AURORA Theatre Company continues 17th season with
August Strindberg's classic “Miss Julie”
April 3-May 10, 2009
Berkeley’s acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company continues its 17th season with Swedish master August Strindberg’s classic and controversial chamber play MISS JULIE. Mark Jackson, who directed Aurora Theatre Company’s stunning production of Salome, helms a memorable take on this timeless drama, starring Lauren Grace, Mark Anderson Phillips, and Beth Deitchman. MISS JULIE plays at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley April 3 through May 10. For tickets and information ($28-50) the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.
Written in 1888 and called “shocking” by early critics, MISS JULIE coupled one of August Strindberg’s favorite themes, the battle between the sexes, with an incisive portrayal of lust, class, and power. Miss Julie is the volatile daughter of a count. During the intoxication of a midsummer’s eve celebration, she attempts to escape the confines of aristocracy and flirts shamelessly with one of her servants, Jean, whom she eventually seduces. What begins as a playful contest for control rapidly escalates into an erotic dance of sexual politics and class warfare.
Award-winning director, performer, and playwright Mark Jackson returns to Aurora Theatre Company, where he helmed the company’s record-breaking production of Salome (nominated for five Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, winner for Best Production and Choreography), to direct MISS JULIE. Jackson most recently directed Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Shotgun Players, Yes, Yes to Moscow at Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany) and the San Francisco International Arts Festival, and his original play, American $uicide, at Encore Theatre Company. Additional directing credits include Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle (American Conservatory Theater MFA Program) and his plays The Forest War and The Death of Meyerhold for Shotgun Players. The Death of Meyerhold garnered a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Original Script in 2003, which Jackson also received in 2002 for his original one-man show I Am Hamlet. Jackson was the founding Artistic Director of Art Street Theatre (called “San Francisco’s Best Experimental Theatre Company” by SF Weekly), for which he wrote and directed a number of plays. He was a 2005 German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and a 2003 playwright in residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. In 2007, he was named the Bay Area’s “Best Theatrical Auteur” by SF Weekly.
Aurora Theatre Company has assembled a talented ensemble for MISS JULIE. Lauren Grace returns to the company as Miss Julie. Grace previously appeared in Aurora Theatre Company’s hit production of The Master Builder, and the West Coast Premieres of Ice Glen and Emma. Additional credits include productions at American Conservatory Theater (The Voysey Inheritance), Berkeley Repertory Theater (To the Lighthouse), and Magic Theatre (Monkey Room), among others.
Mark Anderson Phillips returns to Aurora Theatre Company as Jean in MISS JULIE. Phillips was featured in the company’s acclaimed production of Salome, directed by Mark Jackson, and in the West Coast Premiere of Small Tragedy. Additional credits include productions at SF Playhouse (Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party), TheatreWorks, Magic Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and California Shakespeare Theater, among others; he is the recipient of three Bay Area Critics Circle Awards.
Beth Deitchman makes her Aurora Theatre Company debut as Kristin in MISS JULIE. Her credits include productions at North Bay Shakespeare, Ross Valley Players, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the Dominican Fringe Festival, where she garnered an award for Best Actress.
August Strindberg (1849 –1912) wrote more than 70 plays, novels, short stories, and studies of Swedish history. He is arguably one of the most influential Scandinavian authors and is known as one of the fathers of modern theater. His works for the stage include The Outlaw (1871); Master Olof (1872); Lucky Peter’s Travels (1882); The Father (1887); MISS JULIE (1888); Comrades (1888); Creditors (1888); To Damascus, (trilogy, 1898-1902); Gustav Vasa (1899); Erik XIV (1899); The Dance of Death (1900); Easter (1900); Carl XII (1901); A Dream Play (1901); Swan Blood (1902); The Chamber Plays (The Storm, The Burned Site, The Pelican, The Ghost Sonata, 1907); and The Great Highway (1909).
Aurora Theatre Company rounds out its 17th season in June with Bob Glaudini’s unconventional romantic comedy JACK GOES BOATING, directed by Joy Carlin.
Aurora Theatre Company continues to offer challenging, literate, intelligent stage works to the Bay Area, each year increasing its reputation for top-notch theatre. Located in the heart of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District, Aurora Theatre Company has been called “one of the most important regional theaters in the area” by the San Francisco Chronicle, while The Wall Street Journal has “nothing but praise for the Aurora.” The Contra Costa Times stated, “perfection is probably an unattainable ideal in a medium as fluid as live performance, but the Aurora Theatre comes luminously close,” while the San Jose Mercury News affirmed “[Aurora Theatre Company] lives up to its reputation as a theater that feeds the mind,” and the Oakland Tribune declared “it’s all about choices, and if you value good theater, choose the Aurora.”
Miss Julie is underwritten in part by The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: Berkeley’s acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company continues its 17th season with Swedish master August Strindberg’s classic and controversial chamber play MISS JULIE. Miss Julie is the volatile daughter of a count. During the intoxication of a midsummer’s eve celebration, she flirts shamelessly with one of her servants and seduces him, thus beginning an erotic dance of sexual politics and class warfare. Mark Jackson, who directed Aurora Theatre Company’s stunning production of Salome, helms a memorable take on this timeless drama, starring Lauren Grace, Mark Anderson Phillips, and Beth Deitchman.
DATES: Previews: April 3, 4, 8 at 8pm; April 5 at 2pm
Opens: April 9
Closes: May 10, 2009
SHOWS: Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 2pm and 7pm
WHERE: Aurora Theatre
2081 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA
TICKETS: For tickets (previews $28, regular performances $40-42, limited opening night seating $50) and information, the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.
Aurora Theatre Company gratefully acknowledges the following Associate Sponsors for their support: Kathleen Garrison and David Wood, Helen and John Meyer, and Muffy and Harry Thorne. Aurora Theatre Company gratefully acknowledges the following foundations and government agencies for their support: Actors’ Equity Foundation, Alameda County Arts Commission, Berkeley Civic Arts Program & Civic Arts Commission, Dramatists Guild Fund, W A Gerbode Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, and The Zellerbach Family Fund.
