Tom Ross News

Due to popular demand, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add a second extension week of performances of John W. Lowell's suspenseful psychological thriller THE LETTERS, the first fully staged production in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage.

Due to popular pre-sale demand, a year in advance, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will extend Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning TALLEY'S FOLLY, the second fully staged production to be performed in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage. The company will add a sixth show to the existing performance weeks and will extend the original run dates an additional two weeks. Aurora Theatre Company pays homage to Lanford Wilson with "The Talley Trilogy." Acclaimed Bay Area actress and director Joy Carlin (After the Revolution, Body Awareness, Jack Goes Boating, Awake and Sing!) directs the first entry in this series of three interrelated plays.

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 22nd season is David Mamet's powerful, fast-paced drama AMERICAN BUFFALO. 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, featuring James Carpenter (John Gabriel Borkman, The Master Builder, The Birthday Party, The Homecoming), Paul Vincent O'Connor (Death Defying Acts, National Tour August: Osage County), and Rafael Jordan. AMERICAN BUFFALO plays June 13 through July 13 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. For mature audiences.

M. Lindsay Bierman, editor in chief of Southern Living magazine, has been elected chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts by the Board of Governors of the 17-campus University of North Carolina. UNC President Tom Ross placed Bierman's name in nomination April 11 during the board's regular April meeting.Bierman, 48, will assume his new duties August 1, succeeding James Moeser, who has served as interim chancellor since John Mauceri stepped down from the post last June.

The regular season will be staged August 2014 through July 2015 at the intimate Aurora Theatre in the downtown Berkeley arts district. For single tickets ($32-$60) or subscriptions ($155-$305), the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Subscriptions on sale March 27. Single tickets on sale for subscribers July 29 and on sale August 5 to the general public.

Holliday Grainger, Olivia Hallinan, Emily Taafffe and Paul McGann will head the cast at Southwark Playhouse from April 3, it was announced today.

The 10th anniversary MusiCares MAP Fund® benefit concert will honor Black Sabbath's GRAMMY®-winning singer/songwriter OZZY OSBOURNE

Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as prize winners by a committee of local directors for the ninth annual Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theater: #therevolution by Kristoffer Diaz; Technicolor Life by Jami Brandli; Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman; and Welcome Home by Stephen Brown. The selected GAP plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 10-March 3, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams' provocative new play, Gidion's Knot (January 31-March 2), directed by Jon Tracy.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's edgy and earnest A BRIGHT NEW BOISE. The show will run today, November 8-December 8, 2013.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's edgy and earnest A BRIGHT NEW BOISE. Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross helms this comedy about faith, family, forgiveness, and second chances, featuring Robert Parsons, Patrick Russell, Gwen Loeb, Megan Trout, and Daniel Petzold. A BRIGHT NEW BOISE playsNovember 8 through December 8 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional 6 performances of its current hit production of Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog's (4000 Miles, Belleville, The Great God Pan) family drama AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 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. Featuring Adrian Anchondo, Jessica Bates, Peter Kybart, Sarah Mitchell, Ellen Ratner, Rolf Saxon, Victor Talmadge, and Pamela Gaye Walker, AFTER THE REVOLUTION plays at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley now through October 6 (added performances: Tuesday, October 1, 7pm; Wednesday, October 2, 8pm; Thursday, October 3, 8pm; Friday, October 4, 8pm; Saturday, October 5, 8pm; Sunday, October 6, 2pm). For tickets ($32-50) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

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 REVOLUTION. 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. Featuring Adrian Anchondo, Jessica Bates, Peter Kybart, Sarah Mitchell, Ellen Ratner, Rolf Saxon, Victor Talmadge, and Pamela Gaye Walker, AFTER THE REVOLUTION plays tonight, August 30 through September 29 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's edgy and earnest A BRIGHT NEW BOISE. The show will run November 8-December 8, 2013. 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. Will doesn't really want the job, but his estranged son works at the store and Will is a man on a mission - to bond with the boy 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 way, Will tries to reconnect with his son before the end of the world. Called "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.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company presents the final Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with Lynn Nottage's RUINED today, July 15, 2013.

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 REVOLUTION. 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. Featuring Adrian Anchondo, Jessica Bates, Peter Kybart, Sarah Mitchell, Ellen Ratner, Rolf Saxon, Victor Talmadge, and Pamela Gaye Walker, AFTER THE REVOLUTION plays August 30 through September 29 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Critics and audiences agree that THIS IS HOW IT GOES shouldn't go anywhere anytime soon. Aurora Theatre Company announces that is will add an additional five performances of its current hit production of Neil LaBute's edgy comic drama THIS IS HOW IT GOES, directed by Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross (A Delicate Balance). Featuring Aldo Billingslea (Collapse), Gabriel Marin (Collapse, Jack Goes Boating), and Carrie Paff (A Delicate Balance, Collapse, Betrayal), THIS IS HOW IT GOES presents a one-two punch after LaBute's Fat Pig (staged at Aurora in 2009). Tweaking perspectives of truth and interpretation to broach sharp questions about race, love, and manipulation, THIS IS HOW IT GOES plays at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeleynow through July 28 (added performances: Tuesday, July 23, 7pm, Thursday, July 25, 8pm, Friday, July 26, 8pm, Saturday, July 27, 8pm, Sunday, July 28, 2pm).

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company presents the final Aurora Script Club meeting of the season with Lynn Nottage's RUINED on July 15, 2013.

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 21st season is the Bay Area Premiere of Neil LaBute's dark, edgy comic drama THIS IS HOW IT GOES, directed by Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross (A Delicate Balance). Ross helmed LaBute's The Shape of Things, the first LaBute play produced in the Bay Area, in 2003. Featuring Aldo Billingslea (Collapse), Gabriel Marin (Collapse, Jack Goes Boating), and Carrie Paff (A Delicate Balance, Collapse, Betrayal), THIS IS HOW IT GOES presents a one-two punch after LaBute's Fat Pig (staged at Aurora in 2009).

It is with great sadness that Aurora Theatre Company announces the passing of the company's founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver due to complications from a recent stroke. Barbara passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 20 at her Berkeley home, surrounded by family.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company is proud to announce a call for submissions for its ninth 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 and March of 2014; the festival will coincide with the company's fully-staged Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams's incendiary new play GIDION'S KNOT, directed by Jon Tracy (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity). Each of the four prizewinners 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 June 3; deadline for play submission is July 31, 2013. Finalists will be announced in early December 2013.