Jade King Carroll, Producing Artistic Director

Jade King Carroll is the Producing Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Theater Company. She is a distinguished director specializing in new play development, with extensive collaborations with acclaimed playwrights like Dael Orlandersmith, Chisa Hutchinson, Inda Craig-Galván, Kate Hamill, Dominique Morisseau, and Sarah Gancher. She has fostered emerging writers at prestigious organizations such as the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Institute, and more. Carroll’s directorial portfolio includes new audio dramas for Audible, Marvel, Broadway Podcast Network, and GEVA Theatre Center.  

Carroll’s expertise extends to directing classical and contemporary productions. She has directed over 60 productions nationwide at renowned venues including Shakespeare Theatre DC, Milwaukee Repertory, Lincoln Center Institute, Atlantic Theatre, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the McCarter Theatre Center at Princeton University, INTAR, Playwright’s Realm, The Wild Project, Miami New Drama, Portland Stage, Weston Playhouse, Portland Playhouse, City Theatre, Marin Theatre, Primary Stages, Theatreworks, Ebony Rep Theatre, Round House Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Two River Theatre, Playmakers Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, NYC Parks Summer Stages, Perseverance Theatre, Joe’s Pub, and Chautauqua Theater Company. Notable credits include Proof of Love at New York Theatre Workshop, Autumn’s Harvest at Lincoln Center Institute, The Jumping Off Point at Round House Theatre, Seven Deadly Sins – Wrath at Miami New Drama, Detroit ‘67 and Intimate Apparel at McCarter Theatre Center, Having Our Say at Hartford Stage and Long Wharf Theatre, and Red Velvet at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Carroll has directed multiple productions of August Wilson’s work, including The Piano Lesson at the McCarter Theatre and Hartford Stage. 

At Second Stage, Jade was a Van Lier and NYC Council of the Arts directing fellow and received a TCG New Generation grant in artistic directing. She is a former NYTW emerging artist fellow, an artistic apprentice at the Women’s Project Theatre, and directing and producing apprentice at the McCarter Theatre Center at Princeton University. She was a Gates Millennium scholar and recently received a 40 under 40 award from her alma mater, SUNY New Paltz. She was also the recipient of the Paul Green Award from the National Theatre Conference and the estate of August Wilson, and the 2020 Drama League Award. She was an associate director on Broadway for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, featuring Blair Underwood and Daphne Rubin-Vega, and THE GIN GAME, featuring James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson.  

As an educator, Carroll has taught and guest directed at Juilliard, Princeton, New York University, the University of Iowa, Penn State, Adelphi University, the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Point Park University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, West Virginia University, Bard College, the University of Maryland, Columbia University, and Chautauqua Theater Company.  

During her tenure as Producing Artistic Director of Chautauqua Theater Company, she has led two seasons marked by innovative new works, including the world premieres of tiny father by Mike Lew (a co-production with Barrington Stage Company) and a commissioned piece, The Light and The Dark (the Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi) by Kate Hamill (co-produced with Primary Stages in NYC). She has also developed works by a diverse group of playwrights, including Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Chisa Hutchinson, Harrison David Rivers, Anna Ziegler, C.A. Johnson, Sharyn Rothstein, Hilary Bettis, and Kate Hamill. Under her leadership, Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) secured two NYSCA grants and partnered with the Telsey Office for casting and the Drama League to expand its directing fellows program. Additionally, she collaborated with City Theatre in Pittsburgh to build sets for CTC productions due to challenges faced in CTC facilities. 

Most recently, Carroll and CTC have successfully raised $9 million for the new Roe Green Theater Center, which will house CTC offices, rehearsal spaces, a new prop shop, a green room, and a black box theater complete with a lobby and ADR bar.