Photo Flash: First Look at Mark Jackson's SALOMANIA at the Aurora Theatre!

Closing Aurora's 20th season is the World Premiere of SALOMANIA, Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross's first new play commission for the company, written and directed by award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson (Metamorphosis, Salome, Miss Julie).

We have a first look at the production photos below!

Workshopped and developed at Aurora in 2010, SALOMANIA features Madeline H.D. Brown (Metamorphosis), Mark Anderson Phillips (Small Tragedy), Alex Moggridge (Betrayed), Liam Vincent (California Shakespeare Theater), Anthony Nemirovsky (Awake and Sing!), Marilee Talkington (Crowded Fire), and Kevin Clarke (Shotgun Players). SALOMANIA is now playing through July 22 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

SALOMANIA is a local story and an international story. It's about any place that has faced or is experiencing significant social, technological, material, and moral change. It's also a tragedy about the death of good sense. While directing Oscar Wilde's fascinating and sensual play Salome at Aurora in 2006, Mark Jackson discovered the extraordinary story of dancer Maud Allan, a San Francisco native who took Europe by storm in the early 1900's with her version of the "Dance of the Seven Veils," which she called "The Vision of Salomé." She became notoriously known as "The Salomé Dancer" and was unexpectedly fraught with a lawsuit that destroyed her career. Whereas Salome was Oscar Wilde's wild take on the infamous Biblical temptress, her unrequited love of the prophet Jokanaan, and her desperate dance, SALOMANIA uses Allan's story as a framework to explore themes of media sensationalism, freedom of expression, and wartime hysteria, themes as relevant today as they were a century ago.

For tickets ($30-55) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Contains mature subject matter.

Photo Credit: David Allen.

Madeline H.D. Brown

Madeline H.D. Brown

Mark Anderson Phillips, Marilee Talkington, and Madeline H.D. Brown

Alex Moggridge, Marilee Talkington and Madeline H.D. Brown with Liam Vincent and Anthony Nemirovsky

Madeline H.D. Brown and (Alex Moggridge

Madeline H.D. Brown, Mark Anderson Phillips, Anthony Nemirovsky, and Kevin Clarke

Kevin Clarke, Mark Anderson Phillips, and Madeline H.D. Brown

Marilee Talkington, Madeline H.D. Brown, Anthony Nemirovsky and Mark Anderson Phillips

Madeline H.D. Brown, Liam Vincent, and Kevin Clarke

Madeline H.D. Brown and Kevin Clarke

Mark Anderson Phillips and Kevin Clarke

Kevin Clarke and Madeline H.D. Brown

Kevin Clarke, Anthony Nemirovsky, Marilee Talkington, Alex Moggridge, and Mark Anderson Phillips