Another Bay Area theater is ‘suspending' as industry's free fall continues
Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company plans to 'suspend' producing shows in the 2025-26 calendar, taking a possible step toward closure.
The company hopes to continue to exist in some smaller form, Artistic Director Josh Costello told the Chronicle in advance of announcing the news Tuesday, May 13, 'But what it comes down to is the income is just not matching expenses anymore.'
He noted a $500,000 operating deficit and a 50% decrease in the company's subscriber count compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.
'We can't do another season like this in '25-'26, and it's obviously really disappointing,' he said.
The move marks the latest major loss in a Bay Area theater scene that's been hemorrhaging companies since the pandemic.
Its 'Crumbs From the Table of Joy,' running through May 25, followed by 'The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe' starring Marga Gomez and running July 10 through Aug. 10, could be the last Aurora shows in its 150-seat space, located conveniently near the Downtown Berkeley BART station.
For 33 years, the Aurora has been renowned for language-forward theater performed by exceptional Bay Area actors in an up-close venue. Its deep-thrust shape means other audiences' reactions, right across the stage from you, are as much a part of the show as the scenery.
The actors — who revere the company for its longstanding tradition of paying union and non-union performers the same — feel the closeness, too.
'They can't hide,' Costello said. 'They can't lie. They have to be fully in it all the way through, and it's exhilarating.'
Aurora's productions, said interim board president Rebecca Parlette-Edwards, who's been a subscriber since the company's second season, 'put forth truths that I hadn't really thought about, but there they are.'
It's not just coveted gigs and A-list performances under threat by the suspension but also new contributions to the art form. Aurora commissioned and premiered 'Eureka Day,' which just got nominated for a Tony Award.
Playwright Jonathan Spector, who wrote 'Eureka Day,' said the suspension inspired not just grief but 'a fear about the Bay Area theater ecosystem more widely.'
A vibrant theater ecosystem, he continued, needs 'theaters of different sizes and different styles and different interests that allow people to have an artistic life, and I really wonder about the viability of that in the region in the next five to 10 years.'
He placed Aurora firmly in the 'middle rung,' explaining that without such professional but perpetually resource-strapped institutions, it's not clear how artists can climb from theater held together with gaffer tape, Red Bull and college acting class bonds to the art form's upper echelons.
After Aurora achieved its emergency fundraising campaign goal of $500,000 last fall, Costello attempted to meet the harsh economic realities by planning a crowd-pleasing season with well-known playwrights — Noël Coward, Lynn Nottage — and cutting more than half of his full-time staff. But audiences still didn't return, he said, and running a company with just four full-timers was 'not sustainable.'
'People have been making a heroic effort, but people are tired,' he said.
Costello was outspoken about what he sees as the reason for audiences' changing preferences.
'The pandemic was a trigger point, but I don't think it was the cause,' he said.
He blamed social media and smartphones, which isolate us, literally drawing our gaze downward. Theater, he continued, 'is all about being in a room with other people and sharing in a communal act of imagination.' Social media, by contrast, 'makes us feel like it's us or them,' he said. 'It makes us feel that the individual is what matters.'
As the staff and board ponder next steps, one option is to move into a smaller space. A second is to turn the venue into an arts hub in which other companies share space and software systems such as ticketing and payroll, helping Aurora pay its rent to Gordon Commercial.
A third is to focus on co-producing; Aurora is already partnering with Marin Theatre on 'Eureka Day' in the fall.
For now, Aurora is fundraising with a three-to-one match campaign to complete its current season 'with the same kind of integrity this company has always had,' Costello said.
The company forewent another emergency drive.
'We all felt it was disingenuous to do it two years in a row, because then it's not an emergency campaign,' he explained. 'It's just, you don't have a business plan.'
Costello is only the third artistic director in Aurora's history, succeeding Tom Ross and, before that, Barbara Oliver. He started in 2019, so he didn't even get to have a full season before the pandemic kiboshed his plans. Reflecting on his tenure, he told the Chronicle that his appointment was 'not a stepping stone' but 'a dream job.'
Aurora has brought classics to skin-tingling life. In Alice Childress' backstage drama 'Trouble in Mind, ' a triumphant Margo Hall impaled Black stereotypes, and Ross' 'A Delicate Balance' seemed to realize the platonic ideal of Edward Albee's comedy of bourgeois unease. Mark Jackson's take on 'The Arsonists' made excruciating and delicious the backflips and somersaults the privileged will make to avoid seeing the costs of their mistakes, even as fascism approaches.
The company has also shown new sides of beloved actors. Elsewhere the ubiquitous James Carpenter often plays Shakespeare's royals, but at Aurora fans could see him twitch as an overconfident lowlife in 'American Buffalo' or smolder with mystery and menace in 'The Children.' In 'Born With Teeth,' Dean Linnard didn't just reveal infinite facets; he sliced from one to another with a jeweller's precision.
If Aurora's suspension evolves into a permanent closure, it will hardly be alone. California Shakespeare Theater, Cutting Ball Theater, Bay Area Children's Theatre, PianoFight, TheatreFirst, American Conservatory Theater's master of fine arts program, foolsFury and Exit Theatre's Eddy Street venue have all closed in recent years, while Custom Made Theatre Co. and Mugwumpin both went into long-term hibernation. San Francisco nonprofit musical theater company 42nd Street Moon stopped producing without even making a public statement or responding to press queries.
'For a couple of years now, everybody's been saying, 'I hope this is the bottom, and then we'll start to climb our way out,' ' Spector said, adding he hoped there was no further nadir to plumb. 'But I don't know.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
This is the best moving ending of the decade
Dear Mick: For me, the end of a movie is what makes it memorable or forgettable. Some powerful endings that come to mind for me are 'Chinatown' and 'Body Heat,' neo-noirs that were allowed to have authentic endings as opposed to the moralistic ones required under the Production Code. What are your picks? Catherine Bator, San Francisco Dear Catherine: The best ending of a movie in the last decade is the ending of ' Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.' (Spoilers ahead, if you haven't seen the film.) Writer-director Quentin Tarantino teases you for over two hours, making you dread that you're about to witness the Manson murders. Then he diverts from the true history and has the Manson family killed by two fictional characters, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The audience is exhilarated, but Tarantino doesn't stop there. Tarantino lets the energy settle back down. He has Sharon Tate invite the DiCaprio character to her house, and he makes the pace relaxed enough that we go back to remembering that this is just a movie, and that in real life Tate and her friends were murdered in the most horrific ways imaginable. So we experience a complicated mix of emotions, in which we're happy for the people in the movie, but sad about the real world — and sad that we have to live in that real world, even as we appreciate that movies can make it a little better. In this, Tarantino celebrates cinema in a brand-new way, and touches on an essential sadness in the disconnect between art and life. Hi Mick: You wouldn't include Stanley Kubrick as one of the greatest of American directors? 'Dr. Strangelove,' 'Lolita,' 'The Shining,' 'A Clockwork Orange,' '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Steve Ventrello, Napa Hi Steve: He might very well be great, but to make my Mount Rushmore, I'd have to love his work, and I just don't. He's too cold for me. Dear Mick: Your obsession with Gene Hackman's personality is starting to sound a bit peculiar. Is his friendliness, or lack of, really relevant to his work as an actor? If being a nice guy were a qualification for creative achievement, there would be many fewer actors, painters, musicians, etc. Thomas Wood, Nicasio Dear Thomas: I think the two of us need to track down this peculiar fellow who is obsessed with Gene Hackman's personality, who thinks his friendliness or lack thereof is relevant to his work as an actor, and who thinks that being a nice guy is a qualification for creative achievement. Then we can both disagree with him! In the meantime, you haven't found that peculiar fellow, and I have no idea why you're sending me his mail. For the record, I didn't give any thought to Gene Hackman or his personality since I wrote his obituary 10 years ago (we write them in advance); don't think his friendliness to strangers in art galleries is of any importance; and I'm the guy who's ready to welcome back Kevin Spacey — though Bill Cosby is a bridge too far. Dear Mick LaSalle: I read your piece in the Chronicle and wonder why ' The Penguin Lessons ' didn't come to mind as a good movie about animal-human friendship. Suzanne Cross, San Francisco But thank you for bringing up penguins, because I'd totally forgotten about ' My Penguin Friend ' (2024), which is a wonderful, fact-based movie about an old fisherman (Jean Reno) and his friendship with a penguin who comes to visit him every year. That made my top 10 list in 2024. Dear Mick LaSalle: ' The deft Lepard '? Ouch! Larry Schorr, San Francisco Dear Larry Schorr: You're referring to my praise of Nick Lepard, who wrote the movie ' Dangerous Animals.' I thought of it this way: Since the guy did a deft job, why, just because his name is Lepard, should I hesitate pouring some sugar on him? If I held back, I'd be f-f-f-fooling, or, even worse, I'd be bringing on the heartbreak.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Hamill leaves Luke Skywalker behind and rediscovers himself in ‘The Life of Chuck'
Mark Hamill is quick to point out that he considers the Bay Area his true home, and not just because he was born in Oakland or that it's where ' Star Wars ' first took shape in the mind of creator George Lucas. Although Hamill's family moved frequently due to his father's career as a U.S. Navy captain — with stints in Virginia and San Diego — the actor speaks about the Bay Area with an authentic fondness. He still has family here, including his older brother William, a psychiatrist, and Hamill says he has visited often. 'San Francisco is where my second son was born, when I was (onstage) in 'Amadeus,'' Hamill told the Chronicle by phone from Los Angeles, where he's lived for decades since starting his acting career. 'So many great restaurants. It's one of my favorite cities of all time.' That appreciation for place and for life's small joys has taken on deeper meaning for the 73-year-old actor, who helped launch the 'Star Wars' franchise as Luke Skywalker back in 1977. He and his wife escaped the Los Angeles fires in January. Their Malibu home survived thanks to an extensive water protection system they installed after fires threatened their home in the early 1990s, but is inhabitable for now because of the condition of the neighborhood. He said they took a one-year lease on a house and will likely have to extend it, though they hope to eventually return to the home that means so much to them. ('We were married in the backyard,' Hamill said.) Meanwhile, Hamill is keeping busy with work, reveling in what he thinks is one of his best roles in the life-affirming movie ' The Life of Chuck,' which is currently in theaters. In the film, directed by horror veteran Mike Flanagan, Hamill delivers a standout onscreen monologue. Considering that the speech extols the hidden allure of mathematics, on the surface not the most exciting of subjects, it clearly took an actor of significant skill to pull off. 'It's funny because math was never my strong suit in school,' Hamill said with a laugh. 'He's a sort of unremarkable man who probably drinks a little too much and is probably dull company, but he's absolutely electrified by math. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life, because there's no real through line, and his passion is not my passion, but it defines who the character is.' Based on a Stephen King novella, ' The Life of Chuck ' is a the story of a man's life told in three sections in reverse chronological order. There is an apocalyptic opening chapter starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan, followed by glimpses of Chuck Krantz's life. Tom Hiddleston plays Chuck as an adult, while Benjamin Pajak and Cody Flanagan play him as children. Hamill appears in the film's second half as Albie Krantz, Chuck's alcoholic grandfather, a man blind to the beauty in his own story, even in its brightest chapters. His character crucially acts as a counterpoint to the film, which celebrates life even while acknowledging its transience. 'There's so much that I got to take away from Mark,' Benjamin, now 14, told the Chronicle in a separate video interview. 'One of the things is that he stays in his character the whole day. He became Albie Krantz. It was a little scary at times — scary in a good way because he completely transformed into the character and he made a hell of a performance out of it. Spending that time with him is just moments that will stick with me forever.' When told of Benjamin's comments, Hamill said, 'I learned from him! I wish he was my real grandson.' As for the film, Hamill said audience reaction has been 'a revelation.' He had been nervous because, 'I didn't expect to ever be in anything this original again.' 'I love hearing back from people,' Hamill said. 'I didn't see it with an audience until the Toronto Film Festival (in September). I was just astonished at how they were with us from the get go. They laughed and applauded. At the end, there were people who had tears in their eyes.' Hamill added that people have told him that it reminds them of the Frank Capra classic 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946). But while his character might not be able to appreciate life during adversity, Hamill says he most certainly does. He is as much in demand as ever. He was given a lifetime achievement award at April's CinemaCon and soon will be seen in another King adaptation, 'The Long Walk,' a dystopian horror film. It is Hamill's third King adaptation; prior to 'The Life of Chuck,' he appeared in 'Sleepwalkers' (1991), filmed in Bodega Bay. One role he appears to be moving on from, however, is Luke Skywalker, whom he recently voiced in the Disney+ limited series 'Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy' (2024). He told NBC's 'Sunday Today' program recently that future planned 'Star Wars' series are focused on new characters, and he's OK with that. 'I had my time,' he told 'Sunday Today' host Willie Geist. He later walked that back a bit, emphasizing that he had not been asked to reprise the role and that he assumed the character's death ended things. But he hopes to work again with Flanagan, whom he met when the filmmaker cast him as Arthur Pym in the Netflix series ' The Fall of the House of Usher ' (2023), based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story. After that, Flanagan immediately wanted him for 'The Life of Chuck.' 'Mike is just a really nice person,' Hamill said. 'I've never seen him lose his temper or get angry and when you go on one of his sets, it's a safe place. And as good a director as he is, he's really underrated as a writer.' He added he'd play anything for Flanagan, whether it involved math or not.
Epoch Times
19 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Fire and Glass: The Art and Craft of Milon Townsend
This spring Masarik then put The Epoch Times in touch with Townsend, a man who has devoted nearly his entire life to working in glass and teaching his skills to others. It turned out that Milon—'Rhymes with smilin',' he told The Epoch Times—Townsend had quite a story to share both about his book and his art. Bringing Beauty to an Ugly Time As happened to so many Americans, the COVID-19 lockdowns left Townsend and his wife Kiyoko feeling isolated. Many of their sales outlets were shuttered by the pandemic. 'It kind of put a lot of people out of business, people like me,' Townsend said.
