Aurora Theatre Company Extends RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN Through 10/5

Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional 7 performances of the Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Gina Gionfriddo's (After Ashley, Becky Shaw) unflinching look at modern gender politics. Desdemona Chiang (The Hundred Flowers Project) directs this finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, featuring Gabriel Marin (This Is How It Goes, Collapse), Rebecca Schweitzer (A Delicate Balance, The First Grade), Marilee Talkington (Salomania), Lilian Bogovich, and Nicole Javier. RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN plays now through October 5 (added performances: Tuesday, September 30, 7pm; Wednesday, October 1, 8pm; Thursday, October 2, 8pm; Friday, October 3, 8pm; Saturday, October 4, 8pm; Sunday, October 5, 2pm and 7pm) at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-50) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Can any woman have it all? After graduate school, Catherine and Gwen chose different paths. Catherine built a career as a rock star academic and media darling, writing books linking Internet pornography with 9/11, while Gwen built a home with her husband and children. Decades later, unfulfilled in polar opposite ways, each woman covets the other's life. When Catherine returns home to look after her ailing mother, a risky game of musical chairs begins as three generations of women struggle with feminism's foibles. Called "An intensely smart, immensely funny new play" by The New York Times and hailed as Gionfriddo's "most gleefully heedless and hilariously uncalculated foray into the un-politically-correct thus far" by New York Magazine, this sharp, witty comedy examines the pursuit of happiness in the wake of 20th century feminist ideals.

Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle called RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN "intoxicating... a hilarious three-generational attitude clash," noting "the production as "a low-key but very funny romp ...it tickles the intellect as well as the funny bone... The actors and [playwright Gina] Gionfriddo's deft, original wit soon have [you] engrossed in the fun-house mirror she holds up to our times." Karen D'Souza at the San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group agreed, pronouncing RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN "thoroughly intoxicating" and "A nakedly funny homage to Wendy Wasserstein...savagely funny and smart...cleverly summarizes the history of the women's movement." Chad Jones at Theater Dogs said RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN is "at once hilarious and trenchant... [it] entertains as much as it provokes, and ... comes pretty close to achieving some theatrical rapture." Likewise, Georgia Rowe at the San Francisco Examiner said RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN "achieve[s] something rare - a comedy that goes deep, yet never loses its sense of humor," and Clinton Stark from Stark Insider declared the Aurora's production "5 out of 5 stars - Outstanding!...[Rapture, Blister, Burn is] about as good as it gets...an evening of intelligent, comedic theater does not get much better than this play, while Leo Stutzin from the Huffington Post decried RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN "an expertly crafted play, and a wonderful opener for Aurora's season."

Gina Gionfriddo is an award-winning playwright and accomplished television writer. Her play RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play had a twice-extended run off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and a successful run in London. Her play Becky Shaw was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and winner of an Outer Critics Circle Award. Other works for the stage include After Ashley (Obie Award); U.S. Drag; Squalor; America's Got Tragedy; and Guinevere (O'Neill Playwrights Conference). Additionally, Gionfriddo received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, as well as the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and an American Theatre Critics Association/Steinberg Citation. She has worked as a writer and producer for Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as a writer for Cold Case. Other TV credits include The Borgias, and House of Cards. Gionfriddo is a graduate of Barnard College and Brown University's MFA playwriting program; she has taught at Brown University and Providence College.

About her work, Gionfriddo says "I feel a play has to say something important, or really shift an audience's consciousness in some important way... in film and TV it's enough to entertain and I don't feel that's enough in theater." She regards theater as "the place you go to hear some truth or ask some question that film and TV can't or won't give you." About RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, Gionfriddo admits "This is not the play I sat down to write. I wanted to write a play about Internet pornography. I didn't have a coherent position on the subject, but I felt the tug of an important question, and that's how I like to begin a play." A play in which age and generation loom large, she says, "I put away all my research, the big stack of books about porn and the big stack of books about feminism they had led me to, and I re-read some plays that dance around this generational misunderstanding stuff...plays that seemed to understand that women take pride in avoiding their mothers' disappointments only to disappoint themselves in new ways." According to frequent collaborator and director Peter DuBois, what RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN has to say about marriage, feminism, and parenthood is "deeply savagely funny and deeply human."

Following RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, Aurora presents a very special presentation of Christian Cagigal's OBSCURA in October in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage; the West Coast Premiere of Fraser Grace's off-Broadway hit BREAKFAST WITH MUGABE, directed by Jon Tracy, follows in November. Barbara Damashek returns to Aurora in January to direct the Bay Area Premiere of Nicky Silver's viciously hilarious Broadway hit THE LYONS. The company pays homage to Lanford Wilson with "The Talley Trilogy" in April with the Pulitzer Prize-winning TALLEY'S FOLLY, directed by Joy Carlin in Harry's UpStage, followed by FIFTH OF JULY, helmed by Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross. As a special addition to the 23rd season, and completing the trilogy, Aurora will present readings of Wilson's rarely performed play TALLEY & SON in April, directed by Jennifer King. Aurora Theatre Company closes its 23rd season in June with the Bay Area Premiere of Lisa D'Amour's wicked Obie-winning satire DETROIT, directed by Josh Costello.

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."
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

Critics and audiences agree - RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN hurts so good. Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional 7 performances of the Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Gina Gionfriddo's (After Ashley, Becky Shaw) unflinching look at modern gender politics. Desdemona Chiang (The Hundred Flowers Project) directs this finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, featuring Gabriel Marin (This Is How It Goes, Collapse), Rebecca Schweitzer (A Delicate Balance, The First Grade), Marilee Talkington (Salomania), Lilian Bogovich, and Nicole Javier. RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN plays now through October 5.

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