AURORA | The Aurora Fox is drilling down to the most important element of drama for its 2014-15 season.
According to Aurora Fox Executive Producer Charles Packard, the theater’s 30th season is all about the power of the storyteller. All of the four main productions in the lineup have a focus on the narrative. From a musical that takes place on a Carribean island to a Christmas tale centered on an island in the Pacific northwest, each of these shows get back to the roots of the dramatic craft.
“All of these shows are dedicated more to storytellers than to Broadway,” said Packard, who’s long referred to season selection as a kind of alchemy. “I feel like we’re building a trust with our audience that I certainly don’t want to ruin. I feel I really need to find things for a smart audience that demands a high level of professionalism. I want to make sure that it’s not the same old stuff they’ve seen before.”
That mission is clear in the season formally titled “The Storytellers,” a lineup that includes two regional premieres. The schedule is set to kick off with the musical “Once On This Island” from Sept. 12 to Oct. 5. The children’s comedy “Red Ranger Came Calling” will run from Nov. 28 to Dec. 21. The regional premiere of the musical “Big Fish,” which Packard has called the centrepiece of the season, will run from Feb. 27 to March 22, and the regional premiere of the drama “She Kills Monsters” will wrap up the season from April 24 to May 16.
Those flagship productions will come along with two add-on shows, productions that are not part of the regular season package. The comedy “Fully Committed” will run in the Fox studio theater from Nov. 21 to Dec. 28 and the regional premiere of the drama “Beets” by local playwright Rick Padden is scheduled from Jan. 16 to Feb. 8. Those will come along with new productions throughout the year by resident company Ignite Theatre.
Packard and the rest of the Fox crew announced the new season during an annual event held at the theater on East Colfax last week. As executive producer, Packard has always cited season selection as one of the most difficult parts of the job. There’s no surefire formula for a successful season, and finding the perfect match of shows for the Fox’s unique subscriber base is always part guesswork.
Even so, Packard sees promise in this lineup, and it’s a postive feeling he’s built partly from firsthand experience. For example, the Fox crew mounted a production of the musical “Once On This Island” by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty during their outdoor summer series at the Stapleton Town Center a few years ago. The show based loosely on fairy tales and rooted in the history of Haiti resonated with audiences, partly for the big importance it placed on storytelling.
“We did it outside, on the grass, for 700 or 800 people. I swore to myself then, ‘We have got to do this inside at the Fox, fully teched someday soon,’” Packard said. “It worked out that we could add a musical to the season and still be able to afford it, basically because we already know how to do the show.”
The Fox crew has also already enjoyed a successful run of “Red Ranger Came Calling,” a Christmas tale based on a children’s book by Berkely Breathed. Prepared as a theater production by the BookIt company out of Seattle, the story of a young boy’s struggle to believe in Santa Claus made for an ideal fit for the theater. What’s more, it breaks the monotony of standard Christmas fare like “A Christmas Carol” and “A Christmas Story.”
Other titles in the new season were a bit more tricky to find. The musical “Big Fish” for example posed plenty of creative risks for the Fox. The show, based on the novel by Daniel Wallace and the 2003 film, recently closed on Broadway to lackluster reviews. Packard, who saw the New York production, saw promise in the production’s mix of storytelling and pure heart.
“I did see it in New York, and even though it was a mess to some extent, it was still deeply moving to me and to the audience. I’ve never seen such an emotional audience at a Broadway show,” Packard said, adding that the Broadway production didn’t do proper justice the narrative structure of the show. Not surprisingly, that structure has a lot to do with the art of storytelling. “It wasn’t written for Broadway; it was written for us,” Packard insisted.
Just as “Big Fish” offers Fox audiences a different narrative and creative direction, “She Kills Dragons” is a big leap from the standard fare of regional theaters. This drama by Qui Nguyen kicks off with tragedy. The protagonist loses her family in a car accident. In looking to connect with her family after the tragedy, she finds an unlikely tool: a Dungeons and Dragons module carefully prepared by her late sister.
“By playing the game, the woman learns about her sister,” Packard said. “It’s wonderful and touching and fantastic and super violent and all of the things that Dungeons and Dragons is too.”
That story is far from “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Our Town” and other “safe” stock. But Packard, who speaks about standing in the back row and watching the audience react to every show, is confident in the Aurora crowds’ propensity to take risk. As long as the the storytelling is sound, he’s sure they’ll sign on for the ride.
“Our shows better take them into some area of plot and conflict where they didn’t know where they were going,” Packard said. “That makes it a little bit easier, that I know that the audience is on our side when they arrive at the theater.”
For more information about the Aurora Fox’s upcoming season, call 303-739-1970 or log on to aurorafox.org