Theater J Announces Hayley Finn’s Inaugural Season
The ‘Premier Theater for Premiers’ Plans a Season of Bold and Diverse New Work
Theater J is excited to announce its 2023-2024 season, the first season planned by the theater‘s new Artistic Director, Hayley Finn. Featuring world premiere productions, the debut of a solo play series, and an abundance of new works by emerging writers within the American theater landscape, this season builds on Theater J’s legacy as a home for exceptional new work within Washington, DC and throughout the country. The season reflects the richness of Theater J’s mission to celebrate, explore, and struggle with the complexities and nuances of Jewish experiences and identities alongside the universal human condition.
“I am thrilled to present a diversity of plays and modes of theatrical storytelling to Theater J this season through the work of brilliant playwrights, most of whom are new to our audiences” says Theater J Artistic Director, Hayley Finn. “This season we are producing four world premieres and one regional premiere. Sharing new stories with our audience is vital to the theater–it sparks new ideas and allows us to have important conversations. This season asks questions about identity and assimilation, how to define and redefine love, and what we can and cannot know. Characters search for family members, romance, faith, self-actualization, and renewal. We start around a dinner table and travel in time and place, from the late 19th century in New York City’s Lower East Side to Stalinist Russia, Jaffa, and Seoul, on trains, planes, and through the pages of comic books. These plays celebrate the power of theater, which engages our imagination. I’m looking forward to the conversations that we can have around these inspiring new works.
“Now in our fourth decade, the mission of Theater J is as vital as ever,” shares Theater J Managing Director David Lloyd Olson. “Last week, I spoke with a teenager visiting from Rhode Island who shared how twice in the past year she had been bullied and harassed for being Jewish. Theater J will continue to celebrate the Jewish experience and directly challenge the rise in hate speech by inviting cross-cultural conversation through the work on our stage and in the post-show conversations with our audience.”
Edlavitch DCJCC CEO Jen Zwilling adds, “Hayley Finn brings her daring vision and full career of developing new work to Theater J. I am thrilled to have her join us and I’m excited to share these stories with communities throughout Washington this coming year.”
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