Author Philip Roth is as synonymous with New Jersey as Bruce Springsteen, diners and "Sopranos" memes. So it makes perfect sense that this weekend, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will present Philip Roth Unbound, a sprawling celebration of Roth's life and legacy, to coincide with what would have been his 90th birthday.
In a conversation with WNYC's Morning Edition host Michael Hill, John Schreiber, president and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, said hosting an event in honor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Newark native, who died in 2018, was a no-brainer.
"It's safe to say that Philip Roth may be the most significant American fiction writer of the last 75 years, [between] the volume of work that he [produced] and the fact that it was so brave and hilarious and gripping and challenging," Schreiber said. "The fact that a lot of it used Newark as a canvas made the idea of a Roth festival really compelling to us."
John Schreiber is president and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
The event takes place March 17 to 19, and will include over 40 prominent writers, actors, journalists, artists and public intellectuals celebrating and debating Roth's legacy. Included among more than a dozen events are tours of the Philip Roth Personal Library at the Newark Public Library, narrated by actor Morgan Spector, and Philip Roth Bus Tours of Newark. There's also an evening of comedy and food at Hobby’s Delicatessen, a discussion about the writers and thinkers who influenced Roth, and readings of multiple works.
One major highlight is a dramatic staged reading of “The Plot Against America” at Victoria Theater at NJPAC, with S. Epatha Merkerson, Jane Kaczmarek, Cynthia Nixon, Peter Riegert, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Waterston and Eric Bogosian.
Schreiber believes that the novel, which imagines a world in which xenophobic America First proponent Charles Lindbergh is elected President of the United States and turns the nation toward fascism, is more relevant than ever.
"The reality that our government may not always serve us the way it should," he said, "and that we need to really be mindful and protective of our democracy... I mean, what could be more meaningful today than that?"
And a panel discussion called “Letting the Repellent In: Philip Roth and the Art of Outrage,” at NJPAC's Chase Room, focuses on “the cathartic power of discomfort” with Ayad Akhtar, Susan Choi, Ottessa Moshfegh and Gary Shteyngart.
Actor, playwright and novelist Eric Bogosian is among the participants in "Philip Roth Unbound."
Actor and playwright Eric Bogosian, who describes himself as a Philip Roth devotee, acknowledged that the more controversial aspects of Roth's work — including accusations of misogyny within his writing — can't be ignored.
"Every artist who's going to jump into the fray is going to have to figure out how to engage," he said. "And for me, putting the audience on the spot, forcing them to think through things that they don't want to think about, is part of what my work is about. And I think that was what Roth was doing, as well."
The weekend will conclude on Sunday with a preview of actor John Turturro and writer Ariel Levy’s stage adaptation of “Sabbath’s Theater,” which includes a post-performance chat with Turturro and Levy, moderated by NPR's Scott Simon, plus live music to celebrate Roth's birthday.
Schreiber thinks the weekend is full of events that cater to both Roth superfans and people who may only know a little bit about him.
"That's what I hope will happen this weekend," he said. "The big fans will come and have a ball, and folks who have never read Roth will come and be delighted by the work and want to get to know it better. That's what a good festival does, and we think this is one of those."
