Copley Theatre's new renovated Bar and opening production "SWEAT"

Paramount Theatre launched its inaugural BOLD Series with Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat, playing now through April 24, 2022, at Paramount's newly-renovated

Copley Theatre in downtown Aurora.

Directed by Andrea J. Dymond, Lynn Nottage’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat is set in a bar in an impoverished American town, where factory workers gather to laugh, talk, and drink their cares away, despite the constant threat of company shutdowns. When promotions and layoffs are rumored, tensions and jealousy begin to rip apart their community. Can friendships and family endure when all hopes of economic stability and mobility disappear? An intense examination of race, class, and the human costs of capitalism, Sweat captures the ever-present battle between human needs and business in America’s Rust Belt.

SWEAT is the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony Award Best Play nominee, and a landmark achievement of American theater.

After two years of waiting, Sweat, is the first of four BOLD productions in 2022 in the newly modernized Copley Theatre, right across the street from Paramount Theatre. The new BOLD Series next month, bringing a new, four-show subscription series and a new type of live theater – fearless, unexpected, and thought-provoking – to the heart of Aurora’s downtown entertainment district.

Just as exciting, Paramount will lift the curtain on its new home for its Bold Series, the newly remodeled Copley Theatre, right across the street from Paramount at 8 E. Galena Blvd., in the North Island Center.

Following a two-year, $2 million, top-to-bottom renovation, the Copley is no longer an unknown, underutilized space, but an intimate, state-of-the-art theater with 165 comfortable new seats and a modern new lobby bar, ready to attract more audiences to downtown Aurora.

Interview with Bartender Tanya

Veteran Chicago director Andrea J. Dymond is the director. The cast features Jordan Anthony Arredondo (Oscar), Tiffany Bedwell (Jessie), Emmanuel K. Jackson (Chris), Linda Gillum (Tracey), Joshua L. Green (Brucie), Bryant Hayes (Evan), Shariba Rivers (Cynthia), Randy Steinmeyer (Stan) and Gage Wallace (Jason).

The production team includes Jeffrey D. Kmiec, scenic designer; Yvonne L. Miranda, costume designer; Jessica Neill, lighting designer; Jeffrey Levin, sound designer; Jesse Gaffney, properties designer; David Woolley, fight choreographer; Khalid Long, dramaturg; Jinni Pike, stage manager; and Lanita VanderSchaaf, assistant stage manager.

Note: Sweat is suggested for ages 16 and up due to strong adult language, racial slurs and stereotypes, violence an,d political content

Access Services

If you require a wheelchair or special seating or other assistance, please contact the box office at (630) 896-6666 or boxoffice@paramountarts.com in advance.

Paramount offers assistive listening devices free of charge at all performances. Check-in at the coatroom before the show to borrow a listening device.

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The Copley Theatre is located at 8 E. Galena Blvd., in the North Island Center, directly across the street from Paramount Theatre in downtown Aurora.

For tickets and information, visit paramountaurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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