Jen Silverman is a multi-hyphenate playwright, poet, and novelist whose work has been produced nationally and internationally, on and off Broadway. Their plays balance lyricism with grounded sincerity, and highlight the power of hope in seemingly hopeless times. Silverman is a Guggenheim Fellow, a three-time MacDowell Fellow, and recipient of the Yale Drama Series Award. Their play The Roommate recently closed its Broadway run, with Mia Farrow and Pattie LuPone in the leading roles.

Josh is the Artistic Director of Profile Theatre where he recently directed  christopher oscar peña’s awe/struck, Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria, the virtual production of Paula Vogel’s The Mineola Twins (Willamette Week Top Ten Theatre of 2021) and the in-person productions of The Baltimore Waltz and Indecent (co-production with Artists Repertory Theatre), the rotating repertory productions of Lisa Kron’s Well and Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy, Lisa Kron’s In The Wake, the concert staging of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and the rotating repertory productions of Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful and The Happiest Song Plays Last. Other Portland productions include Teenage Dick at Artists Repertory Theatre.

He is a Drama Desk Award-winning director whose productions have been seen in New York at MCC Theater, The Cherry Lane, The Duke on 42nd Street, New World Stages, The Daryl Roth Theatre, Culture Project, regionally at The Guthrie Theater, the Berkshire Theatre Group, the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Signature Theatre (DC), Theatre Squared and internationally at the Dublin Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and elsewhere. His collaboration with Ping Chong + Company was commissioned by and premiered at The Kennedy Center before touring the northeast. His writing has received the support of the Jerome Foundation. He’s developed new plays at The O’Neill, NYSAF, The Playwrights Center, The New Harmony Project, JAW/PCS, GPTC, and at theaters around the country.

He is formerly the Director of Playwright Development at MCC Theater and the Director of New Play Development at WET. He’s served on the faculty of the New School for Drama M.F.A. Directing program, the Fordham University MFA Playwriting program, Purchase College SUNY’s BFA Dramatic Writing program and has been a guest artist at The Juilliard School, NYU’s Dramatic Writing MFA, Carnegie Mellon’s M.F.A. Playwriting, University of Minnesota’s B.F.A. Acting program and others.