Aurora announces 2024-25 season with four shows

A cabaret rounds out the lineup as funding campaign continues

Aurora Theatre Company might be in the midst of an emergency fundraising campaign needed to mount future seasons, but one sign that the 32-year-old Berkeley company is betting on hitting its goal is that it’s moving ahead with a 2024-25 lineup of four main stage shows plus a cabaret, roughly equivalent to this year’s five-show slate.

The schedule, announced Thursday, April 11, opens with Noël Coward’s “Fallen Angels” (Oct. 19-Nov. 17), about two genteel wives whose superficially happy marriages are disrupted by a postcard from a man they both counted as a former lover. Artistic Director Josh Costello directs the play, which will be at least the second major Coward production in the region next year, joining American Conservatory Theater’s “Private Lives.”

Next comes the return of hiphop theater collective Felonious, composed of Carlos “Infinite” Aguirre, Keith Pinto, Tommy Shepherd (also known as Emcee Soulati) and Dan Wolf. In their cabaret (Dec. 615), the rappers, beatboxers and flow pros give snippets from their forthcoming untitled musical that Aurora commissioned.

The new year brings the previously announced “The Heart Sellers” (Feb. 8-March 9), in a co-production with Sacramento’s Capital Stage and Theatre-Works Silicon Valley. Lloyd Suh’s play is about two recently arrived Asian American immigrants who forge a bond over figuring out how to cook a turkey on the new-to-them holiday of Thanksgiving.

Spring continues with “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” (April 26-May 25) by twotime Pulitzer Prize recipient Lynn Nottage. The 1995 memory play follows a Black family that has just moved to a mostly white block in Brooklyn in 1950, as seen through the eyes of the 17-year-old daughter.

“The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” (July 12-Aug. 10) brings the season to a close. Jane Wagner’s solo show, originally written for Lily Tomlin, allows a virtuoso performer the chance to play a menagerie of eccentrics, including one character who’s expecting aliens to appear while everyone else is waiting for the streetlight to change. Tom Ross, Costello’s predecessor, returns to the theater to direct.

For subscriptions, which are $140-$260, call 510-843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.