Ari Roth (born January 10, 1961) is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator.
From 2014 to 2020 Roth served as the artistic director of Mosaic Theater Company of DC and was formerly the artistic director of Theater J at the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center from 1997 to 2014. Over 18 seasons at Theater J, he produced more than 129 productions and created festivals including "Locally Grown: Community Supported Art," "Voices from a Changing Middle East", and Theater J's acclaimed "Beyond The Stage" and "Artistic Director's Roundtable" series. In 2010, Roth was named as one of the Forward 50, honoring nationally prominent "men and women who are leading the American Jewish community into the 21st century, and in 2017 he was given the DC Mayor's Arts Award for Visionary Leadership. In 2021, Roth launched a new partnership with A. Lorraine Robinson, founding Voices Festival Productions, to be the new home for his long-running "Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival." Their first public event was a virtual benefit in support of "Ukrainian Playwrights Under Siege" in partnership with the Arts Club of Washington.
In December 2014, Roth was dismissed as the artistic director of Theater J. Hundreds of noted figures in the world of American theater contested his termination; Tony Kushner called it "an act of political censorship." Specifically, it was said that Roth was fired due to his protesting the DCJCC cancelation of Theater J's "Voices from a Changing Middle East". Jeremy Gerard wrote: "It is absolutely clear that Roth was fired because of the content of the work he has so thoughtfully and ably championed for the last two decades." He also claimed that Roth was disciplined for "blatantly political reasons." The DCJCC denies that Roth's termination was political. Immediately following his departure from Theater J, Roth founded the Mosaic Theater Company of DC in December 2014. In November of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, he resigned as Mosaic's artistic director after complaints from staff.
Life The son of German-born refugees of the Holocaust, Roth was born and raised in Chicago, where he graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory High School. He studied playwriting at the University of Michigan with Milan Stitt (author of The Runner Stumbles) and Kenneth Thorpe Rowe (author of the textbook, Write that Play). Based on his playwriting, he received two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama, the first in 1981 given by Arthur Miller, a noted UM alum and playwright (and student of Thorpe Rowe).
Roth is married to Kate Schecter, the CEO and president of World Neighbors. They have two daughters.
Teaching career From 1988 to 1997, Roth was a lecturer for the University of Michigan's English and Theater departments, teaching playwriting and dramatic literature. He later taught in the Department of Theater Arts and the Genesis Institute at Brandeis University, and was an adjunct professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Roth has been a visiting professor in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama graduate program in Dramatic Writing, and a visiting writer at George Washington University.
Since 2006, Roth has taught a course in political theater in Washington, DC, for University of Michigan's "Michigan in Washington Program," University of San Francisco's "USFinDC Program" and University of California Berkeley's "Berkeley Washington Program".
Theater J As artistic director of Theater J, Roth produced over 129 mainstage productions, including 44 world premieres, and 150 staged workshops and readings. He was credited since taking over in 1997 with leading Theater J to "national prominence as a home for edgy, politically charged plays – and for nurturing risky new works."Harris, Paul (October 22, 2006) Risk Brings Reward Variety. Retrieved April 20, 2012. The theater is a program of the Washington DCJCC with an Actors' Equity Small Professional Theatre Tier 7 Contract and membership in the League of Washington Theatres, Theater Communications Group, Cultural Alliance, and the Association for Jewish Theatre.
He was described as creating a "rare mix of professional polish, thoughtful dramaturgy and nervy experimentation – all in a spot just far enough off the New York radar for a playwright to relax."Graham, Trey (May 15, 2005) roth&st=cse The Premier Theater for Premieres The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2012. An article in The New York Times claimed that Roth helped to make Theater J the "premier theater for premieres." It produced new plays ranging from Joyce Carol Oates's The Tattooed GirlLegit Reviews. Harris, Paul // Variety; 02/08/05. The Tattooed Girl Retrieved May 28, 2012. and Wendy Wasserstein's Welcome to My Rash and Third,Jones, Kenneth (February 3, 2004) Wasserstein World Premieres, Welcome to My Rash and Third, Play DC Through Feb. 15 Playbill.com. Retrieved May 28, 2012. to Robert Brustein's Spring Forward, Fall Back,Legit Reviews. Harris, Paul // Variety; 10/30/06. Spring Forward, Fall Back Retrieved May 28, 2012. Neena Beber's Jump/Cut,Marks, Peter (March 6, 2003) Retrieved May 28, 2012. and Richard Greenberg's Bal Masque.Horwitz, Jane (April 11, 2006) Holding Firmly Onto His 'Bal Masque' The Washington Post. Retrieved May 28, 2012. In addition to season offerings, Roth led Theater J to become known for its discussion programming, Beyond the Stage. Peter Marks has described the Theater J post-show discussion format as "a chance to digest and puzzle out en masse, in an entirely exhilarating way."Marks, Peter (March 27, 2009) "Theater J's 'Seven Jewish Children' Provokes Thought, Feedback", The Washington Post. Retrieved April 20, 2012
Mosaic Theater Company of DC Founded by Roth in 2014, Mosaic Theater Company of DC is dedicated to creating independent, intercultural, uncensored, socially relevant art. In 2017, Mosaic received the 2017 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company from the Helen Hayes Awards. Past productions include: Jay O. Sanders' Unexplored Interior (This Is Rwanda), Motti Lerner's After The War, and Tearrance Chisholm's Hooded, Or Being Black For Dummies, along with the American Premieres of Izzeldin Abuelaish's I Shall Not Hate, Shay Pitovsky and Shahar Pinkhas' Promised Land, and Hanna Eady and Edward Mast's The Return, Philip Himberg's Paper Dolls, the World Premiere of Mona Mansour's The Vagrant Trilogy (which would move to The Public Theater with same creative nucleus in 2022) and Caleen Sinnette Jennings Queens Girl in Africa.
Plays In 1989 Roth was commissioned by Arena Stage to write a play based on Peter Sichrovsky's widely acclaimed book of interviews with the children and grandchildren of Nazis (Schuldig Geboren, serialized in Der Spiegel in 1987 and published in English in 1988 by Basic Books). Entitled Born Guilty, Roth's dramatic adaptation follows Sichrovsky as the Austrian Jewish journalist interviews children of Nazi and SS officials. Born Guilty had its world premiere in 1991, directed by Zelda Fichandler. The play was nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play.Helen Hayes Award Nominations and Recipients: 1992, Theatre Washington. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
After further readings at Manhattan Theatre Club, Born Guilty had its Off-Broadway premiere in 1993 at the now-defunct American Jewish Theater. Jack Gelber directed a cast including Zach Grenier, Greg Germann, Lee Wilkof, Victor Slezak, Maggie Burke, Jennie Moreau, and Amy Wright. The New York Times called the play a "searing drama" Hampton, Wilborn (January 28, 1993) The Sins of the Nazi Fathers The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2011. and the production enjoyed a sold out, extended run.
Born Guilty had its Midwest premiere at Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre in 1994. The production, directed by Shira Piven, later moved to the Famous Door Theatre Company at Jane Addams Hull House for an extended seven-month run, and received widespread critical praise.Williams, Albert (March 17, 1994) A Dysfunctional Culture Chicago Reader. Retrieved December 27, 2011.Bommer, Lawrence (March 15, 1994) "'Born Guilty' Bears Witness To Echoes Of The Holocaust", Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 27, 2011. Since then, Born Guilty has enjoyed more than 40 national productions (including in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, and San Francisco) and a radio broadcast by L.A. Theatre Works as part of its "Chicago Theatres on the Air" series.
Theater J's 2002 DC revival of Born Guilty was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play;Helen Hayes Award Nominations and Recipients: 2003 theatreWashington. Retrieved March 18, 2012. the director of the play, John Vreeke, was nominated for Outstanding Director. Excerpts of Born Guilty were featured on WFMT Chicago's The Studs Terkel Program and NPR's All Things Considered. It is featured in The Best Stage Scenes of 1993 (Smith and Kraus, Inc., 1994) and was published by Samuel French, Inc. in 1994.
A sequel to Born Guilty, The Wolf in Peter (originally, "Peter and the Wolf") is based on the political career of Peter Sichrovsky and his controversial partnership with Jörg Haider, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party. In this sequel, we follow the Adapter (a fictionalized version of Roth himself) as he sets off for Europe to discover why Schirovsky would align himself with such a controversial figure as Haider, who is often associated with anti-semitism.
The sequel premiered in 2002, when it was produced in repertory with Born Guilty at Theater J.Theater J Productions 1999-2003 , Theater J, Washington DCJCC, Retrieved May 25, 2012
The play was developed further at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and Jewish Theatre of Austria, and produced in repertory in 2007 at Atlanta's Jewish Theatre of the South. In 2010 it was presented as a staged reading in New York at the Museum of Jewish Heritage by the Epic Theatre Ensemble and directed by Blanka Zizka, artistic director of the Wilma Theatre.BWW News Desk (September 20, 2010) following readings by The Epic Theatre at Manhattan Theatre Club and City University. Ari Roth and Epic Theatre Ensemble Present Staged Reading of BORN GUILTY CYCLE broadwayworld.com. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
In 2013, Roth debuted a prequel to these two plays, "Andy and The Shadows" at Theater J, in a production directed by Daniella Topol. "Andy" focuses on a young filmmaker, the son of Holocaust refugees on the South Side of Chicago. Set in 1984 and loosely autobiographical, the protagonist grapples with questions of remembrance, history and identity that are touched upon in "Born Guilty" and "The Wolf in Peter." Originally developed as Giant Shadows, the play was recipient of the first Helen Eisner Award for Young Playwrights given by the Streisand Center for Jewish Culture (1987), and presented as a reading at L.A. Theatre Works (featuring Bruce Norris); Victory Gardens Theater (directed by Michael Greif); and the American Jewish Theatre (directed again by Greif). In 1988 Evan Yionoulis directed readings of Giant Shadows for New York Stage and Film and New Arts Theater. A revised version of the play was presented in 2011 as part of The Born Guilty Cycle: A Trilogy for The Theatre Lab in Washington, DC, and read at The National Theater.
These three plays now make up The Born Guilty Cycle: A Trilogy. In 2011 the Theatre Lab presented The Cycle in a student/professional workshop at Washington's National Theatre. Delia Taylor and Shirley Serotsky directed., The National Theatre, Retrieved May 25, 2012.
Other plays