Stage Aurora Theatrical Company

Mission
To enlighten the mind by way of the Arts through the African-American experience.

History
Stage Aurora Theatrical Company, Inc., theatre that enlightens, is now located in both New York City and Jacksonville, FL having launched its Mainstage of Theatre, Dance, and Music in 2000 under the leadership of Darryl Reuben Hall. Stage Aurora began as an opportunity to provide the underserved community of Jacksonville’s Northside with professional theatre reflecting the African-American experience.

In New York City, Stage Aurora is quickly making its mark with original productions The Dinner and Drawn from the Water, having received some support from the Dramatists Guild Fund, Actor’s Equity Association, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and the Queens Council on the Arts.

The Main Stage has produced 200+ productions including Pulitzer Prize Winners The Color Purple, Fences, Driving Miss Daisy, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Piano Lesson; and Tony Award Winners For Colored Girls Who…, Dreamgirls, The Wiz, and A Raisin in the Sun. Other favorites include Steel Magnolias, Crowns, Miss Ever’s Boys, Mama, I Want to Sing, and Disney’s High School Musical.

Original works include Sinner Man by Roumel Reaux, Trent Armand Kendall’s Louis and Ella, Noble Lee Lester’s Apostasy 360, Alzheimer’s and Darryl Reuben Hall’s Frat House, The Dinner, Harlem of the South, A Very Merry Jacksonville Christmas, and the upcoming Drawn from the Water. Children’s include FRIENDS: James, Mary, and George, SONG AND DANCE, and Field Trip Safari.

Critical success abounds: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun ‘was both splendid and captivating’, Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity ‘All color and life and unbelievable, this is a miraculous spectacle of Biblical and artistic proportions’; Tom Stolz’s Mahalia as ‘an exceptional masterpiece’, and Darryl Reuben Hall’s Frat House ‘Impressively choreographed, energetic, and lots of fun.’

Local, Statewide, and National recognition is seen through a variety of awards: State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs’ Diversity and Inclusion Award, Rosetta LeNoire Award Nomination for Diversity from Actors’ Equity Association; the Onyx Award, Individual Arts Award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, among others.

National celebrities who’ve graced our stage at Stage Aurora include: Ella Joyce, Tony Award Winner Melba Moore, T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, Daniel Beaty, Kim Coles among Artistic Associates: Angela Robinson (Tyler Perry’s The Haves and The Have Nots, Broadway’s The Color Purple), Sondra Bonitto (Broadway’s Ragtime), Jannie Jones (Broadway’s The Full Monty), Roumel Reaux (Broadway’s The Wiz),  and Natasha Yvette Williams (Broadway’s The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess).

Goals
To collaborate and share with existing theatrical organizations both locally and nationally in an effort to present the best artistic work.To develop a multicultural audience that best exemplifies the standards of Stage Aurora as an institution of the essence of the human experience.To serve as an establishment and foundation for the creation and growth of new works of new artists, writers, directors, musicians, lyricists combined with new ideas and concepts exploring creativity and innovations in theatrical production.