La Jolla Playhouse Presents Guards at the Taj

La Jolla Playhouse announces its final subscription show for the 2015–2016 season: Guards at the Taj, by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), marking newly-appointed Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Jaime Castañeda’s directorial debut at the Playhouse. The production will run February 2–28, 2016 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

"Jaime Castañeda’s first production at La Jolla Playhouse is the perfect cap to the season of new works that depict defining moments across a variety of cultures and communities – from thousands of international passengers descending on a small Canadian town in Come From Away, to a glimpse into the mind of 1963 March on Washington architect Bayard Rustin in Blueprints to Freedom, to the journey of a seminal Yiddish play to Broadway in the early 20^thcentury in Indecent," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. "Now we add to the mix Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj, which tackles complex questions of identity and history with a wicked sense of humor and a keen theatrical eye."

At morning’s first light, a new edifice representing the soaring power of the empire will be unveiled, the glorious Taj Mahal. But for the two hapless guards assigned to protect the palace, morning will set the wheels in motion for a ghoulishly funny existential crisis that will shake their faith in God, the empire and each other. Guards at the Taj is a black comedy about two average men swept up by the beauty, carnage and injustice surrounding of one of the most famous wonders of the world.

Rajiv Joseph’s plays include Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a 2010 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Animals Out of Paper, The North Pool, The Lake Effect and Mr. Wolf. He is the librettist and co-lyricist for the musical, Fly. Joseph also wrote for the Showtime series "Nurse Jackie" for its third and fourth seasons and was the co-screenwriter of the film Draft Day, which was released earlier this year, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. Joseph received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.

Jaime Castañeda joined the Playhouse last December as Associate Artistic Director. He previously served for five years as Artistic Associate at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company. Prior to that, he was the founding Artistic Director of FireStarter Productions in Texas, as well as an ensemble member with American Theater Company in Chicago since 2009. His directing credits include The Royal Society of Antarctica at Portland Center Stage/JAW, Tiger Style! at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Dallas Theater Center, Chimichangas and Zoloft at Atlantic Theater Company, How We Got On at Cleveland Playhouse, Welcome to Arroyo’s at The Old Globe and American Theater Company, Red Light Winter at Perseverance Theatre, The Motherf**ker with the Hat at Kitchen Dog Theater, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant at Circle Theatre and Blue/Orange and Sonnets for an Old Century at FireStarter Productions. A Drama League fellow and recipient of the Princess Grace Award and the TCG New Generations Grant, Castañeda holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin.

The Playhouse also announces complete dates for its adventurous 2015/2016 season, comprised of all new works:

This original, rock-infused world-premiere musical, helmed by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, is based on the true story of when the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland played host to the world. What started as an average day in a small town turned in to an international sleep-over when 38 planes, carrying thousands of people from across the globe, were diverted to Gander’s air strip on September 11, 2001. Undaunted by culture clashes and language barriers, the people of Gander cheered the stranded travelers with music, an open bar and the recognition that we’re all part of a global family.

In the sweltering political and racial heat of 1963, Bayard Rustin, a brilliant architect of the Civil Rights Movement and an openly gay man, is enlisted to orchestrate an unprecedented March on Washington by colleagues that recently exiled him. With the stakes growing ever higher, Rustin finds himself at a personal crossroads, just as the nation is at cultural and political one. This world-premiere play, developed during the 2014 DNA New Work Series, presents a complex and dynamic portrait of a man at the turning point of professional and spiritual redemption.

This multisensory experience blends dance, storytelling and multimedia in an exploration of how soldiers and healers cope with the physical and psychological wounds of war. Incorporating narratives from the American Civil War, as well a remarkable performance from a young Navy veteran, this powerful piece asks how we as a nation recover from what seems like endless battles.

A world-premiere play with music, Indecent is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1922 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, a work considered by many to be a seminal work of Jewish culture – and by others, a work of traitorous libel. Alive with popular songs of the era, this deeply-moving piece charts the history of an incendiary work, the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it, and the evolving identity of the culturally-rich community that inspired its creation.

At morning’s first light, a new edifice representing the soaring power of the empire will be unveiled, the glorious Taj Mahal. But for the two hapless guards assigned to protect the palace, morning will set the wheels in motion for a ghoulishly funny existential crisis that will shake their faith in God, the empire and each other. Guards at the Taj is a black comedy about two average men swept up by the beauty, carnage and injustice surrounding of one of the most famous wonders of the  world.

Tickets to the 2015-2016 season are currently available only through a subscription purchase. Please visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org or call Playhouse Patron Services Department at (858) 550-1010 for more information.

The Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls series, artist residencies and commissions, including BD Wong, Daniel Beatty and Kirsten Greenidge. Currently led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, the Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic leadership of Des McAnuff, La Jolla Playhouse has had 25 productions transfer to Broadway, garnering 35 Tony Awards, among them Jersey Boys, Memphis, The Who’s Tommy, Big River, as well as Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of the Playhouse’s Page To Stage Program.