Aurora Theatre Company

Aurora Theatre Company is a prominent regional theatre located in the San Francisco Bay Area, known for its dedication to producing plays that emphasize important ideas, language, and character. Founded in 1992 by Barbara Oliver and a collective of professional Bay Area theatre artists, the company originated from the successful world premiere of Dorothy Bryant's "Dear Master." The founders envisioned a theatre where the power of words and the portrayal of characters would take precedence, supported but not overshadowed by technical elements like sets and lighting. For its initial nine seasons, Aurora Theatre Company operated out of the Berkeley City Club, performing on a three-quarter thrust stage with a capacity of 67 seats. In 2001, after a successful $2.5 million capital campaign supported by the community, government, and foundations, the company relocated to a new 150-seat theatre in the burgeoning Downtown Berkeley Arts District. The move proved to be a success, and by 2007, another capital campaign allowed the company to expand into a second space, which opened in 2009 as the Dashow Wing. This expansion included Harry’s UpStage, a 49-seat black box performance space, complementing performances in the main 150-seat Alafi Auditorium. Barbara Oliver led the company during its first twelve years, after which Tom Ross, who had been with the company since its inception and directed over 30 productions, took over as Artistic Director in 2004. Ross introduced the Global Age Project, a new play discovery program that ran for a decade, presenting staged readings of new plays from national and international playwrights.