Tom Ross News

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced a call for submissions for its eighth season of the Global Age Project (GAP) festival of new works. The company will choose four new plays to be presented as staged readings with professional directors and actors during the GAP festival in February of 2013; the festival will coincide with the company's fully-staged World Premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's OUR PRACTICAL HEAVEN, directed by Allen McKelvey, the third Aurora main stage production to develop from the GAP. Each of the four finalists will receive a $1,000 award and their work will be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company's regular season; out of town artists will receive travel and accommodation expenses. The submission period opens today, May 22; deadline for play submission is July 31, 2012. Finalists will be announced in early December 2012.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced a call for submissions for its eighth season of the Global Age Project (GAP) festival of new works. The company will choose four new plays to be presented as staged readings with professional directors and actors during the GAP festival in February of 2013; the festival will coincide with the company's fully-staged World Premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's OUR PRACTICAL HEAVEN, directed by Allen McKelvey, the third Aurora main stage production to develop from the GAP. Each of the four finalists will receive a $1,000 award and their work will be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company's regular season; out of town artists will receive travel and accommodation expenses. The submission period opens May 22; deadline for play submission is July 31, 2012. Finalists will be announced in early December 2012.

Closing Aurora's 20th season is the World Premiere of SALOMANIA, Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross's first new play commission for the company, written and directed by award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson (Metamorphosis, Salome, Miss Julie). Workshopped and developed at Aurora in 2010, SALOMANIA features Madeline H.D. Brown (Metamorphosis), Mark Anderson Phillips (Small Tragedy), Alex Moggridge (Betrayed), Liam Vincent (California Shakespeare Theater), Anthony Nemirovsky (Awake and Sing!), Marilee Talkington (Crowded Fire), and Kevin Clarke (Shotgun Players). SALOMANIA plays June 15 through July 22 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced the third Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with Anna Deveare Smith's Pulitzer-nominated play Fires in the Mirror on Monday, April 30, 2011 at 7:30pm at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 94704.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced the third Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with Anna Deveare Smith's Pulitzer-nominated play Fires in the Mirror on Monday, April 30, 2011 at 7:30pm at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 94704.

Closing Aurora's 20th season is the World Premiere of SALOMANIA, Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross's first new play commission for the company, written and directed by award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson (Metamorphosis, Salome, Miss Julie).

Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company has announced the lineup for its 21st season.

The Bay Area Critics Circle Award nominations are in and Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company, now celebrating its 20th season, garnered 33 nods for the company's 2011 productions, the most of any company in its theater tier in the Bay Area. Top honors included nominations in the Drama category with recognition going to A DELICATE BALANCE, METAMORPHOSIS, THE ECCENTRICITES OF A NIGHTINGALE, and THE SOLDIER'S TALE. Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross received two nominations for direction, as well as a co-directing nomination with Muriel Maffre. The 33 nominations are a record number for Aurora, the most nominations received during the company's 20 seasons.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces three new donor contributions made in support of the company's current 20th anniversary season.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company presents the second Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with playwright Bill Cain's (Equivocation, Nine Circles) Stand-Up Tragedy. Cain introduced Stand-Up Tragedy to the American stage 20 years ago, telling a story in music and dance through characters who feel like puppets gambling with their fate in an 'ecology of evil.'

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, along with GAP Producer M. Graham Smith and GAP Associate Producer Deborah Taylor, announces the four plays chosen as finalists by a committee of local directors for the seventh annual Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theater: The Hummingbirds by Garret Jon Groenveld; In a Word by Lauren Yee; Rasheeda Speaking by Joel Drake Johnson; and Ashes, Ashes by Kevin Christopher Snipes.

The puppet and its master are one. Gracefully and poetically, they move together. The puppet's face remains still, but seems to convey a hundred emotions. The puppeteer's face changes with the puppet's character, mimicking what the character feels. Yet the character has another master. The Devil has made a deal with this character and will manipulate him like a puppet until he owns him. No, this puppet's name is not Pinnochio, and his master is not Gepetto. Prima ballerina Muriel Maffre controls Joseph the puppet in Aurora Theatre Company's innovative production of "The Soldier's Tale," which follows a soldier and his deals with the Devil and includes music by Igor Stravinsky (known for "The Rite of Spring" and "The Firebird Suite").

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces three new donor contributions made in support of the company's current 20th anniversary season.

Aurora Theatre Company presents a fusion of dance, music and acting in its production of 'The Soldier's Tale' now through December 18. The show features music written by Igor Stravinksy. Directors Muriel Maffre (choreography) and Tom Ross (staging and acting) tell Broadway World about the show, which tells of a soldier and his deal with the Devil. Muriel, herself, takes to the stage as the puppeteer behind the soldier puppet, which she originally conceived for a music festival at Orcas Island.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company presents the second Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with playwright Bill Cain's (Equivocation, Nine Circles) Stand-Up Tragedy. Cain introduced Stand-Up Tragedy to the American stage 20 years ago, telling a story in music and dance through characters who feel like puppets gambling with their fate in an 'ecology of evil.'

In 1930s Berlin - an intriguing city of jazz and underground cabaret overpowered by the rise of Hitler and World War II - the daughter of a Jewish family falls in love with their black shabbes goy (a term used for those who assist Jews on the Sabbath with tasks forbidden to Jews within Jewish law). Fast-forward to the tale of a mixed-race couple in seemingly unprejudiced modern-day Brooklyn, where the same family is coping with a number of calamities. Shalom Baby is a touching and very funny exploration of love, family and friendship.

Aurora Theatre Company proudly opens its 20th anniversary season with renowned American playwright Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning brutal comedy of manners A DELICATE BALANCE. Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross helms a remarkable cast for A DELICATE BALANCE, including Aurora co-founder Ken Grantham and the company's first leading lady (Candida), Kimberly King. Jamie Jones makes her Aurora Theatre Company debut and Bay Area favorites Anne Darragh, Charles Dean, and Carrie Paff return to the Aurora stage, rounding out this spectacular ensemble. A DELICATE BALANCE closes October 9 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

Critics and audiences alike have struck a perfect balance with Edward Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE. Due to popular demand, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional second week of performances of its current hit production of A DELICATE BALANCE, the company's 20th anniversary season opener; the production, originally extended through October 16, will now extend through October 23.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 20th anniversary season with renowned American playwright Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning brutal comedy of manners A DELICATE BALANCE. Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross helms a remarkable cast for A DELICATE BALANCE, including Aurora co-founder Ken Grantham and the company's first leading lady (Candida), Kimberly King. Jamie Jones makes her Aurora Theatre Company debut and Bay Area favorites Anne Darragh, Charles Dean, and Carrie Paff return to the Aurora stage, rounding out this spectacular ensemble.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 20th season celebration with an enchanting, one-of-a-kind collaboration between Artistic Director Tom Ross and former San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Muriel Maffre with a re-imagined production of Igor Stravinsky's THE SOLDIER'S TALE.