Artistic Director of Theater J
As Artistic Director of Theater J – a program of the Washington DCJCC with an Actors' Equity Small Professional Theatre Tier 7 Contract and membership in the League of Washington Theatres, TCG, Cultural Alliance, and the Association for Jewish Theatre - Roth has produced over 100 mainstage productions, including 35 world premieres and 150 staged workshops and readings. He has been credited with leading Theater J to “national prominence as a home for edgy, politically charged plays – and for nurturing risky new works” since his arrival there in 1997.
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” has helped to make Theater J the “premier theater for premieres,” host to new plays from Joyce Carol Oates’s The Tattooed Girl and Wendy Wasserstein’s Welcome to My Rash and Third, to Robert Brustein’s Spring Forward, Fall Back, Neena Beber’s Jump/Cut, and Richard Greenberg's Bal Masque.
In addition to creating a hospitable environment for playwrights and embracing provocative subjects in its season offerings, under Roth’s leadership Theater J has become known for its 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.”
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