La Jolla Playhouse Rounds Out 2015-16 Season with 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 a 2015/2016 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 20th century 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 (Playwright) 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.

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