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.” [1]
The New York Times called Roth's play "Born Guilty" a "searing drama." [2] Born Guilty is based on the book of the same name by Peter Sichrovsky (Shuldig Geboren, and published in English by Basic Books). The play was commissioned & produced by Arena Stage, directed by Zelda Fichandler and nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. Off-Broadway it was produced by the American Jewish Theater, directed by Jack Gelber (1993); A Red Orchid & Famous Door Theater (Chicago, 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's Studs Terkel Show; All Things Considered. The play is published by Samuel French.
A sequel to Born Guilty entitled Peter and the Wolf has been produced at Theater J in 2002 (in repretory with Born Guilty which received Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Resident Production and Outstanding director, John Vreeke) and in Atlanta at Jewish Theatre of the South in 2007.
Other plays by Roth include:
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:
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 magazines. 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 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,” (published by Scribners and produced as a PBS documentary by Frontline) together with his wife, Dr. Kate Schecter and family. As as educator, he has taught at the University of Michigan for ten years and has lectured at Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, and New York Universities. He currently teaches a course in political theater for the University of Michigan's “Michigan in DC” internship program.
Roth has won:
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The Premier Theater for Premieres,By Trey Graham, New York Times, May 15, 2005 [2]
Akbar Ahmed's 'Noor,' a Paean to Religious Tolerance - washingtonpost.com]</ref>
http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/generalpressclips/