2021/2022 SEASON
THIS MUCH I KNOW
By Jonathan Spector | WORLD PREMIERE
Directed by Josh Costello
September 2 – October 2, 2022 (Opens: September 8)
The writer of Eureka Day returns to Aurora with an explosively theatrical interrogation of agency and culpability. Through his all-too-personal lectures on psychology, Lukesh attempts to unravel a mystery with his wife Natalya at the center. What happened to Natalya? The search for answers will launch us on a time-hopping fugue, weaving together the stories of Stalin’s daughter defecting to America, the son of a white supremacist growing to doubt the beliefs he was raised with, and the secret despair of an accidental killer. How do we truly make decisions? How do we change our minds? And what does it mean to be complicit?
2022/2023 SEASON
COLONIALISM IS TERRIBLE, BUT PHO IS DELICIOUS
By Dustin Chinn | WORLD PREMIERE
Directed by Oanh Nguyen
November 4 – December 4, 2022 (Opens: November 10)
Taking its inspiration from two viral incidents around cultural appropriation and food. [Chef Tyler Akin’s how-to-video for Bon Appetit, “PSA: This is How You Should Be Eating Pho,” and Dan Pashman of The Sporkful’s suggestion that you could improve bibimbap using a bundt pan,] Dustin Chinn says he “followed the rabbit hole†and wrote “a triptych about the ownership and authorship of food following the journey of Vietnamese noodle soup.†This biting comedy spans centuries, continents, and cultures in its three-part vignette structure. Beginning in 1880s Hanoi, the capital city of French Indochina, where a Vietnamese cook finds herself in the kitchen of aristocratic French settlers. Then in 1999, a century later, in Ho Chi Minh City, where American diners get their first taste of the local cuisine. Then finally, in present day, gentrifying Brooklyn, where the simmering argument around culture, ownership, and authenticity comes to a roaring boil.
PARADISE BLUE
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams
January 26 – February 26, 2023 (Opens: February 2)
Dominique Morisseau (Detroit ‘67) continues her Detroit Trilogy with Paradise Blue, a jazz-infused drama in which we meet Blue, a gifted trumpeter, who contemplates selling his once-vibrant night club in Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood. Set in 1949 against a backdrop of urban renewal, Morisseau investigates the challenges of building a better future on the foundation left to us. If Blue sells, where does that leave his devoted Pumpkin, who has dreams of her own? And what does this mean for the club’s house band? When Silver, a mysterious woman with a walk that drives men mad, comes to town with her own plans, everyone’s world is turned upside down.
CYRANO
By Edmond Rostand, adapted by Josh Costello
Directed by Josh Costello
April 7 – May 7, 2023 (Opens: April 13)
Aurora Artistic Director Josh Costello adapts the classic tale for the intimacy of Aurora’s stage. Cyrano, the famed poet-soldier, loves Roxane, but has one fear: to be mocked by a lady for his enormous nose. Young Christian has a pretty face but lacks the wit to woo. Cyrano’s words and Christian’s looks combine to form a hero of romance – but does Roxane fall in love with Christian’s face or with Cyrano’s soul? This story of unrequited love, sacrifice, friendship, and poetry all at a time of war is brought into new focus in this world premiere five-actor adaptation.
HURRICANE DIANE
By Madeleine George
Directed by Jennifer King
June 16 – July 16, 2023 (Opens: June 22)
Carol just wants her house to have the kind of gardening magazine-worthy curb appeal that will be the envy of her New Jersey cul-de-sac. But then the Greek God Dionysus returns in the guise of a butch gardener named Diane, hell bent on reversing climate change and restoring earthly order by seducing a band of mortal followers. Can Diane win Carol away from her devotion to curb appeal? Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.
Full-season (2022/2023), 4-play subscriptions are currently available ($160-$308) and offer priority seating, easy exchanges, missed performance and guest discounts, and more. New and returning subscribers can choose to upgrade to a 5-play subscription ($200-$385) by adding This Much I Know. Single tickets ($40-$78) go on sale for subscribers July 25, and on sale August 2 to the general public.
Current full-time teachers receive 20% off subscription prices, and active and retired military personnel also receive 20% off subscription prices through Theatre Communications Group’s Blue Star Theatres program. Patrons 35 and under are eligible for half-price subscriptions, and deeply discounted subscriptions are available for full-time college and high school students.
Aurora Theatre Company | 2081 Addison Street | Berkeley, CA
Subscriptions on sale May 12. Single tickets on sale for subscribers July 25, and on sale August 2 to the general public.
For tickets, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.
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ABOUT AURORA THEATRE COMPANY
As the storyteller for our community, Aurora Theatre Company inspires new audiences and longtime theatre lovers alike with the visceral power of live theatre. Our venues, the most intimate professional stages in the Bay Area, highlight great acting, nuanced language, and an immediacy that makes for exhilarating theatre. By telling profoundly relevant stories, we’re building a new culture of theatregoing in the Bay Area and contributing to a revitalization of theatre nationwide, challenging all of us to think deeper, laugh louder, and engage more purposefully and profoundly with our neighbors and our world. Aurora has an operating budget of $2.2 million.