David Rothenberg ─ Founder of The Fortune Society

Sometimes an event happens that changes a life forever. For David Rothenberg, it was that night when he realized what his play said about real life for former prisoners. It seems unlikely that a theater and television producer would become a staunch advocate for prison and parole reform, but sometimes fate steps in. Rothenberg’s multilayered life has thrust him into Broadway‘s brightest lights, prison riots, political campaigns, civil rights sit-ins, and a Central American Civil War.

Rothenberg told the Village View what led up to that moment of epiphany. Born and raised in New Jersey, he always knew New York was the place to be. “I didn’t want to live anywhere else,” he said. “It was a spirit of freedom, opportunities, lack of judgment.” As a young theater publicity agent, he represented some of the most successful productions in the second half of the 20th century. He then spent time in Italy, hanging out with Italian friends in music and the theater. When he returned to New York in 1964, he looked for similar types of theater. He chose to live on Sheridan Square ─ his own “little piazza” ─ and has lived in the West Village ever since.

After reading Fortune and Men’s Eyes, Rothenberg produced the play in 1967 at the Actor’s Playhouse in the Village. The Fortune Society literally began on the stage of that theater in an after performance talk-back. In 2006, he co-authored and directed The Castle, with a cast of formerly incarcerated men and women that ran off-Broadway for a year.

Rothenberg said, “A college professor brought some students for a discussion of the play, which was right up my alley. I came out with two of the actors and we started fielding questions. One guy stood up at the back of the house and declared his experience in jail. We went out for coffee and soon it was a regular thing. At that time, the law said if parolees associated with other convicts, they would be violating their parole. I realized that was like telling alcoholics that they were not allowed to go to AA meetings because it associated them with other alcoholics. There was nothing for people coming out of prison that motivated them to change their lives.”

He added, “When I learned that many parolees were often not able to sign a lease, get a bank account, or even get a job, I knew we had to do something. It started by having session discussions in my apartment. When somebody said they did not want to go back to the danger of their shelter, I had to offer them the couch for the night. Soon I realized I needed to find transitional housing for these people. I became an activist when I saw the condition of people incarcerated ─ including kids who were on drugs, although I didn’t know it. I just thought they were sitting there numb. This inspired me to found the Fortune Society in 1967, now one of the nation’s leading advocacy and service organizations in criminal justice.”

The Fortune Society is nationally recognized for developing model programs that help people with criminal justice histories become assets to their communities. Fortune offers a holistic and integrated “one-stop-shopping” model of service provision, including discharge planning, licensed outpatient substance use and mental health treatment, alternatives to incarceration, HIV/AIDS services, career development and job retention, education, family services, drop-in services, and supportive housing, as well as lifetime access to aftercare. For more information, visit www.fortunesociety.org.

Later, Rothenberg served as a civilian observer during the Attica prison riot, which spurred his lifelong activism for prisoners’ rights. Rothenberg Productions performances continue run in colleges, churches, civic groups and prisons around the country. As a social activist, he was appointed to the NYC Commission of Human Rights, and served on several special state and New York City commissions, including a Governor’s Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice, a Mayor’s Task Force on Child Abuse, and the American Bar Association Commission on Correction. He has testified before numerous government committees, including several in Washington D.C., before Senate and House committees, and before state legislative committees around the nation. In 1985, Rothenberg ran for city council in Manhattan to raise AIDS awareness as an openly gay candidate. He has been a guest columnist for several newspapers and continues to host a weekly radio program on WBAI in New York, an assignment he has held for over 50 years.

He shared a favorite memory. “I believe that humor is a healing component to getting through difficult situations,” he said. “I remember working with a 17-year-old kid named Nichols who was very angry. I would get him to play ping-pong. Being in theater, I would throw out a one liner, and I could see he was trying to conceal his smile or laughter. We created an atmosphere of trust. If you can make people laugh, they relax and are much more open. About 30 years later, I’m walking down the street and this man with three little girls came up to me and said, ‘We used to have so much fun at the Fortune. I remember we had laughter; we used to go to plays together.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, great to see you, too.’ ”

Last year at age 92, I made my debut as a stand-up comedian at Studio 54, one of the biggest clubs in New York.