Monica West and Sasha Olinick in Life Sucks at Theatre J through Feb. 15.

C. Stanley Photography

Kimberly Gilbert in Life Sucks at Theatre J through Feb. 15.

C. Stanley Photography

Shirley Serotsky, Acting Artistic Director, Theatre J

Courtesy of Theatre J

Rebecca Ende, Managing Director, Theatre J

Courtesy of Theatre J

Caleen Sinnette Jennings, playwright, premiering Cream Soda and Crème de Menthe at Theatre J in the 2015-16 season.

Courtesy of Theatre J

As the dust settles following the DC Jewish Community Center's controversial dismissal of Ari Roth – Theater J’s former Artistic Director – it seemed a good time to check-in with the theatre’s Managing Director Rebecca Ende and Acting Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky. Deep in the process of programming the 2015-16 season, they’re also in the midst of launching a national search for Roth’s replacement.

“We’re in a fairly unique situation,” Serotsky pointed out as she explained the relationship between the theatre and the DCJCC. “Over these last months, the people who had the clearest understanding of our situation were people whose theatres are connected with a university.” Like those companies, Theater J has an added layer of oversight and complexity. “Usually an artistic director answers to a board of directors,” Serotsky explained. “Here – as at a university – there’s an entire community outside the theatre that is deeply invested and deeply affected by what we do.”

Hiring a search firm seemed a critical step. “The DCJCC is making an investment in the next 10 to 20 years,” Ende explains. “The best way to get a diverse, experienced group of candidates is to work with a firm that has those connections, that knows people we haven’t even thought of.” The plan is to have a new leader in place by fall. “We’ll plan and announce the season,” Ende says. “So they’ll inherit that. Hopefully they’ll come in feeling good about our choices.”

The process of choosing a season is a shared one at Theater J, and always has been. “We include formal conversations with the staff – and not just the senior staff,” Serotsky says. “It’s key to our process,” Ende adds. “The staff arrives having read a list of plays that are being considered. We ask for their reactions, how the plays line up thematically, what makes them cohesive. There’s a lot of sticky notes being moved around.”

Serotsky notes the added value of long-term staff retention. “When things shifted and staff members were suddenly taking on new responsibilities those conversations became even more important,” she says. “Delia Taylor [Associate Producer] has been here more than ten years. Rebecca and I have been here six or seven.” Ende notes the eclectic strenghts of the entire staff, which result in a wide range of informed responses.

The company also benefits from a volunteer reading committee. “Some of them have been with the theatre over a decade,” Serotsky says. “They’re very open to work that can seem kind edgy and that pushes boundaries.”  Both women are intent on maintaining the theatre’s commitment to potentially controversial material. “I will guarantee,” Serotsky says, “that we are not backing off from the political or the intense themes. If anything, it’s about finding the balance of how many of those plays we do.”

The questions that shape the decision-making process have changed over the years. Ende explains, “We used to ask, ‘What makes this play Jewish?’ We’d look at content, characters, the playwright. Slowly that’s expanded.” The company now looks at plays whose themes might run parallel to Jewish interests while not being specifically Jewish in nature. “We look at important political issues that need a forum but aren’t finding it at other theatres,” Serotsky adds. “We’ve dealt with reproductive rights, and a woman’s right to chose, but also the idea of choice itself, going beyond abortion issues.”

Ende and Serotsky are eager to share the one title they can already announce – a new work by Washington-based playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings.  Premiering in the fall, under the direction of Eleanor Holdridge and featuring actor Dawn Ursula, Cream Soda and Crème de Menthe (working title) will be the company’s contribution to the DC Women’s Voices Theater Festival. “It’s highly autobiographical,” Serotsky says, “and Caleen has had a very interesting life.”

Talk of the future doesn’t detract from pride in the company’s current hit. “It was such a delight to produce Life Sucks,” Serotsky says. “All of the chaos of December [with Roth’s departure] was starting to die down and there was this wonderful show for us to invest ourselves in. We’re also very proud of its message which is definitely not that life sucks.”

Life Sucks runs at Theater J through February 15.

Printer-friendly version