KNOW BEFORE YOU GO FEBRUARY 2 – 28, 2016
Production Sponsors
Margret and Nevins McBride Just Gypsy
BEFORE YOU GO
KNOW
We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your upcoming performance of Guards at the Taj. Below is some additional information about the production and the venue to enhance your theater-going experience.
PARKING Parking is free for all subscribers. For all others parking is $2 (subject to change), Mon-Fri. Upon arrival to campus, please purchase your parking permit from one of the automated pay stations located next to the information kiosk. Simply park, note your space number, and pay $2 at the pay station. Pay stations accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express or cash ($1 and $5), and do not give change. You will not need to return to your car. Parking is free on the weekends.
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EVENTS The Playhouse offers unique opportunities for audience members to delve deeper into the play with these special performance series options: Foodie Friday: Buy a ticket to the performance and enjoy San Diego’s finest food trucks, plus a complimentary microbrew tasting from Stone Brewing Company. - Friday, February 19 starting at 6:00 pm Talkback Tuesdays: Participate in a lively discussion with actors and Playhouse staff members after the performance. - Tuesday, February 9 following the 7:30 pm performance - Tuesday, February 16 following the 7:30 pm performance Discovery Sunday: Special guest speakers engage audience members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and themes in the play. - Sunday, February 28 following the 2:00 pm performance Insider Events: Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance presentation that gives an insider’s view of the play. - Wednesday, February 24 at 6:45 pm - Saturday, February 27 at 1:15 pm
ACCESSIBILITY A golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility issues to and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a friendly La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.
ACCESS PERFORMANCES Open Captioned Performance: This performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing. - Sunday, February 14 at 2:00 pm ACCESS (ASL Interpreted & Audio Described) Performance: This performance has American Sign Language interpretation for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision. - Saturday, February 20 at 2:00 pm DINING
James’ Place is the Theatre District’s on-site restaurant. Developed by renowned Sushi Master James Holder, the menu includes his signature sushi, as well as delectable dishes created with Prime and Angus cuts of beef, locally and sustainably harvested seafood, along with seasonal dishes. A lighter fare menu is also served at the newly-redesigned sushi/cocktail bar, featuring craft beer and California wines. James’ Place is open daily. Tuesday – Friday: Happy Hour: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close Saturday – Sunday: Happy Hour: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close For reservations, please call (858) 638-7778. We also recommend the following nearby restaurants: Adobe El Restaurante (breakfast and lunch) and Mustangs & Burros (dinner and weekend lunch) at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa 9700 N. Torrey Pines Road La Jolla, CA 92037 estancialajolla.com Café la Rue and The Med at La Valencia Hotel 1132 Prospect Street La Jolla, CA 92037 lavalencia.com
Cusp Restaurant and Hiatus Poolside Lounge at Hotel La Jolla 7955 La Jolla Shores Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 cusprestaurant.com Dolce Pane e Vino 16081 San Dieguito Road Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 dolcepaneevino.com Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar 8970 University Center Lane San Diego, CA 92122 flemingssteakhouse.com
Giuseppe Restaurants & Fine Catering 700 Prospect Street San Diego, CA 92037 giuseppecatering.com Pamplemousse Grille 514 Via de la Valle, Suite 100 Solana Beach, CA 92075 pgrille.com Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery Playhouse Patrons Get 20% Off 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 rockbottom.com
Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.
A MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT: La Jolla Playhouse advances theatre as an art form and as a vital social, moral and political platform by providing unfettered creative opportunities for the leading artists of today and tomorrow. With our youthful spirit and eclectic, artist-driven
Welcome to Guards at the Taj, the final show of our 2015/2016 season. In keeping with the rest of our subscription shows this past year, Rajiv Joseph’s play examines how we behave when our communities are in moments of crisis. Unlike the townspeople of Gander in Come From Away or Bayard Rustin © Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire in Blueprints to Freedom, however, the two characters at the center of Rajiv Joseph’s play come from the imagined footnotes of a much older era. Guards at the Taj presents us with two humble friends assigned to stand guard outside a newlyerected, sweeping symbol of imperial power: the Taj Mahal.
approach, we will continue to cultivate a local and national following with an insatiable appetite for audacious and diverse work. In the future, San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse will be considered singularly indispensable to the worldwide theatre landscape, as we become a permanent safe harbor for the unsafe and surprising. The day will come when it will be essential to enter the La Jolla Playhouse village in order to get a glimpse
It’s that intriguing contrast – the miniscule in the shadow of the mighty – that provides Guards with both its wicked humor and its heartbreaking empathy. Humayun and Babur are Everymen on the outermost fringes of the Mughal court, bearing the weight of a capricious and temperamental emperor’s whims. It’s a time when daring to question one’s own meaning, or wondering whether something larger than the Empire exists, constitutes sedition. Under such circumstances, how are they – and we – to comprehend beauty without recognizing the ugliness that hides beneath? The end of our season also brings us the first production directed by our Associate Artistic Director, Jaime Castañeda. In his first few days at the Playhouse, when we discussed what show he wanted to direct this season, Jaime immediately proposed Guards. It’s a choice that made perfect sense; Rajiv and Jaime are both artists that gravitate to the bold, the muscular, the immediate. I can’t think of a better play with which to introduce our audiences to Jaime as a director.
of what is about to happen in American theatre.
Thank you for all of your support throughout this past season. Enjoy the show.
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY La Jolla Playhouse has received La Jolla Playhouse has received the the highest rating from Charity highest rating from Charity Navigator, Navigator, the nation’s premier the nation’s premier charity evaluator. charity evaluator. P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS Michael S. Rosenberg Managing Director
Christopher Ashley Artistic Director
BY
RAJIV JOSEPH DIRECTED BY
JAIME CASTAÑEDA FEATURING
MANU NARAYAN* AND BABAK TAFTI* SCENIC DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING AND PROJECTION DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER FIGHT DIRECTOR DRAMATURG CASTING PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER
TAKESHI KATA SUE MAKKOO THOMAS ONTIVEROS CRICKET S. MYERS STEVE RANKIN GABRIEL GREENE TELSEY + CO; KAREN CASL, C.S.A. ANNETTE ELENA NIXON* KENDRA STOCKTON* AUDREY HOO
Guards at the Taj was developed at the Lark Play Development Center, New York City. World Premiere presented by Atlantic Theater Company, New York City, 2015.
THE CAST
(in alphabetical order)
Manu Narayan..................................................................................................Humayun Babak Tafti.............................................................................................................. Babur
Setting: Agra, India in 1648 Guards at the Taj is performed without an intermission. Run time is approximately 75 minutes.
ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION STAFF Assistant Director.................................................................................................... Jacole Kitchen Assistant Lighting Designer...............................................................................Kimberlee E. Winters Video Programmer......................................................................................................Justin Humphres Dresser................................................................................................................................Debbie Allen
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Joe Fiala and Liz Fiala Rich Gilles
* Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association. This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the nonprofit professional theatre.
THE COMPANY MANU NARAYAN, Humayun La Jolla Playhouse: Glengarry Glen Ross (Ricky Roma – 2012 San Diego Critics Circle Award nom). Broadway: Andrew Lloyd Webber/A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams, Akaash (NY Drama League nom). Off-Broadway: Second Stage: subUrbia (revival); Getting Home (world premiere); NYSF/ Public Theater: Suzan-Lori Parks’ F*cking A (world premiere); NY Fringe Fest: La MaMa: Yeast Nation (New York premiere). Tour: Miss Saigon (2nd Nat’l); Regional: Kennedy Center: The Lisbon Traviata; Shakespeare & Company: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo), Love’s Labour’s Lost; Wilma Theatre: Indian Ink; Baltimore Center Stage: Rostand’s Cyrano (Cyrano), The Rivals (Jack Absolute), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Boys from Syracuse (Antipholus); Yale Rep: The People Next Door; Cincinnati Playhouse: Metamorphoses; Missouri Rep: The Winter’s Tale; St. Louis MUNY: Les Misérables. Film: 99 Homes, Mike Myers’ The Love Guru, Good Night | Good Morning, Walkaway, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, The Last Airbender, Quarterlife Crisis. TV: Grey’s Anatomy, The Following, Deception, Unforgettable, Rubicon, Nurse Jackie, The Sopranos, Law & Order: SVU, Cashmere Mafia, Lipstick Jungle. Mr. Narayan is the lead singer of his band DARUNAM and frequently collaborates with Grammy award-winning Klezmer musician Frank London. He is an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University for which he currently serves as a trustee.
TAKESHI KATA, Scenic Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. LA: The Night Alive, American Buffalo, The Seafarer, Boston Marriage, Ruth Draper Monologues and Slowgirl (Geffen); November, Other Desert Cities (Taper); Throw Me on a Burnpile..., Forever (Kirk Douglas); Happy Days (Boston Court). NY: Through a Glass Darkly, Storefront Church, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company); Adding Machine (Minetta Lane). Regional: Alley, American Players Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, The Old Globe, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep. Mr. Kata has won an Obie Award and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Ovation and Barrymore awards. He is an Assistant Professor at USC, School of Dramatic Arts.
BABAK TAFTI, Babur played “Saeed” in La Jolla Playhouse’s recent production of Blood and Gifts. His New York credits include: The Bachelors (Rattlestick); Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova); The North Pool (Vineyard Theatre) and The In-Between (Noor Theatre). Regional credits include Scorched (ACT); The North Pool and Much Ado About Nothing (Barrington Stage); O.P.C. (ART); Arabian Nights and The Winter’s Tale (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). His television appearances include: Blue Bloods, Nurse Jackie and Orange Is the New Black. He received his M.F.A. at Yale School of Drama.
TOM ONTIVEROS, Lighting Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Most Wanted. He is currently designing pe-Lo–ta for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, @thespeedofJake for Playwrights’ Arena and They Don’t Talk Back for Native Voices. Other credits include: Seven Spots on the Sun, Shiv, My Barking Dog and Happy Days (Boston Court); Completeness (nominated for Best Lighting Design – Ovation and Ticket Holders Awards); Figaro ¡90210! (LA Opera); The Exonerated (NYC premiere); The Tune In Festival (Park Avenue Armory); Schick Machine (Hong Kong Cultural Centre); Garden of Deadly Sound (Hungarian National Theatre Festival); Slide (Ojai Music Festival); Enemy Slayer (Phoenix Symphony); Fast Company and Motherf**ker with the Hat (South Coast Rep). He is an Assistant Professor at USC.
RAJIV JOSEPH, Playwright Mr. 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 last year, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. Mr. 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, Director is currently the Associate Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse. Credits include: The Royale (American Theater Company); The Royal Society of Antarctica (Portland Center Stage JAW festival); The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Dallas Theater Center); Chimichangas and Zoloft (Atlantic Theater Company); How We Got On (Cleveland Play House); Welcome to Arroyo’s (The Old Globe); Red Light Winter (Perseverance Theatre); The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Kitchen Dog Theater); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (Stella Adler); Biggest A**hole Ever Born (INTAR); Timberbrit (Ontological-Hysteric Theater); This Is How It Goes (Amphibian Stage Productions); Sonnets for an Old Century (FireStarter Productions). He has developed new plays with the O’Neill, Rattlestick Theater, Space on Ryder Farm, Summer Play Festival, The Kennedy Center and the Atlantic Theater Company, where he spent five seasons as Artistic Associate. Mr. Castañeda is a Drama League fellow, has received the Princess Grace Award and the TCG New Generations Grant. He received his M.F.A. in Directing from University of Texas at Austin.
SUE MAKKOO, Costume Designer Ms. Makkoo is very excited to finally be making her La Jolla Playhouse debut as a Costume Designer. She is honored to have spent 11 years at the Playhouse developing new work for the stage as the Costume Director. Other regional design work includes: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Taming of the Shrew (Kentucky Shakespeare); What Women Want, Dracula (Center in Vancouver); Measure for Measure, Machinal, Trip to Bountiful, Romeo and Juliet, and so many more. Love to Addy, Harry and Noah.
CRICKET S. MYERS, Sound Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Sideways, The Nightingale. On Broadway, she earned a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Off-Broadway designs include The Marvelous Wonderettes. She has also designed regionally at The Ahmanson, The Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, The Kirk Douglas Theater, Pasadena Playhouse and the Geffen Theater. Other selected LA designs include NoHo Arts Center, Ghost Road Theater Company, The Celebration Theater, Ford Amphitheater, The Colony Theatre and Circle X. She has earned 17 Ovation nominations, as well as winning The Kinetic Award for Outstanding Achievements in Theatrical Design, an LADCC and a Garland Award. www.cricketsmyers.com STEVE RANKIN, Fight Director La Jolla Playhouse: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Bonnie & Clyde; Memphis; The Farnsworth Invention; The Wiz; Zhivago; Palm Beach; Jersey Boys; Dracula, The Musical; The Who’s Tommy; Elmer Gantry; The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Broadway: Doctor Zhivago; Memphis; Bonnie & Clyde; Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; Jersey Boys; Dracula; Henry IV, Parts I and II; The Who’s Tommy; Twelfth Night; Two Shakespearean Actors; Getting Away with Murder; Anna Christie. Off-Broadway: The Third Story, Pig Farm, The Real Inspector Hound, The Night Hank Williams Died and Below the Belt. Stratford Shakespeare Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Caesar and Cleopatra, Macbeth and Henry V. Metropolitan Opera: Rodelinda, Boris Godenov, Faust and Iphegenie at Tauride. Hartford Stage: Rear Window. Mr. Rankin plays mandolin with the New Folk Artist Susie Glaze and the HiLonesome Band.
THE COMPANY GABRIEL GREENE, Dramaturg joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007, and currently serves as their Director of New Play Development. In addition to curating and producing the Playhouse’s annual DNA New Work Series, he has dramaturged nearly twenty new plays and musicals for the Playhouse, including Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez's Up Here, The Darrell Hammond Project, Sheri Wilner’s Kingdom City, Herbert Siguenza’s El Henry, Ayad Akhtar’s The Who & The What, Des McAnuff and The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar (Off-Broadway transfer; OBIE Award) and Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s Memphis (Broadway transfer; four Tony Awards). Other dramaturgy: UCSD’s Wagner New Play Festival (eight years), Steppenwolf, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival and TimeLine Theatre, among others. He is a graduate of University of Michigan and Trinity College, Dublin. TELSEY & CO.; KAREN CASL, C.S.A., Casting La Jolla Playhouse: Blueprints to Freedom, Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Hands on a Hardbody, Blood and Gifts, Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar, Little Miss Sunshine, Limelight, Bonnie & Clyde, 33 Variations and Memphis, among others. Broadway/Tours: Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, Allegiance, On Your Feet!, Hamilton, Something Rotten!, An American in Paris, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Hand to God, Kinky Boots, Wicked, If/Then, The Sound of Music, Newsies, Pippin, Motown, Rock of Ages, Million Dollar Quartet. Off-Broadway: New York Spring Spectacular, Atlantic, MCC, Second Stage, Signature. Regional: A.R.T., Goodspeed, New York Stage and Film, Paper Mill, Williamstown. Film: Fun House, Ithaca, The Intern, Ricki and the Flash, Focus, The Last Five Years, Song One, A Most Violent Year, Into the Woods. TV: Flesh and Bone, Peter Pan Live!, Penny Dreadful, Masters of Sex, commercials. www.telseyandco.com
ANNETTE ELENA NIXON, Production Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: Salsalandia (Assistant Stage Manager), Peter and the Starcatchers, Tobacco Road. The Old Globe: Full Gallop, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Arms and the Man, The Royale, Quartet, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Few, Pygmalion, God of Carnage, Anna Christie, Groundswell and the 2010 production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Her other Globe credits include A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2011-2014), Boeing-Boeing, The First Wives Club, Opus, Dancing in the Dark, Hay Fever and the Summer Shakespeare Festivals 2008 and 2010-2013. KENDRA STOCKTON, Assistant Stage Manager Ms. Stockton has previously assistant stage managed The Orphan of Zhao, The Who & The What (La Jolla Playhouse); White Snake, Bright Star and Dog and Pony (Old Globe Theatre). Additional Production Assistant credits include: Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Sideways, Memphis (La Jolla Playhouse); The Few, 2013 Shakespeare Festival (The Old Globe). She also stage managed San Diego Musical Theatre's production of White Christmas and Lamb’s Players Theatre’s production of MiXtape.
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LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Artistic Director has served as Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse since 2007. During his tenure, he helmed the world premieres of Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Claudia Shear’s Restoration and Arthur Kopit and Anton Dudley’s A Dram of Drummhicit, as well as John Guare’s adaptation of His Girl Friday, Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the musicals Xanadu and Memphis, which went on to Broadway, winning four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical. In addition, he spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls site-specific theatre series, the Resident Theatre program and the DNA New Work Series. Prior to joining the Playhouse, Mr. Ashley directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as well as The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd (Helen Hayes Award for Direction). Other New York credits include: Leap of Faith, Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Bunny Bunny, Communicating Doors, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award). He also directed the feature films Jeffrey, Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS, and Lucky Stiff, released July 2015. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship. DEBBY BUCHHOLZ, General Manager has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse since 2002. She is the Secretary of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee. In 2009, she received a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award from The San Diego Business Journal. Previously she served as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
MICHAEL S. ROSENBERG, Managing Director has served as the Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse since April, 2009. Working in partnership with Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, he has developed and produced new work by Ayad Akhtar, Trey Anastasio, Amanda Green, John Leguizamo, Carey Perloff, Jay Scheib, Herbert Siguenza, Basil Twist, Michael Benjamin Washington, Sheri Wilner, Doug Wright and The Flaming Lips. Playhouse collaborations have included projects with UC San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Rep, Tectonic Theatre Project, the I.D.E.A. District and the cities of Escondido and Chula Vista. Additionally, he fostered the growth of the Playhouse’s award-winning Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour, achieving the most performances at local schools in Playhouse history. Previously, Mr. Rosenberg was Co-Founder and Executive Director of Drama Dept., a New York non-profit theatre company, where he produced new works by the likes of Douglas Carter Beane, Warren Leight, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Rudnick and David & Amy Sedaris. His early work included stints at The Kennedy Center, Kaiser Permanente, National Dance Institute and an Atlantic City casino. As a Theatre Communications Group Board member, he is proud to be on the Global and Diversity & Inclusion Committees. DES McANUFF, Director Emeritus served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983 through 1994, and from 2001 through April, 2007. Under his leadership, the Playhouse garnered more than 300 awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys (four Tony Awards); Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (five Tony nominations); director and co-author with Pete Townshend on The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Director) and Big River (seven Tony Awards), among others. Film credits: Quills, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Iron Giant (9 Animation Society awards) and Cousin Bette. Recipient of the Drama League’s 2006 Julia Hansen Award, Mr. McAnuff served as Artistic Director at Canada’s Stratford Festival from 2007 through 2012. He recently directed the hit productions of Sideways, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse.
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PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P9
THE ARCHITECT PLAYWRIGHT RAJIV JOSEPH AND THE PLAYHOUSE’S DIRECTOR OF NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT GABRIEL GREENE TALK ABOUT HOW GUARDS AT THE TAJ WAS BUILT
Gabriel Greene: How did the idea for Guards at the Taj first come to you? Rajiv Joseph: The idea came to me a long time ago. Prior to writing the play, I had been to the Taj Mahal twice, when I was 10 and then when I was 22. Both times I went with family; my dad’s from India. I was told of a lot of the legends and myths that surround the building of the Taj Mahal and about Shah Jahan, the emperor who built it. I was always drawn to that place and those stories, so I think it has been gestating in me for quite some time. I started writing a different version of the play a long time ago, but I didn’t like it. It took a while to get there, but when I finally found my way in to the current mode of storytelling, it happened fairly quickly. GG: How did that first false start differ from the current play? RJ: I started off by writing a play that dealt directly with the emperor Shah Jahan, the architect Ustad Isa.... It was a larger, sweeping play that took course over many years, many generations, and there was a lot of information in there; it was a big mess. I abandoned it at one point, and then realized that the only two characters I liked were the two smallest characters: these two guards. Then I restarted with that idea in mind. GG: Once you hit on the conception of a much more intimate story, did the play continue to evolve throughout the development process and the first couple of productions?
RJ: Yes, I developed this play through the Lark Play Development Center in New York, which is where I do most of my work. I was working in the playwright’s workshop with the two actors who originated the roles in New York. As I wrote that play, it started out much different as well; there was a draft of this play that jumped, like, ten years forward in time with each scene. As I went back and looked at it, I shrunk it down and compressed it even more to what it is now, which is just a few days, really. GG: One of the more striking things about Guards is the way in which you blend this centuries-old story with a very modern parlance and sensibility. How did you decide on that route? RJ: Essentially, this is a story about two friends, and the relationship that they share. When you’re writing about a different time and culture, you start to embrace the theatricality of writing a play like this – which is to say, you’re not writing something realistic. If you’re writing it realistically, these guys would be speaking Urdu. Well, you’re not going to write that, so if they’re speaking English, the question is, “am I writing this in some kind of dialect, and is that realistic?” I realized that what I’m really writing is how two guys, two friends, would talk to each other, so I purposefully used a modern dialect and cadence. I think that throughout time and place, friends talk to each other the same way, so we are just hearing it the way they would be talking. That’s how it opened up for me.
GG: Over your different visits to the Taj Mahal, has your perception of it changed based on how old you were or where you were in your life? RJ: Yeah, I think so. I’ve seen it three times now, because I went again when I was 40 [during the writing of Guards]. Every time I see it, it gets better – more astounding in its grandeur and its beauty. I can’t believe it was made; I still have no concept of how this thing was built. I don’t know what that says about getting older or whatever, but it becomes more unbelievable for me each time I see it. There is no real way of describing it or overhyping it; it seems immune to that. It’s the most beautiful man-made thing I have ever seen. GG: How much did the history of the era influence the story? Were there things you felt bound to, or could you grant yourself creative license from the start? RJ: It was always about creative license for me. I did a lot of research after I started writing the play. There are several volumes of these wonderful books by the historian Abraham Eraly, and I found a few things that came into my writing a lot. Historical fact played a great deal in the detailing of the play, but the driving force was my own fantasy about how it was. One of the guiding plot points of the play, which I won’t really get into, is based more in myth than reality. There are a lot of myths associated with the Taj that are not necessarily historically accurate, but they linger, as legends and myths do.
GG: The play smartly juxtaposes this immense, grandiose structure with two humble, low-level guards, and capitalizes on the tension created by that dichotomy. How much did you try to rhyme the action of the play with the issue of income inequality? RJ: I tend to think of the situation and characters first, and let them out the gate and see where it takes me. It doesn’t start with, “I want to write a play about ‘XYZ’ and I want to do it from the perspective of Mughal guards in India.” It starts with, “I want to write a play about two Mughal guards in India at the completion of the Taj Mahal,” and then I find myself talking about things that are, hopefully, relevant and important to an audience today. GG: Another primary juxtaposition in the play is between the grandeur and mythology of the Taj and the violence and darkness that lie just underneath its façade. Really, the darkness that underlies any national narrative or mythology. RJ: This is a big part of what inspired the play, and when I was there last year, it really became apparent. When I see the Taj Mahal – when I see any ancient work of architecture – what goes through my mind is, “My god, how did they do this, in that time, without the use of modern engineering?” And the answer is usually quite simple: they had slaves, or people who would die working on it, and that would be fine. There were no laws or restrictions to get in the way of that, so that opens up a provocative relationship between beauty and suffering. The idea that you can’t create that kind of beauty anymore because we’re not willing to let people suffer for that sort of vision any longer.
THE ILLUMINED TOMB The rule of Shah Jahan (1592-1666; r. 1627-1658), the fifth Mughal Emperor, was marked by – among other things – an extravagant ostentation. Through years of conquest and expansion, the empire that he inherited was extraordinarily wealthy, and Shah Jahan was not shy about displaying it. It has been written that he had a different throne for each day of the week, and one of them – the “Peacock Throne,” built over the course of seven years to commemorate his ascension – was bedecked with diamonds, emeralds and other gems, and was ascended via a silver staircase. Royal residences had ceilings of solid gold; daggers were encrusted with jewels. Yet nowhere is the wealth and ambition of Shah Jahan’s court more evident than in the structures he left behind. Characterized by exquisite symmetry and epic grandeur, Shah Jahan’s forts, palaces and mosques comprise a golden age of architecture in India. But his finest creation – one of the finest man-made creations ever – was a tomb. Shah Jahan had three wives, but Arjumand Banu Begum – whom he married in 1612 – was his favorite, as shown by the title he gave her: Mumtaz Mahal (or “Chosen One of the Palace”). They had fourteen children together; in 1631, while giving birth to the last, a daughter, Mumtaz died. As legend has it, the emperor entered a two-year period of deep grief. He went into seclusion. He eschewed his typically flamboyant garments for white mourning clothes. His beard turned white. And he became consumed with fulfilling the dying request of his wife: a resting place that resembled paradise. Over the course of sixteen years, twenty thousand laborers brought Shah Jahan’s vision to life: an unparalleled monument of sandstone and marble, inlaid with jewels, inscribed with verses from the Quran, surrounded by four minarets from which the call to prayer issued. Vast symmetrical gardens separated the domed building from the gates. The emperor described the Taj Mahal with these words:
“Should guilty seek asylum here, Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin. Should a sinner make his way to this mansion, All his past sins are to be washed away. The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs; And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes. In this world this edifice has been made; To display thereby the creator’s glory.” The Taj Mahal was unveiled in 1648, though additional work continued for approximately another five years. In 1657, Shah Jahan’s apparently failing health sparked a power struggle between his four surviving sons. Though the emperor’s condition improved, the battle was already underway. Through pursuit and betrayal, Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb vanquished his brothers in particularly bloody fashion, then removed his father from power in 1658. Shah Jahan spent the last eight years of his life sequestered in his Agra palace, the Red Fort – from which he had an unobstructed view of the monument to his beloved wife.