ACADEMY ICONS: DARYL ROTH WITH ANNA DEAVERE SMITH

Daryl Roth is a 13 time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer and leading innovator in the American theatre, with a career spanning over three decades. Credited with some of the most thought-provoking productions in New York City and throughout the world, Ms. Roth has brought to the stage the works of many of our greatest dramatists, including Edward Albee, Paula Vogel, and Nilo Cruz; has helped shepherd the careers of new playwrights; and is the force behind the Tony and Olivier Award winning Best Musical Kinky Boots (Broadway, U.S. Tour, London, Toronto, Australia, Korea, Japan). 

Ms. Roth is honored to hold the singular distinction of producing 7 Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics; August: Osage County (2008 Tony Award); Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award); How I Learned to Drive; Proof (2001 Tony Award); Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women; and Wit.

She champions stories that connect to the wider world through the stories they tell, and is particularly drawn to themes that include issues of gender and identity, family dynamics, stories with strong women at the core, and those that reflect her Jewish heritage. Among the more than 130 shows she has produced both on and Off Broadway include Larry Kramer’s seminal play about the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart (2011 Tony Award); Paula Vogel’s award-winning play Indecent; Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s international hit play Love, Loss, and What I Wore; and Gloria: A Life, a play about the iconic Gloria Steinem.. Other prominent productions include Absolute Brightness; Angels in America; Between the Lines; Buyer & Cellar; Company; Curtains; Funny Girl; Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia; Into the Woods; It Shoulda Been You; The Kite Runner; Left on Tenth; Life of Pi; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; War Horse; and The Year of Magical Thinking. Spring 2025: Old Friends, Othello, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Ms. Roth was at the forefront of creating philanthropic partnerships that reflect and respond to themes from her productions; inspiring audiences, and supporting and raising awareness for organizations. Some examples include W;t and Left on Tenth (New York Hospital); Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Dress for Success); The Normal Heart (Human Rights Campaign, Friends in Deed, amfAR, and The Actors Fund); Kinky Boots (True Colors Fund); and Life of Pi(World Wildlife Fund).

She strongly believes in supporting the next generation of playwrights, directors and designers, and since 1996 has been honoring a gifted theatre artist with the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, providing them with financial support as they develop new works in an artistic residency. She also mentors early career producers, sharing her experience and advice as they forge their own paths.

The Daryl Roth Theatre, the landmark Off-Broadway venue on Union Square, opened its unique main theatre space in 1996 with the iconic De La Guarda, which with Fuerza Bruta, played an exceptional combined 14 years. Other extraordinary productions include Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself; Hannah Gadsby’s Douglas, Gloria: A Life; and Titanique. The theatre was the first performing arts venue to reopen its doors in post-pandemic New York with Blindness, which premiered in March 2021.

In the intimate DR2 venue, she has presented critically acclaimed shows and The DR2 Kids programming, which introduces our youngest patrons to the theatre.

Dedicated to supporting a number of non-profit organizations, Ms. Roth is a Trustee Emeritus of Lincoln Center Theatre and a former Trustee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Honors include The New Dramatists Outstanding Career Achievement Award; New York Living Landmarks Award; and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. She is proud to have been inducted into the 2017 Theatre Hall of Fame.

darylrothproductions.com

Photo: Jim Cox

Anna Deavere Smith is credited with having created a new form of theater. Her plays, which focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view, are composed of interview excerpts.  President Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She’s the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie awards, and the George Polk Career Award in Journalism.  She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for two Tony Awards. Plays and films based on them include Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field.  Television and film acting includes: Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, Black-ish. Philadelphia, The American President, and Rachel Getting Married, She’s a professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Last year she was Eastman Professor at Oxford. She has several honorary doctorate degrees including those from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Spelman College and Juilliard and Oxford.