Josh Short

Josh Short is the founder and artistic director of Providence’s Wilbury Theatre Group, where he has produced hundreds of workshop and full-scale productions of work by local and world-renowned artists with a commitment to artistic excellence and community engagement. He has also directed many other productions, including American Idiot; The Father: A Tragic Farce; Once; ​Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight; The Humans; Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812; Lifted; Dolores Goes to Poetry City; Krapp’s Last Tape; and The Skin of Our Teeth. 

In 2014 Josh founded FRINGEPVD: The Providence Fringe Festival, with 50 handpicked artists in venues throughout Providence. Over the years, the festival has grown to become a voting member of the US Association of Fringe Festivals and the World Fringe Congress, and it stands as the largest fringe theater festival in New England.

In addition to his work with Wilbury Theatre Group and FRINGEPVD, Josh has worked with Brown Arts Institute, Gloucester Stage Company, Perishable Theatre, The Gamm Theatre, The La Jolla Playhouse, The Gaslamp Quarter Drama Department, The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, and The Providence Black Repertory Company, where he served as associate producer from 2008–10. A proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union, he has served as a member of Congressman James Langevin’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee and a mentor with the Rhode Island Foundation’s Emerging Leaders program, and he is a graduate of the Pi II class of Leadership Rhode Island. He was named by GoLocalProv one of 20 Who Made a Difference in 2020 and by Providence Monthly as ​Who to Watch in 2021 and was a recipient of the 2021 PBN 40 Under Forty Awards and the 2022 Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities presented by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.