Belleville, The Great God Pan) family drama AFTER THE REVOLTION. What happens when the person you revere isn't exactly who you think they are? The young, brilliant Emma Joseph is a high achiever shaken to the core by disillusion. She proudly carries the torch of her family's Marxist tradition by devoting her life to the memory of her famously blacklisted grandfather, but when a new book reveals shocking truths about the man himself, the entire family is forced to confront questions of honesty and allegiance they thought had long ago been resolved.
AFTER THE REVOLTION opened off-Broadway in 2010 at Playwrights Horizons. Called "smart, engrossing...bold and hilariously moving" by The New York Times, this insightful, and often-humorous, family portrait, for which Herzog was awarded the 2012 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, examines how the tally of right and wrong in life cannot easily be measured, and questions whether or not the end ever really justifies the means. Joy Carlin (Body Awareness, Jack Goes Boating, Awake and Sing!) directs this drama about what we do with history and how we appropriate it for our own personal needs.

A BRIGHT NEW BOISE
By Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Tom Ross
Bay Area Premiere
November 8-December 8, 2013 (Opens: November 14)

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's edgy and earnest A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, directed by Artistic Director Tom Ross. A comedy about faith, family, forgiveness, and second chances, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE premiered off-Broadway in 2010 and is the recipient of the 2011 Obie Award for Playwriting and a 2011 Drama Desk nomination for Best Play.

In the break room of a Hobby Lobby craft store in Idaho, the seemingly innocuous Will, an ex- Evangelical cult member who has fled his rural hometown after a scandal involving his fundamentalist church, applies for a job. He is on a mission - to bond with his estranged son before the impending Rapture occurs. Enlisting the aid of his new co-workers, a group of eccentric characters who are also struggling to find their own way, Will tries to reconnect with his son before the end of the world. Christened "funny, compassionate and disturbing all at once" by the LA Weekly, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE offers a quintessentially American slice of life look at the minimum-wage working class and the challenges of modern faith.

GIDION'S KNOT
By Johnna Adams
Directed by Jon Tracy
Bay Area Premiere
January 31-March 2, 2014 (Opens: February 6)

Jon Tracy (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) returns to Aurora Theatre Company to helm the company's Bay Area Premiere of playwright Johnna Adams's incendiary new play GIDION'S KNOT.
Adams is the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Award for playwriting and was a finalist for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In GIDION'S KNOT, a parent/teacher conference begins with a concerned mother wanting answers as to why her son was suspended from his 5th grade class. Was he a bully? A victim? A protector? Their discussion develops into a dramatically charged, volatile exploration of personal responsibility, freedom of expression, the failure of our school system, bullying, and blame.

Called "heart-stopping" by Washintonian Magazine, this provocative exploration of culpability received its World Premiere in 2012 at The Contemporary American Theater Festival. Published in its entirety in American Theatre Magazine, and a finalist for the 2012 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, GIDION'S KNOT raises profound questions about parenting, maternal loyalty, and who is ultimately responsible for the actions of our children. For mature audiences.

GIDION'S KNOT will be the fully-staged anchor production in this season's Global Age Project, an Aurora Theatre Company initiative that encourages playwrights and directors to explore life in the 21st century and beyond. In addition, several new plays dealing with global age concerns will be chosen from an international pool of playwrights and presented in a series of developmental readings during the run of GIDION'S KNOT.

WITTENBERG

By David Davalos
Directed by Josh Costello

Bay Area Premiere
April 4-May 4, 2014 (Opens: April 10)

Aurora Theatre Company presents the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, David Davalos' hilarious mash-up about reason versus faith. It is October 1517 and the beginning of another fall semester at the University of Wittenberg finds certain members of the faculty and student body at personal and professional crossroads. Hamlet (senior, class of 1518), suffering from a sudden crisis of faith, has just returned from summer break with a revelation that threatens the very order of the universe. As the Prince who should be King laughably ping-pongs between the contrary advice of Martin Luther (Professor, theology) and Doctor John Faustus (Professor, philosophy), two of history's most stubborn intellectuals go head-to-head in comic combat for the conflicted Dane's allegiance. Will Faustus, the philosopher with a lust for life, win the confused young man's mind, or can Luther, the cleric who ignited the Protestant Reformation, win his soul?
This smart, audacious comedy premiered at the Arden Theatre in 2008 and is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. The New York Times dubbed the play "crackling good...Hilarity, thy name is WITTENBERG," while the Philadelphia Inquirer praised "Finally - a decent Protestant Reformation comedy!" The New York Post called WITTENBERG "...a delightful romp that's as accessible as it is thought-provoking. Tom Stoppard, eat your heart out." Josh Costello (Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse) directs this smarty-pants celebration of history, language, academia, and religion.

AMERICAN BUFFALO
By David Mamet

Directed by Barbara Damashek

June 13-July 13, 2014 (Opens: June 19)

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 22nd season is David Mamet's powerful, fast-paced drama AMERICAN BUFFALO. Set during one long day, three small-time crooks of great ambition and low morals make plans to rob a man of his valuable coin collection, including what they believe to be an extremely valuable "Buffalo nickel." As the day goes on, paranoia builds, motivations change, and loyalties shift, with characters wielding words like weapons to intimidate and manipulate each other. A little out of luck and way out of their league, when the con goes awry, it's every man for himself. Widely recognized as a modern masterpiece, The Washington Post declared "American Buffalo remains a gleefully flinty slice of burnt-out life: taut, funny and, in the end, surprisingly touching," and The New York Times stated "sizzler, searing and dynamite...can still be used to describe 'American Buffalo,' which age has not withered or staled."

One of Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet's defining works, AMERICAN BUFFALO was instantly hailed as a new American classic when it opened on Broadway in 1977. Mamet's cunning portrait of small-time thievery won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play in 1977, has been nominated for numerous Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and garnered an Obie Award for Best New Play in 1976. Tony-nominated director Barbara Damashek, who helmed Aurora Theatre Company's acclaimed productions of Fat Pig and Private Jokes, Public Places, returns to direct AMERICAN BUFFALO. For mature audiences.

Special added attraction:

THE LETTERS
By John W. Lowell

Directed by Mark Jackson

Professional Bay Area Premiere
April 17-May 25, 2014 (Opens: April 24)

As a special addition to the 22nd season, Aurora Theatre Company presents its first fully-staged production in the company's new Second Stage performance space, Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing. Award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to the company to direct this sixth addition to the season, John W. Lowell's suspenseful psychological thriller THE LETTERS.

THE LETTERS is a riveting two-person drama that lays bare a vivid slice of paranoid life under Stalin. Set in a 1930s Soviet era office, the director in a nameless government agency engages in an "interview" with one of his employees. Anna, a demur buttoned-down servant of the state, has no idea as to why she has been called into the office of her superior. She is wary and tight-lipped, as her job, the systematic practice of censorship and disinformation, has taught her to take nothing at face value. As she tries to figure out the reason for the meeting, details gradually begin to emerge and suspicions are directed towards her. The director seems to have a hidden agenda, or is it Anna who has an agenda of her own?

A nimbly executed game of cat-and-mouse, THE LETTERS was dubbed "a duel of wits at the crossroads of art and politics" by the Los Angeles Times, and "a personal, Pinteresque dance of menace" by the Chicago Tribune.

Named "Best Theater Company" in 2012 by SF Weekly, Aurora Theatre Company continues to offer challenging, literate, intelligent stage works to the Bay Area, each year increasing its reputation for top-notch theater. Located in the heart of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District, Aurora Theatre Company has been called "one of the most important regional theaters in the area" and "a must-see midsize company" by the San Francisco Chronicle, while The Wall Street Journal has "nothing but praise for the Aurora." The Contra Costa Times stated "perfection is probably an unattainable ideal in a medium as fluid as live performance, but the Aurora Theatre comes luminously close," while the San Jose Mercury News affirmed "[Aurora Theatre Company] lives up to its reputation as a theater that feeds the mind," and the Oakland Tribune declared "it's all about choices, and if you value good theater, choose the Aurora."

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

WHAT: Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company proudly announces the lineup for its 22nd season. The company opens the season with the highly-anticipated Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog's AFTER THE REVOLUTION, directed by Joy Carlin. Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross helms the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Obie-winning A BRIGHT NEW BOISE. The company is also poised to present the Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams' provocative GIDION'S KNOT, directed by Jon Tracy. Josh Costello makes his Aurora directing debut with the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, by David Davalos. The 22nd season concludes with David Mamet's searing drama AMERICAN BUFFALO, directed by Barbara Damashek. As a special addition to the season, Aurora Theatre Company presents its first fully-staged production in the company's new Second Stage performance space, Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing; award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to direct this sixth addition to the season, John W. Lowell's taut two-person drama THE LETTERS.

The regular season will be staged August 2013 through July 2014 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

SCHEDULE:
AFTER THE REVOLUTION
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Joy Carlin
Bay Area Premiere
August 30-September 29, 2013 (Opens: September 5)

A BRIGHT NEW BOISE
By Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Tom Ross
Bay Area Premiere
November 8-December 8, 2013 (Opens: November 14)

GIDION'S KNOT
By Johnna Adams
Directed by Jon Tracy
Bay Area Premiere
January 31-March 2, 2014 (Opens: February 6)

WITTENBERG

By David Davalos
Directed by Josh Costello

Bay Area Premiere
April 4-May 4, 2014 (Opens: April 10)

AMERICAN BUFFALO
By David Mamet

Directed by Barbara Damashek

June 13-July 13, 2014 (Opens: June 19)

Special added attraction:

THE LETTERS
By John W. Lowell

Directed by Mark Jackson

Professional Bay Area Premiere
April 17-May 25, 2014 (Opens: April 24)

Performances Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 2pm and 7pm

WHERE: Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA

TICKETS: For single tickets ($32-$60) or subscriptions ($150-$260), the public can call
(510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Tickets for the Harry's UpStage production, THE LETTERS, will be $32, or available to subscribers to add on with their subscription purchase for $28.

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