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Josh Costello, Artistic Director
Josh Costello is the Artistic Director of Aurora Theatre Company. Throughout his career, Josh has worked to make theatre more accessible for more people, sharing a passion for the visceral experience of live theatre with new audiences and underserved communities. He was the founding Artistic Director of Impact Theatre, which focused on audiences in their teens and twenties. As the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs at Marin Theatre Company, Josh created and administered several programs that built relationships with new audiences. At Aurora, Josh initiated student matinee and Community Partner programs and led a revision of Aurora’s mission to emphasize the theatre’s role as storyteller to the community. Josh has directed Exit Strategy, The Importance of Being Earnest, Detroit, Wittenberg, and The Heir Apparent for Aurora, as well as the world premiere of Eureka Day, which won every Bay Area new play award. His world-premiere production of Aaron Loeb’s Ideation with the San Francisco Playhouse in both SF and NYC won the Glickman Award for best new play in the Bay Area and the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Direction, and was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Other directing work includes My Children! My Africa! at Marin Theatre Company, House of Lucky at Magic Theatre, and his adaptations of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and Aphra Behn’s The Rover. Josh was the Education Director at Marin Shakespeare Company, and a faculty member at Cal Shakes, ACT, SF Shakes, UC Riverside, Cal State Long Beach, South Coast Rep, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Josh holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston University, and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Dawn Monique Williams, Associate Artistic Director, joined the Aurora team in August 2019. A native of Oakland, CA, Dawn was previously the Artistic Associate at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she directed Merry Wives of Windsor in 2017. Her recent directing credits include Aurora’s Bull in a China Shop, Earthrise at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, TiJean and His Brothers, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Secretaries (Willamette Week’s Top 10 Portland Theatre Productions of 2018), Romeo & Juliet, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Stark. She’s directed a range of plays including the English language premiere of Gracia Morales’ NN12, Othello, Twelfth Night, In the Blood, Steel Magnolias, Children of Eden, The 25th Annual Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Burial at Thebes, Medea, Antigone Project, and La Ronde; international directing credits include Edinburgh Festival Fringe productions of Scapin the Cheat, Anna Bella Eema, and The Tempest. Dawn was a 2016 Princess Grace Theatre Fellowship recipient, was awarded a TCG Leadership U residency grant, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and was a former Killian Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project and holds an MA in Dramatic Literature and an MFA in Directing. Dawn is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

A first-generation American of Spanish and Salvadoran descent, Christian Cagigal splits his time between San Francisco and New York City: Magician at Speakeasy Magick at the McKittrick Hotel in NYC, Co-Producer for Odd Salon NYC, Owner of the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, and Co-Founder of Fog City Magic Fest. Cagigal has twice been named a Finalist for the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Solo Performer, recipient of a Mastermind Award by the SF Weekly, and five-time winner of the Best Magician of the Bay Award by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
His previous shows include the popular Pandora Experiment, the long-running OBSCURA, the secretive happenings of The Collection, and the critically acclaimed Now and at the Hour which has been seen in New York, Montréal, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis and San Francisco – all shows originally produced by EXIT Theatre. Christian can also be seen in the independent, power-pop, musical film, Fruit Fly written and directed by H.P. Mendoza.

Robert Hurwitt, former drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and before that the San Francisco Examiner and the East Bay Express, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.
Robert Hurwitt retired in April 2016 after a long and distinguished career as a critic and theater reviewer. Born as a “red diaper baby” and growing up in New York City’s suburbs, his love of theater began early. After moving to San Francisco and working as a free-lance writer, he was hired by the Express and later the Examiner — and when the Examiner was bought by Hearst, the San Francisco Chronicle, where he spent several years as the single most important critic in the region.

Sam Hurwitt is a freelance arts journalist who writes regularly about theater for Theatre Bay Area and the Marin Independent Journal and has written for American Theatre, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Kichen Sink, Variety, East Bay Express, Austin Chronicle, Pacific Sun, Budapest Sun and other publications. His fiction has been published in Fourteen Hills, The Misfit Library, Defunkt and the Doubleday anthology Voices of the Xiled.  

Rulan Tangen's work explores movement as an evolving language of global Indigenous relation building,  rooted in inclusion of diverse cosmologies from her own experience and those of the artists with whom  she creates. Her contemporary dance practice strives to serve as functional ritual for transformation and healing, animating of decolonizing process, integrating concurrent universes of ancient futurities in the moment of now, expressing energetic connection with all relations – human and beyond. As Founding Artistic Director/Choreographer of DANCING EARTH, she has passionately cultivated successive generations of Indigenous contemporary performing artists as cultural ambassadors and conduits for social change She is recipient of 2018-19  Kennedy Center Citizen Artist award for Service, Justice, Freedom, Courage, and Gratitude - and is grateful for all that roots her, for the dreaming and doing of Dancing Earth : moving, shaking and stomping the world into renewal. She is honored to join Aurora Connects, in a cyberspace conversation rooted in Ohlone lands of East Bay. As  we approach Indigenous Peoples Day, as a woman of Kampampangan/Norweigian and mixed heritage, she considers  how to be a helpful ally to local Native land stewards. Thus, she will be donating her honoraria for this event to  Sogorea Te' Land Trust - an urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people by  requesting an optional land tax of Bay Area residents. www.sogoreate-landtrust.org

Michael J. Asberry appeared on Aurora's stage in Exit Strategy and Satellites. He recently performed in When We Were Colored with the Sacramento Theatre Company; Sweat with Capital Stage Company; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Film and television credits include San Andreas (Warner Brothers); Chance (Hulu); Trauma (NBC); Nash Bridges (CBS), and voiceover for Pixar Animation, Pine Sol, and the video game Watchdogs 2. To my family, my friends and my colleagues, I am truly grateful. Artists: Let’s keep making people laugh, cry, think, and DO... Spread Love.

Khalia Davis is a multidisciplinary artist from the San Francisco/Bay Area now living in New York with a passion for children’s entertainment and desire for content creation. BA in Theater Arts from the University of Southern California.

Recent: Directed the world premiere musical, She Persisted: The Musical by Deborah Wicks La Puma and Adam Tobin based on the popular children’s book by Chelsea Clinton with Bay Area Children’s Theatre. Directed the world premiere play for the very young, Pillowland by Barbara Zinn Krieger with New York City Children’s Theater and the Bay Area Premiere, Judy Moody and Stink and the Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt by Allison Gregory, a part of the seven TYA company co-commission with Bay Area Children’s Theatre.

Khalia currently teaches with New York City Children’s Theater, the Atlantic Acting School through NYU, for their after school programs as a director and choreographer, and for the Disney Theatrical Group leading music and movement workshops and facilitating audience and community engagement. As a professional movement coordinator, she has devised new works with Bay Area Children’s Theater including creating choreography for the award-nominated world premiere production, THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT; launching the award-winning young performers group, Advanced Performers for Bay Area Children’s Theatre as their lead choreographer, earning Best Choreography for Honk Jr. at the Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta; New York City Children’s Theater and Atlantic Acting School’s teen conservatory and high school residency program, Staging Success. She is also a director/actor/teaching artist for the nationally-known arts education organization The Story Pirates. As an Equity performer, she has worked regionally with Bay Area Children’s Theatre (Resident Artist), Live Source Theater Group, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Aurora Theatre, and California Shakespeare Theater just to name a few. Awards: Emerging Leader in TYA Fellow 2019, RHE Scholarship nominated 2016, Titan Award Finalist 2014. Tours: Gold Rush The Musical, Rock The Block, Ladybug Girl, and Bumblebee Boy The Musical. To learn more about Ms. Davis, check her out at www.khaliashdavis.com!   

Patrick Dooley, Founding Artistic Director of Shotgun Players
Patrick started Shotgun Players in 1992 in the basement of a pizza parlor with a few friends and a desire to make great theatre that was also affordable. Before that he received a B.A. in English from James Madison University, in Virginia. While there, he cut his theatre teeth as a founding member of the American Shakespeare Center. Since then, Patrick has directed over 40 plays and overseen the production of nearly 100 others. In 2007, he led an effort to make the Ashby Stage the first 100% solar-powered theater in America. He is married and has three beautiful daughters.

Johanna Pfaelzer is delighted to join Berkeley Rep, and honored to serve as its fourth artistic director. She recently spent 12 years as the artistic director of New York Stage and Film (NYSAF), a New York City-based organization dedicated to the development of new works for theatre, film, and television. NYSAF is known for providing a rigorous and nurturing environment for writers, directors, and other artists to realize work that has gone on to production at the highest levels of the profession. Notable works that were developed under Johanna’s leadership include the 2016 Tony Award winners Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and The Humans by Stephen Karam, The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, Junk and The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac, Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell, The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer- and Tony-Award-winning Doubt, The Fortress of Solitude by Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses, The Jacksonian by Beth Henley, and Green Day’s American Idiot.

Brad Erickson serves as executive director for Theatre Bay Area, one of the nation’s largest regional performing arts service organizations, with more than 320 theatre and dance company members and some 2,200 individual members. For thirteen years, Erickson has led the organization’s efforts to support, promote, and advocate for the region’s vibrant theatre and dance community. Under Erickson’s leadership, Theatre Bay Area has gained a national reputation for innovative programs and services for the field, and their nationwide study on the intrinsic impact of the theatre experience on the audience is a leading example. For six years Erickson served as president of Californians for the Arts (CFTA) and California Arts Advocates (CAA). He currently serves as Treasurer of both CFTA and CAA and as California State Captain for Americans for the Arts, and is the past Chair of the State Arts Action Network. Also a playwright, Erickson’s plays have won several awards and have been produced in theaters from San Francisco to Indianapolis. Erickson received a BFA in acting from the Goodman School of Drama (now The Theatre School) at DePaul University.

Courtney Flores is a Bay Area Native who has worked as a Freelance Theatre Costume Designer for sixteen years. She has designed both in and around the San Francisco Bay Area as well as outside of California. She believes in the art of collaboration with fellow theatre designers and artists and is inspired by sharing ideas and creating a world together, rather than alone.

Through her work in design, she has had the opportunity to work in other paths in Theatre, such as becoming a Co-Founding Member of the Bay Area Latino Theatre Artists Network. Courtney also served for three years as a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons and has since transitioned to the Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee.  Also, she co-developed with Scenic Designer Regina Garcia, an online journal series on Howlround.com, called La Esquinita, which profiled Latina/o Theatre Designers and Technicians. Courtney is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at California State University East Bay, where she currently teaches classes in Costume Design and Theatre as well as working as Production Administrative Support Assistant for the Theatre and Dance Department at CSUEB. Her most recent project is working with La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Design Network, which is a collaborative of Latinx Theatre Designers and Technicians working together to create a website to showcase their work and their importance in the Theatre landscape.

Marissa Keltie has worked as an actor at Aurora Theatre, Jewel Theatre, Symmetry Theatre, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, Custom Made, Central Works, California Theatre Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, & Impact Theatre.

Jasmine Milan Williams is thankful and grateful for her gift and ability of storytelling! Her recent work includes: Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner( Aurora Theatre), Inked Baby by Christina Anderson (Crowded Fire Theater Company), The Last Sermon of Sister Imani ( Theater First), and Waafrika (Theater First). Companies she has shared space with include:Campo Santo(Company Member) ,Theater First, Those Woman Production company, African American Shakespeare Company, and New Conservatory Theater Company. She thanks her family and friends for always encouraging her to follow her dreams, and standing behind an artist that works to change the world through her art!

“Its and Artist Duty to Reflect the Times.”- Nina Simone.

Craig Marker is a San Francisco Bay Area actor. Aurora credits include The Shape of Things (2002), The Persians (2004), and Fifth of July (2015). Other credits include his roles as King Henry VIII and James I in Anne Boleyn and Nick Bright in Invisible Hand at Marin Theatre Company, Frederick Fellows in Noises Off at San Francisco Playhouse, and Alcippe in The Liar at Center REPertory Company. Marker has performed for California Shakespeare Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players, Barbican Theatre (UK), Birmingham Repertory Theatre (UK), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK), and the Cyprus International Festival of Greek Drama. Marker is a graduate of Cal State East Bay’s theatre program and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. For more information visit www.craig-marker.com.

Jeanette Marker | Bio Coming Soon

Michael Torres was last seen at Aurora in 2019's The Importance of Being Earnest. He co-founded Campo Santo in 1996, where he originated roles for Dave Eggers, Denis Johnson, Jose Rivera, Jessica Hagedorn, Octavio Solis and more. In ‘96, he co-founded Campo Santo where he originated roles for Dave Eggers, Denis Johnson, Jose Rivera, Jessica Hagedorn, Octavio Solis and more. An award winning actor, Michael has played at The Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, Word for Word, Berkeley Repertory, Teatro Campesino, California Shakespeare Theatre,The Magic, TheatreFirst among others and has toured the U.S.A. and Europe in shows. Recently, he co-directed with Elena Wright The Farm by Jon Tracy for TheatreFirst. Film wise, you can see him in About Cherry as Po and as Crow in The Other Barrio. Michael is the Chair of the Laney College Theatre Arts Department where he founded The Fusion Theatre Project.  Michael holds a BA from San Francisco State and an MFA from the University of California at San Diego.

Rafael Jesús González, born in the bicultural/bilingual setting of El Paso, Texas/Juárez, Chihuahua, attended the University of Texas El Paso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, & the University of Oregon. Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature, he has taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland (where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept.) He has thrice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He was Poet in Residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library under the Poets & Writers “Writers on Site” award in 1996. He served as contributing editor for The Montserrat Review and received the Annual Dragonfly Press Award for Literary Achievement in 2002 & 2012. In 2003 he was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English & Annenberg/CPB for his writing. In 2013 he received the César E. Chávez Lifetime Award. The City of Berkeley honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and was named the City of Berkeley's first Poet Laureate in 2017.

James Carpenter is an Associate Artist with California Shakespeare Theater and a former Associate Artist with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Former shows at Aurora include American Buffalo, John Gabriel Borkman, The Birthday Party. Other credits include: Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, the Huntington Theatre Company, and Intiman Theatre. Screen credits include the feature films The Rainmaker and Metro, the independent films Singing and For the Coyotes, and the series Nash Bridges. Carpenter is the recipient of many San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, including the 2007 Award for Excellence in the Arts and the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010, he was named a Ten Chimneys Foundation Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.

Cassandra Carpenter has been a professional Costume Designer in the Bay Area for over 25 years. Theatre credits include: American Conservatory Theatre School of Theatre productions, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Company, San Jose Stage Company, The Magic Theatre, Word for Word, Aurora Theatre Company, San Fransisco Shakespeare Festival, Center Repertory Company, and Chanticleer( 2 operas). Dance design for : Smuin Ballets SF, Oberlin Dance Collective, Anne Bluthenthal Dancers. She has been on the costume staff of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep and California Shakespeare Festival. Cassandra also operated her own independent costume studio; CMC&design in downtown San Fransisco from 1997 to 2016. Clients included: Smuin Ballets SF., San Fransisco Ballet, San Fransisco Opera, Macy's Passport, Baz Luhrman's La Boheme, Carousel du Roi a Horse Ballet, Jersey Boys, White Christmas (SF, LA,UK and Broadway) and many other commercial projects.  Film credits include several video games, music videos. Independent films:For the Coyotes ; SF Ballet 2018 New Works Festival promo film. Costume/Makeup design for Spartan Films: Green Ninja (original episodes);  SuperHero Party Clown;  2019 Breakfast (based on John Steinbeck short story).