Aurora Theatre Company Announces Collaboration With Arion Press

Aurora Theatre Company announced today that Arion Press in San Francisco will print a limited edition handcrafted book of renowned American playwright Edward Albee's script for A DELICATE BALANCE; the book printing will coincide with Aurora Theatre Company's production of the play. Aurora Theatre Company opens its 20th anniversary season in September with Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning brutal comedy of manners, featuring an extraordinary ensemble of acting luminaries from the company's past and present, including Aurora Theatre Company co-founder Ken Grantham, and the company's first leading lady, Kimberly King; Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross directs. Bay Area favorites Julia Brothers, Anne Darragh, Charles Dean, and Carrie Paff will also return to the Aurora stage in A DELICATE BALANCE, rounding out the spectacular ensemble.

The book will be designed and produced by Arion Press in San Francisco, under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. All copies of the Arion Press limited edition printing of Edward Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE will be numbered and signed by Albee. The edition will also feature original artwork by renowned California artist Tom Holland, as well as a forward written by Bay Area writer and critic David Littlejohn (The Wall Street Journal). Two copies of the fine arts book were auctioned off during Aurora Theatre Company's annual Aurora Borealis fundraising gala event, held May 2, as part of an exclusive package that includes a tour of Arion Press, a garden lunch with Arion owner/publisher Andrew Hoyem, an invitation to the book release party, and four tickets to Aurora's opening night performance of A DELICATE BALANCE. The book will officially be made available for purchase when A DELICATE BALANCE opens at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley in September (September 2 through October 9; opens September 8).

In A DELICATE BALANCE, Tobias and Agnes are a typical long-married couple living in the suburbs. With several bedrooms and a well-stocked liquor cabinet, their home provides a refuge of sorts, and a measure of comfort, to their friends and family. Over the course of two evenings however, the "delicate balance" of their uneasy existence begins to topple. Agnes' alcoholic sister, Claire, has already set up camp, and when their adult daughter comes home after her fourth failed marriage, and lifelong friends Harry and Edna arrive on their doorstep, frightened and seeking sanctuary from an unnamed terror, the many well-mannered and well-masked feelings finally erupt.

A DELICATE BALANCE premiered on Broadway in 1966, with a cast featuring Hume Cronyn as Tobias and Jessica Tandy as Agnes. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967, the first of three Pulitzer's Albee received for his work, and received the 1996 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Called "glorious...profoundly touching" by The New York Times when David Auburn directed the production in 2010, Variety also declared, " 'A Delicate Balance' still retains its potency after 40 years...High class or low, there's surely a family on every block in which familiarity breeds contempt." A DELICATE BALANCE is a sharp, witty examination on the limits of our responsibility to others, including family and friends, how hard it is to hold everything together, and how easily everything can all fall apart.

Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross inaugurated Aurora Theatre Company with Barbara Oliver in 1992. He has directed 20 productions for the company, including the critically-acclaimed productions of The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Best Man, the World Premiere of Joel Drake Johnson's The First Grade, Mae West's SEX, The Birthday Party, Blue/Orange, Betrayal, and Lobby Hero, which went on to be presented as a co-production between Aurora Theatre Company, Jonathan Reinis, Inc., and the Napa Valley Opera House. For Aurora Theatre Company, Ross has also directed acclaimed productions of The Shape of Things, The Entertainer, The Weir, Death Defying Acts, Abigail's Party, The Mystery of Irma Vep (co-directed with Danny Scheie), and The Aspern Papers, among others. He wrote and directed A Karen Carpenter Christmas in both San Francisco and Seattle, and produced eight Solo Mio Festivals, featuring solo performers including Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Danny Hoch, Claire Bloom, Dick Gregory, David Sedaris, John Waters, and Marga Gomez. Prior to coming to the Bay Area, he worked at The Public Theater in New York as Executive Assistant to Joseph Papp and as co-Director of Play and Musical Development. While in New York, Ross also penned the book adaptation of the New York Drama Desk nominated musical Up Against It, based upon Joe Orton's screenplay for The Beatles.
Arion Press, established by Andrew Hoyem in 1974, publishes deluxe, limited edition books, many of which are illustrated by prominent artists and accompanied by separate editions of original prints. The list of Arion publications is characterized by diversity, with titles that range form ancient literature to modern classics; additionally, Arion Press has developed new material for publication and resurrected "lost" and nearly forgotten texts. Arion Press editions are designed and produced by hand by a group of specially trained artisans. The publication program aims to offer substantial selections from both past and present writers whose work has a bearing on modern life.

Known as one of California's most important abstract artists, Tom Holland lives and works in the Bay Area and has been painting for 50 years. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, and was on the faculty at UCLA and the University of California in Berkeley, and has received both an NEA Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He now works full time in his studio in downtown Berkeley. Holland uses epoxy paint on fiberglass and aluminum to achieve effects of depth, light, reflection, and shadow; he also often works on paper, marble, and copper. Holland's work is in the collections of all the major museums in the United States as well as in over 75 nationally recognized private and corporate art collections.

David Littlejohn is a fourth-generation Californian who has spent most of his working life writing about the arts. A professor at the University of California in Berkeley for 35 years, he is the author or editor of 14 books, including Dr. Johnson and Noah Webster: Two Men and Their Dictionaries, produced by Grabhorn-Hoyem for the Book Club of California in 1971. He has also broadcast or written almost 600 reviews of literary and artistic events, mainly for KQED TV and PBS, The Times (London), and (since 1990) for The Wall Street Journal.

Aurora Theatre Company closes its 19th season with the first American professional production of British director David Farr and Icelandic actor-director Gísli Örn Gardarsson's thrilling avant garde adaptation of Franz Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, directed by Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson in June. Following METAMORPHOSIS, Aurora Theatre Company opens its 20th anniversary season in September with Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning A DELICATE BALANCE, featuring an extraordinary ensemble of acting luminaries from Aurora's past and present, and directed by Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross. Aurora Theatre Company is also poised to present an innovative collaboration with former San Francisco Ballet dancer Muriel Maffre in November with a re-imagined production of THE SOLDIER'S TALE, followed by the Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Annie Baker's BODY AWARENESS in January, directed by Joy Carlin. Founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver returns to the company to helm Margret Schaefer's Aurora-commissioned World Premiere translation of Arthur Schnitzler's fin-de-siècle gem ANATOL in April. The 20th anniversary season concludes in June with Aurora Theatre Company's World Premiere play commission, SALOMANIA, written and directed by Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson.

Nominated for 15 and winner of 8 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for 2010, 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 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] 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."

For more information about Aurora Theatre Company, or for tickets ($10-55) to upcoming productions, the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

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