Ari Roth

Ari Roth is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator. Since 1997, he has served as the Artistic Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C. Roth grew up on the South Side of Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting with Milan Stitt, Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, and received his first of two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama from noted UM alum, playwright Arthur Miller.

The Washington Post describes Roth as a “maverick artistic director” noted for staging premiers of new works by both “established and budding playwrights.” Born Guilty is based on the book of the same name by Peter Sichrovsky (Shuldig Geboren in German, and published in English by Basic Books). The play was commissioned & produced by Arena Stage, directed by founding director Zelda Fichandler and nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play. Off-Broadway it was produced by the American Jewish Theater, directed by Jack Gelber (sold-out extended run in 1993); A Red Orchid & Famous Door Theater (Chicago, 7 month run in 1994, directed by Shira Piven); over 35 national productions (including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Vancouver & Theater J). Radio broadcast for L.A. Theater Works’ Chicago Theaters on The Air (starring Jeremy Piven); WFMT Studs Terkel Show; All Things Considered. Published by Samuel French.

Born Guilty's more recent theatrical sequel is called Peter and the Wolf and has been produced at Theater J in 2002 and in Atlanta at Jewish Theatre of the South (2007) in repertory with Born Guilty.

Other plays by Roth include:

• Still Waiting (companion to Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty, produced at Theater J in 1998 under the collective title, Waiting For Lefty/Still Waiting.

* Goodnight Irene, commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, produced at the Performance Network (Ann Arbor, 1996), Theater J (1998) and the Hypothetical Theatre Company in 2001.

• Life In Refusal (originally a one act entitled Proverbial Human Suffering - winner of the 1998 Helen Eisner Award for Young Playwrights); commissioned by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and first performed at Performance Network (Ann Arbor, 1998) and subsequently, in its Equity world premiere at Theater J in 2000; nominated for the 2001 Charles MacArthur Prize for Outstanding New Play by the Helen Hayes Award and published by Samuel French.

• Love & Yearning in the Not-for-Profits (and Other Marital Distractions) - Produced at Theater J in 2001 and nominated for 2002 Helen Hayes Award for Best Actress. Workshopped at Ojai Playwrights Conference and in Woolly Mammoth Foreplay series. The play is comprised of the produced one-act plays, Prelude to a Crisis, The Professor and the Whore, Terminal Connection and Love and Yearning in the Not for Profit, all of which were produced at HB Playwrights Foundation (with Prelude to a Crisis produced at Ensemble Studio Theater, published by Dramatists Play Service and produced at many universities).

• Oh, The Innocents - Originally produced at GeVa Theatre, directed by Joe Mantello, where it was winner of 1990 Clifford Davy Award. Produced by HB Playwrights Foundation, directed by William Carden in 1994. Produced at Circle Rep as one-act Private Lessons, directed by Michael Grief in 1997. Full length published by Samuel French. Updated with 12 original songs by the author, produced at Theater J, 2004.

His current work-in-progress is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, to be produced at Theater J in 2009 under the title, The Seagull on 16th Street.

He is also completing the adaptation, Ali Salem Drives To Israel, based on the travel memoir Egyptian playwright Ali Salem’s “A Drive to Israel: An Egyptian Meets His Neighbors.” The project is a recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Grant, TCG-Met Life Extended Collaboration Grant, and New Play Commission from National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Earlier works include:

• Remaking a Melting Pot- an adaptation of Israel Zangwill's 1908 melodrama, The Melting Pot; staged at University of Michigan Cross-Cultural Collaboration seminar; and a new version produced at Brandeis University in 1997

• Giant Shadows - Workshops at New York Stage & Film at John Houseman Theater & New Arts Theatre, directed by Evan Yionoulis. L.A. Theater Works & Victory Gardens, directed by Michael Greif.

• "A Spiral Weld" - Produced at Pace University Michael Schimmel Center; finalist, 1986 CBS/DG Play Search.

And the one-acts: • JEFFREY SLUGWORTH: EX-EMBALMER presented at HBPF Funeral Play Festival, directed by James Milton; published by Smith & Kraus. • HAPPY BREAK UP produced at Circle Rep 20th Anniversary Festival. • VAN GOGH PASSION co-author w/ Michael Patrick King and Dan Bonnell; produced at Inter-Art Theater. • THE RED GUITAR produced at Double Image One-Act Fest, Circle Rep Lab & Trueblood Theater, University of Michigan. • THE ART OF OUR NECESSITIES produced at Trueblood Theater, U-Michigan, Ann Arbor. • A PURIM SPIEL FOR JOSEPH PAPP (librettist; Michael Schubert, composer) commissioned by the Hebrew Arts School, presented at the Equitable Building.

As a producer, his company, Theater J's work has received praise across the country from Variety, The New York Times Magazine and Arts & Leisure section, Hadassah, Moment and American Theatre. Over the last three seasons his company has produced world premieres by the late Wendy Wasserstein (Welcome To My Rash & Third), Joyce Carol Oates (The Tattooed Girl), Richard Greenberg (Bal Masque), Ariel Dorfman (Picasso's Closet), Robert Brustein (Spring Forward, Fall Back) and the upcoming Either Or by “Schindler's List” author, Thomas Keneally. Roth is a former Contributing Editor to The Forward and a graduate of the University of Michigan where he won two Avery Hopwood Awards. He is a co-author of the book, “Back in the USSR,” together with his wife, Dr. Kate Schecter and family, and has taught at the University of Michigan, Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, and New York Universities and currently teaches a course in political theater for U of M's “Michigan in DC” internship program.

Roth has won:

• National Endowment for the Arts playwriting grants (1998 and 2003)
• the Helen Eisner Award
• the Avery Hopwood award
• the Mertyl Wreath Award from Hadassah
• the Clifford Davy Award from GeVa Theatre

References

The Premier Theater for Premieres,By Trey Graham, New York Times, May 15, 2005 [1]

Akbar Ahmed's 'Noor,' a Paean to Religious Tolerance - washingtonpost.com]</ref>

http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/generalpressclips/

External links

http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/