Aurora Extends MUD BLUE SKY Through Today

Critics and audiences agree -MUD BLUE SKY soars! Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional 5 performances of the Bay Area Premiere of the company's season opener, Marisa Wegrzyn's (Hickorydickory, The Butcher of Baraboo) MUD BLUE SKY. Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross (Fifth of July, A Bright New Boise, This Is How It Goes, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance) helms this profoundly compassionate, fiercely witty new play, featuring Jamie Jones (Gidion's Knot, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance), Rebecca Dines (The Homecoming, Widower's Houses), Laura Jane Bailey, and Devin O'Brien. MUD BLUE SKY plays now through October 3 (added performances: Tuesday, September 29, 7pm; Wednesday, September 30, 8pm; Thursday, October 1, 8pm; Friday, October 2, 8pm; Saturday, October 3, 8pm) at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-50) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

There was a time when air travel was considered glamorous, but when three middle-aged flight attendants reunite during a layover near O'Hare Airport, it's enough to make anyone question their aspirations in life. Joined by an unlikely fourth companion, a teenage boy adrift on his prom night, the women are poised on the brink of looking back and moving ahead. A comedy about finding common ground, MUD BLUE SKY offers an edgily humorous and tender look at work, motherhood, and missed connections, and how the small kindnesses we afford each other can inspire us to grab onto life before it flies by.

Called "exceedingly funny...truly hilarious" by the Chicago Tribune, "funny, heartbreaking and full of unexpectedly profound surprises" by the Chicago Sun-Times, and hailed as "a delightfully devilish new play" by the Baltimore Post-Examiner, MUD BLUE SKY premiered at Center Stage in Baltimore in 2013.

About MUD BLUE SKY Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "it's a very funny and heartwarming slice [of life], well-served by its cast and creative team...Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross stages [Mud Blue Sky] with a fine balance between its very funny wit and situations and the poignancy of its quotidian concerns." Karen D'Souza at the San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group declared, "The mile-high club has gone to hell in this sharply-observed 95-minute farce with poignant existential, and economic, overtones...Mud Blue Sky really takes off." Georgia Rowe at the San Francisco Examiner called the production "wistful, wryly funny ...[Mud Blue Sky] reveals the grind beneath the glamour," noting, "[Director Tom] Ross and his cast get a lot of mileage from [Mud Blue Sky's] ups and downs." Lou Fancher at SF Weekly said MUD BLUE SKY was "... well-balanced funny, furious and fond...Amid the laughs and one-liners, there's nothing flighty about Mud Blue Sky," while Leo Stutzin at the Huffington Post affirmed MUD BLUE SKY "[a] knockout production...a hilarious yet compassionate comedy." Cy Ashley Webb at Stark Insider stated, "This is no high-flying Barbie-stew... delivered with such total aplomb [Mud Blue Sky] will take your breath away."

Following MUD BLUE SKY, Aurora Theatre Company presents a special fall engagement in October, THE SUBMARINE SHOW, followed by the Bay Area Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-nominee Amy Freed's THE MONSTER-BUILDER in November, directed by Art Manke. Award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to Aurora with the World Premiere of his play LITTLE ERIK in January, followed by the West Coast Premiere of Sarah Treem's THE HOW AND THE WHY, directed by Joy Carlin and staged in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing. The season continues in April with the West Coast Premiere of David Ives' THE HEIR APPARENT directed by Josh Costello. Timothy Near makes her Aurora directing debut with the company's season closer in June, Athol Fugard's modern classic "MASTER HAROLD"... and the boys.

Voted Best Theater Company in 2012 by SF Weekly, Aurora Theatre Company continues to offer challenging, literate, intelligent stage works to the Bay Area, each year increasing its reputation for top-notch theater. Located in the heart of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District, Aurora Theatre Company, declared "one of the best regional theaters around" by 7x7 magazine, has been called "one of the most important regional theaters in the area" and "a must-see midsize company" 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 is "arguably the finest small theater in the Bay Area," and the Oakland Tribune stated "it's all about choices, and if you value good theater, choose the Aurora."

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