Labor Day is no picnic for Theater J artistic director

It's been 12 years since Ari Roth, artistic director of Theater J, was able to spend the first Monday in September kicking back at a Labor Day picnic. Since 2002, he has spent the holiday at the Kennedy Center, where the annual Page-to-Stage Festival allows local theaters and playwrights to workshop new works on a rare weekend when the cavernous halls of the arts center would otherwise be empty.