Shows & Events

Jonathan Spector’s award-winning, critically acclaimed play Eureka Day will have its European premiere in September at London’s Old Vic, starring Oscar-winner Helen Hunt. His newest work, Best Available will be part of the Ashland New Play Festival in October.
Jonathan’s plays have been produced across the country and abroad at theaters including Asolo Rep, Aurora Theater, Colt Coeur, Custom Made Theater, InterAct Theater, Mosaic Theater, Mugwumpin, Syracuse Stage, Spreckles Theater, The State Theater of South Australia, and Just Theater, where he was the long-time co-Artistic Director. He has developed work with Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Crowded Fire, New Harmony Project, The Lark, Manhattan Theater Club, PlayPenn, Roundabout, and South Coast Rep, among others.
Honors include the Edgerton Award, Glickman Award, Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, Theater Bay Area Award, Global Age Prize and Rella Lossy Award. He is a Core Writer at Playwrights Center, and has been a MacDowell Fellow and a Resident Playwright at Playwrights Foundation. Jonathan has received commissions from Roundabout Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Manhattan Theater Club, South Coast Rep and Aurora Theater. He is represented by CAA and Kaplan/Perrone.

Josh Costello (Artistic Director & Director) At Aurora and previously as the founding Artistic Director of Impact Theatre and the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs at Marin Theatre Company, 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. Josh has directed several productions at Aurora, including Exit Strategy, The Importance of Being Earnest, and 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 holds a BFA in theatre from Boston University, and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Rajesh Bose* (A/Lukesh) has performed extensively off-Broadway and throughout the country – favorites include three productions at Bedlam Theatre (Persuasion, The Crucible, and Pygmalion),  Henry VI (National Asian American Theatre Company),  Against The Hillside (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Indian Ink (Roundabout), King Lear (Northern Stage), Oslo (St. Louis Rep), Mary Stuart (Folger Theatre), Guards at the Taj (Capital Stage), Disgraced (Playmakers Rep, Huntington Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre – Connecticut Critics Circle Award, IRNE Nomination),  Invisible Hand (Westport Playhouse, Hartford Theaterworks), and The Who & The What (Gulfshore Playhouse, Hartford Theaterworks).  Rajesh has guest starred on several network television shows, including Bull, Elementary, Damages,  Blue Bloods, and Quantico among others — he appears in the series finale of The Sopranos, and the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River. Rajesh made his professional directing debut earlier this year at Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ, where he directed the East Coast premiere of The Giant Void In My Soul.  Upcoming:  Life of Pi at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA.

Anna Ishida (B/Natalya) was last seen at the Aurora as Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Currently based in the Bay Area but also performs on the East Coast - recent credits include: Olga in The Three Sisters (Two River Theater, NJ), The Antelope Party (Dutch Kills, NYC), Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth, DC), Moby-Dick (American Repertory Theater, MA), Henry VI Parts 1 & 2 (NAATCO, NYC - Drama Desk Nomination: Best Revival), Trigger (Leviathan Lab, NYC), It Can’t Happen Here (Staged & Radio Play @ Berkeley Rep, CA), Mr. Burns: a post-electric play (American Conservatory Theater & The Guthrie, CA/MN), Water by the Spoonful (Theatreworks Silicon Valley, CA), Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage (Shotgun Players/Banana Bag & Bodice: US/UK tours).  Film: I Am a Ghost & Bitter Melon (writer/director/composer: H.P. Mendoza) www.annaishida.com – Thank you all for coming tonight and thank you to mom and papa and my deep Bay Area roots & community.

Kenny Toll is an LA native and a graduate of San Francisco State University. He was last seen at Aurora in The Heir Apparent. He originated the role of Mr. Wickham in Lauren Gunderson's The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley. Most recently he has been seen in Frost/Nixon at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Lobby Hero at Capital Rep in Albany NY, Shakespeare in Love at Marin Theatre Company, and Richard II at Kingsmen Shakespeare in Los Angeles. He is a proud member of AEA.