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Paramount Theater opens new live theater venue in Aurora

Paramount Theatre will cut the ribbon on another live theater venue in Aurora’s downtown entertainment district, the newly remodeled Copley Theatre, where it will launch its all-new Bold Series, a four-show subscription series ready to bring a new type of live entertainment to the second largest city in Illinois.

“After nearly two years since we were originally supposed to launch our Bold Series, the time has finally come to lift the curtain on an exhilarating and new storytelling experience,” said Tim Rater, President and CEO, Paramount Theatre.

“Housed in the beautifully renovated Copley Theatre, audiences will discover stories that challenge, enlighten, engage and entertain. I could not be more excited to share these stories with our patrons and hope that when the lights come up, the conversations will last long after the ride home.”

Paramount’s new Bold Series, announced today, will offer intimate, professional live theater experiences that are fearless, unexpected and thought provoking. In a word, BOLD.

Copley Theater courtesy of Paramount. Four bold stage productions in modernized, 165-seat theater to bring excitement, intimacy and more audiences to downtown Aurora, right across the street from Paramount Theatre.

The Copley Theatre is located right across the street from Paramount in the North Island Center, 8 E. Galena Blvd. Now, with a two-year, $2 million, top-to-bottom renovation nearly complete, the Copley Theatre is no longer an unknown, underutilized space for occasional shows and meetings. Rather, it’s an intimate, state-of-the-art theater with 165 comfortable new seats and a sleek new lobby bar, ready to attract new audiences, to Aurora’s burgeoning central business district.

Following a soft launch this holiday season with Paramount’s annual presentation of The Second City Holiday Revue, the Copley will be fully reactivated and ready to welcome audiences next March for Paramount’s inaugural, four-show Bold Series: Sweat, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary drama about life in an impoverished American Rust Belt town (March 9-April 24, 2022), Hand to God, a darkly humorous shocker told Sesame Street meets Exorcist style, puppets included (May 25-July 10, 2022), Fun Home, the Tony Award-winning musical like none other (August 3-September 18, 2022), and BULL: a love story, a world premiere drama about a Mexican-American man who returns to Chicago to find a family who has moved on and a neighborhood he no longer recognizes (October 5-November 20, 2022).

“The definition of ‘Bold’ is the ability to take risks with courage and confidence,” said Amber Mak, Artistic Producer and New Works Development Director, Paramount Theatre. “I am thrilled Paramount is offering this Bold Series to compliment our Broadway subscription, as we have a whole new opportunity to thrill and inspire audiences through courageous and intimate storytelling in a beautifully renovated space that will bring the emotion, heart and talent within an audience’s grasp. This series will create a shared experience amongst the audience that we hope will leave them inspired and ignite incredible conversation to carry them out our doors and into the world.”

Bold Series subscriptions go on exclusive pre-sale to Paramount’s Broadway Series subscribers and donors on November 1, 2021. Bold Series packages go on sale to the general public on November 29, 2021. Four show subscriptions range from just $134-$148. That’s a “buy two shows, get two shows free” offer.

To sum up the anticipation, Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti said, “Up close and personal, the Bold Series calls audiences together urgently and right on time. Family, race, class, and identities differentiate while it’s our being human that unites us. By turns comic and cautionary, rendered by prize-winning, contemporary playwrights, passionate voices let loose in the dynamically renewed space of Paramount’s Copley Theatre. Come discover what we’ve found for you in these four inaugural season productions!”

All Bold Series performances will be staged in Copley Theatre, located in the North Island Center, 8 E. Galena Blvd., in downtown Aurora. For more information, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.

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