Jason Odell Williams Talks Career, New Show 'Destroying David' with American Theater Group

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Destroying David will be presented at the DMK Theater at Union Arts Center from Oct. 9-18th and at the Sieminski Theater from Oct 23-25th.

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American Theater Group (ATG) has announced the first production of its new season, the East Coast premiere of Destroying David written and performed by Emmy Award-nominee Jason Odell Williams . ATG’s new Producing Artistic Director Charlotte Cohn will direct.

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Destroying David is a thrilling, witty and heartfelt solo show about the power of art to help us through our darkest hours. Over the course of 75 minutes, a tour guide at the Galleria dell’ Accademia in Florence, Italy shares the fascinating history and precarious physical condition of Michelangelo’s most famous statue. But the story becomes more personal as the guide slowly reveals the real reason he has organized this private tour. Funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Destroying David will be presented at the DMK Theater at Union Arts Center from Oct. 9-18th and at the Sieminski Theater from Oct 23-25th.

Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Odell Williams about his career and Destroying David produced by American Theater Group

Jason is a playwright, actor and television producer who has been nominated for an Emmy Award, an Off-Broadway Alliance Award, and an L.A. Ovation Award. His plays are published by Concord Theatricals , TRW and Uproar Theatrics, including The New York Times critics’ pick, Handle with Care and the critically acclaimed Church & State which both ran Off-Broadway. He authored over a dozen plays that have collectively had over 200 productions nationwide. Most recently his play Destroying David premiered at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas then had its West Coast premiere at Dezart Performs in Palm Springs, CA. There are 3 more productions scheduled for the 26-27 season including the East Coast Premiere in October at American Theatre Group in New Jersey. He also recently co-wrote the book for a new musical called The Sound with his wife and collaborator, Charlotte Cohn , and actor/composer Christian Douglas . The new musical, inspired by true events, had its first workshop production in May 2026 at JCC CenterStage in Rochester, NY. Jason was the winner of the Hudson Valley Writers Workshop contest and a Finalist for the McKnight National Residency and Commission. On television, Jason’s work as a writer and producer has been seen on HBO Max, National Geographic, the History Channel, Discovery, and Netflix.

When did you first realize your penchant for writing? A bit like personal journalism was the first creative writing I remember doing. I wrote about going to a baseball game with my dad and describing what it’s like to arrive at the stadium and finally walk through those cement tunnels and see the green grass on the field for the first time. The teacher gave me a lot of positive feedback. Around 2007, I decided to really dive into writing. I wrote my first full-length play in 2008, Handle With Care . It was produced starting in 2011 at a few regional theatres and Off-Broadway in 2013. I never looked back.

Tell us about your theatrical training? I have a mix of training from high school, college and grad school. I fell in love with acting early, in 4th grade. We did The Wizard of Oz . As the Scarecrow, I got a laugh was hooked ever since. I had a great Drama teacher in high school and then went to University of Virginia. I got cast as a first-year student in a main stage play, which apparently doesn’t happen often, and decided to be a Drama major. After graduation I moved to NYC and attended The Actors Studio Drama School getting my MFA where I also met my wife, Charlotte. I performed regionally and Off-Broadway for a few years before focusing on writing.

Why is playwriting a challenging and rewarding form of creative writing?

I love writing plays for the same reason I like playing golf. It’s challenging and will never be perfect. But you are continually chasing the next great shot! Unlike writing a novel or short story, when those works are finished and published, that’s the end. It never changes after that. With a play, even when it’s published and the script is “locked,” each production interprets those words slightly differently and the play becomes something new. Each audience experiences the play differently. I think live theatre is the greatest art form ever. There’s a reason it’s been around for thousands of years.

You wear many hats in the entertainment industry! How do you juggle your roles as a producer, writer, and actor? I’ve worked as a television producer on shows like “The Food That Built America” and “Hazardous History with Henry Winkler ” for History Channel, but my favorites were “Brainchild” for Netflix and “Brain Games” for Nat Geo. I got nominated for an Emmy Award for that show! That’s my full-time job and it obviously takes a lot of time. But there are a few times a week where I’m waiting for notes or if I’ve hit a wall thinking about the TV episode and I like to shift my focus to something else. Shifting focus and bouncing between projects is useful for me. I also became a playwright when our daughter was 3 years old, so I learned how to write during nap time. I like wearing various hats.

We are excited about your play, "Destroying David" that will be produced by ATG in New Jersey this fall. What would you like audiences to know about the show?

It’s a funny, sad, and uplifting play that will hopefully make them laugh, It’s a 75-minute one-person show with some fun audience interaction. Loosely, it’s about the cracks in the ankles of Michelangelo’s “David” but the main character in the play is fictional. It’s not based on my real life, like many one-person shows are. And the audience participation is all voluntary with improvisation sections that make the play fun and exciting. It’s meant to make the audience feel like we’re all in this together, which is something you only get in live theatre.

What inspired you to write "Destroying David.”

In the summer of 2021when Covid wasn’t quite at its height, I was feeling a huge sense of loss, grief and despair. Several productions of my plays had been canceled around the country in 2020 and it wasn’t clear if regional theatres were going to bounce back anytime soon. The idea of theatre felt so frivolous when people were still dying and struggling just to survive. And I was thinking, why would I ever write another play, who’s going to see it, what’s the point of art at all?! A few years earlier in 2018, I had read an article about how Michelangelo’s David was in danger of collapsing because of these tiny cracks inside the marble, specifically inside the ankles. And for some reason I kept that article on my desk. The 500 year old masterpiece might be destroyed because of these cracks they can’t repair. And I thought… would that be so terrible, if the David collapsed and was destroyed? Maybe it wasn’t meant to last forever anyway. And who cares about art when the world is on fire? Or maybe… maybe we needed to do everything in our power to protect it and save it because art is not only beautiful, it’s vital. Art is what makes life worth living. And I sort of went back and forth like that in my head, arguing the pros and cons of David collapsing, that argument came out in a very short monologue that I wrote. I asked my wife, Charlotte, to read it out loud for me and tell me if there’s anything there. After she finished reading it she said, yes, there’s absolutely something here, keep exploring. I wanted it to be inherently theatrical that could only be experienced live and would be slightly different each night. If people were ever going to go see live theatre again, I wanted this piece to be something that could not be streamed or filmed because it’s all about human connection. I also wanted to challenge myself by writing in a style I’d never done before about something that scares me. It started as a short twenty-minute monologue, then it became a full-length two-person play, then finally a little over 4 years later, a full-length solo play about the power of art to help us through our darkest hours.

We think it's fascinating that your wife and Producing Artistic Director of ATG , Charlotte Cohn is also your director for "Destroying David." Tell us a little about your special working relationship.

I love working with Charlotte. A lot of people are curious because they think working with your spouse might be hard or tricky somehow. But I find it so much easier. There’s a shorthand naturally in how we communicate, but also there’s no ego. We can be brutally honest and not waste time trying to be polite. We have similar tastes on a broad level. We used to work separately; as actors it’s rare to be cast in the same thing. But once I started writing, the collaboration happened gradually and then all at once. I naturally would share whatever I was writing with her, she’s a trusted pair of eyes and is very smart, astute and insightful about theatre. She directed 7 of my plays, acted in 3 and we also co-wrote the book of a musical that she then directed. We encourage and challenge each other in a good way to keep making new stuff and improve it. Hands down, she’s my favorite director. Full stop.

Can you tell us about your plans or projects in the works?

My wife and I co-wrote a musical together called THE SOUND. We wrote the book and the talented Christian Douglas wrote the music and lyrics. It’s loosely about my wife’s father’s real-life experience escaping from Denmark to Sweden by hiding with his family on a fishing boat during WWII. It’s a thrilling and uplifting story about how an entire nation came together to protect the Jews in their country. We’ve had several readings and just finished a successful two-week workshop run in Rochester at JCC CenterStage. There will be a benefit presentation in January 2027 at American Theatre Group here in NJ and we hope to bring that play to a wider audience soon with London or Broadway being the ultimate goal. I also have a few ideas for new plays I’m kicking around but haven’t really landed on something that I’m actively writing. My brain is mostly preoccupied with working on Destroying David this fall.

Anything else, absolutely anything you want our readers to know! Just encourage them to go see live theatre! Watching a screen isn’t the same thing. Live theatre is the best way to remind ourselves of our shared humanity.

To learn more about the career of Jason Odell Williams , follow him on social media-FB: https://www.facebook.com/jasonodellwilliams ; IG: https://www.instagram.com/jasonodellwilliams/ and visit NPX: https://newplayexchange.org/users/721/jason-odell-williams

To learn more about American Theater Group and to purchase tickets for Destroying David please visit American Theater Group .

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jason Odell Williams

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/Interview-Jason-Odell-Williams-in-DESTROYING-DAVID-Produced-by-ATG-20260916)._