Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company has announced the lineup for the 2013-14 season, and here’s the details.
The company opens its 22nd 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.
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The company then stages 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.
Aurora’s season concludes with David Mamet’s searing drama American Buffalo, directed by Barbara Damashek.
As a special addition to the season, we’re told Aurora Theatre Company will present 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.
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Let the show begin…
Aurora Theatre Company 2013-14 Season
AFTER THE REVOLUTION
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Joy Carlin
Bay Area Premiere
August 30-September 29, 2013 (Opens: September 5)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.
A BRIGHT NEW BOISE
By Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Tom Ross
Bay Area Premiere
November 8-December 8, 2013 (Opens: November 14)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.
GIDION’S KNOT
By Johnna Adams
Directed by Jon Tracy
Bay Area Premiere
January 31-March 2, 2014 (Opens: February 6)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.
WITTENBERG
By David Davalos
Directed by Josh Costello
Bay Area Premiere
April 4-May 4, 2014 (Opens: April 10)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?
AMERICAN BUFFALO
By David Mamet
Directed by Barbara Damashek
June 13-July 13, 2014 (Opens: June 19)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.
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)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?
