The Graduate Division is pleased to announce that 1992 UCSB Dramatic Art master’s alum Jason Loewith, Artistic Director of Olney Theatre Center in Washington, D.C., has been named the keynote speaker for the 2013 Graduate Division Commencement on June 16.
Jason Loewith, 1992 UCSB master's alum and Artistic Director of Olney Theatre Center, will give the keynote address at Graduate Division's Commencement ceremony on June 16.Loewith has worked in such theater roles as producer, director, playwright, and dramaturg in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and now in the nation’s capital.
“I'm honored and humbled to address such a diverse and dynamic community at the Graduate Division Commencement,” Loewith said. “My time at UCSB was utterly transformative; I acquired the tools I've needed for my work, which aims to provoke emotional and intellectual transcendence through the arts. But that's what we aim for within any discipline, right? I hope to bring that message to the class of 2013.”
As a playwright, Loewith has been honored with Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Jeff Awards for Best New Musical for “Adding Machine: A Musical,” which he co-wrote with composer Joshua Schmidt. He produced the world premiere at Chicago’s Next Theatre Company in 2007, where he served as Artistic Director from 2002 to 2008. That production went on to a six-month run Off-Broadway in 2008, winning four OBIE Awards for direction, design, and performance. Loewith directed a dozen regional and world premieres at Next, where his programming twice received the After Dark Award for Outstanding Season (2003-04 and 2005-06). Work that he directed or produced there also won multiple Jeff, After Dark, and Black Theatre Alliance Awards and received critical accolades from Chicago’s major media outlets. Loewith increased Next's budget from $168,000 to $700,000, retiring $100,000 of inherited debt and quadrupling the number of members on the Board of Directors along the way. He created and implemented two strategic plans for Next Theatre, which led to triple-digit subscription and contributed income growth.
Since moving to Washington in 2009, Loewith has directed new plays for Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, D.C.’s Studio Theatre, and Baltimore’s Everyman and CENTERSTAGE, where he also served as Associate Producer for Special Programs. During that time, Loewith served as Executive Director of the National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. With NNPN he supervised dozens of Rolling World Premieres across the country by writers including Luis Alfaro, Steven Dietz, Quiara Hudes, and Theresa Rebeck. In his four years at the helm, NNPN added new programs and expanded old ones, garnering major new funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
“Jason Loewith is an excellent example of the distinguished contributions being made by UCSB graduate student alumni throughout the nation and the world,” said Graduate Division Dean Dr. Carol Genetti. “His graduate education at UCSB significantly enabled the tremendous impact that he has had in the world of contemporary arts. His story is inspirational and I am greatly looking forward to his commencement address.”
Professor Risa Brainin, Chair and Director of Performance in UCSB’s Department of Theater and Dance, said: “We are thrilled to have Jason Loewith, a graduate of our M.A. program, as a commencement speaker. Mr. Loewith has had a wonderfully successful career, first as the Artistic Director of the Next Theatre in Chicago, then as the Executive Director of the National New Play Network, and now as the Artistic Director of the Olney Theatre Center. We are proud of his many outstanding achievements!”
Earlier in his career, Loewith served for two years as Artistic Administrator for Chicago’s Court Theatre; five years as General Manager (and frequent dramaturg) at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company; worked in the literary departments of the Mark Taper Forum and the Public; and mounted an astonishing 50 productions in three years as Production Manager at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles.
His work has been supported multiple times with NEA grants for Artistic Excellence, as well as the Rockefeller/MAP Fund and MacArthur’s International Connections Fund. Loewith was a Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations mentorship grantee in the first year of the program.
In addition to his 1992 Master of Arts degree in Dramatic Art/Directing from UCSB, he earned a Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, in English/American Literature from Brown University in 1990.
His book, “The Director’s Voice, Volume 2,” in which Loewith engages a cross-section of diverse and dynamic stage directors in conversation about today’s American theater, was published by TCG in 2012.
Upon assuming the role of Artistic Director for the 75-year-old Olney Theatre Center in February of this year, Loewith told the Washington Post: “I have always been drawn to a challenge, and hopefully not just a crazy challenge but one that’s going to end up being rewarding for the theater, the patrons.” The Post article also quoted a colleague of Loewith’s, who said of him: “He is both a right-brain and left-brain kind of guy — an incredible artist as well as a very smart administrator.”
Loewith said he’s honored and delighted by the invitation to speak at Commencement. “It's going to be fantastic to return to UCSB, and I intend to spend a lot of time at Freebirds, where I ate my very first burrito (sadly for my waistline, the first of many).”
In a 2011 talk on the state of contemporary theater, Loewith explained his method for determining if his show is a success. “I sit in the back row, and I know the show is successful when the audience is breathing as one.” The 2013 Graduate Division Commencement audience is likely to be “breathing as one” when Loewith takes the stage and addresses UCSB graduate students in June.
The 2013 Graduate Division Commencement will be held Sunday, June 16, 2013, at 4 p.m. on the Faculty Club Green. Grad students, registration is now open for 2013 Commencement; the deadline to register for the ceremony is May 3. For more information and to register, visit Graduate Division's Commencement page.