Rajiv Joseph

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Rajiv Joseph
Born (1974-06-16) June 16, 1974
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.
Occupation Playwright

Rajiv Joseph (born June 16, 1974) is an American playwright and a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio; his mother is Euroamerican of French and German ancestry and his father is of Indian ancestry and immigrated to the States from India.[1] He attended Cleveland Heights High School and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1996 with a B.A. in Creative Writing. While at Miami he was a member of the university's Men's Glee Club and its premier male a cappella group, the Cheezies.[2] Joseph also competed for the highly decorated Miami University Individual Events (forensics) team.

Following graduation Joseph joined the Peace Corps, serving three formative years in the West African Republic of Senegal,[3] including two years in Koular and the third in Kaolack.[1] Joseph has stated about his time there: "Being in Senegal, more than anything else in my life, made me into a writer."[1] His time in Senegal helped him develop the discipline of daily writing and inspired his "fascination with the power of language"; as he has stated: "It felt a little like being a child again, because your language skills are on the level of a 4-year-old, so the adults kind of ignore you, but the children cluster around you telling you what everything is called".[4]

Joseph earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2004. He has taught Essay Writing at New York University and wrote for Seasons 3 and 4 of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.[5]

Theatrical credits

Joseph's first production, Huck & Holden, debuted at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2005.[6] The play also had a West Coast run at the Black Dahlia Theater in Los Angeles the following year. Joseph has stated that the story, about an Indian college student arriving in the United States, is based on his father's experiences coming to the States.[1][4] His mixed-race background has given him what one critic has called a "fearlessness" about racial topics: ""Being mixed-race has always been a part of my identity. You are never fully one thing or the other. You always feel a little apart, a little bit of an outsider, even when you are with your own family. That's an interesting perspective for looking at the world."[4]

All This Intimacy premiered at New York's McGinn/Cazale Theater in 2006.[7] The TBG Theater featured Joseph's re-imagining of The Leopard and the Fox in 2007.[8]

Second Stage Theatre premiered Joseph's Animals Out of Paper in 2008.[9] Subsequent productions of Animals Out of Paper have been staged at Boise Contemporary Theater (2009),[10] and at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, Australia and San Francisco Playhouse in 2010.[11] Upcoming productions of Animals Out of Paper will occur in Portland, Maine (January 2011) and Fort Worth, Texas (March 2011).

Joseph's Pulitzer finalist production of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, directed by Moisés Kaufman, debuted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California in May, 2009.[12] It ran at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles April 14 - May 30, 2010 and premiered on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in March 2011, with Robin Williams playing the titular character.[13]

Gruesome Playground Injuries, starring Selma Blair and Brad Fleischer, had its world premiere in October 2009 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas.[14] Another staging at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. ran in May 2010.[15] Its Off-Broadway production opened January 2011 at the Second Stage Theatre in New York City, starring Pablo Schreiber and Jennifer Carpenter.

The North Pool premiered at TheatreWorks in Silicon Valley in the spring of 2011.[16] Barrington Stage Company in The Berkshires introduced East Coast audiences to The North Pool in July 2012.

The Monster at the Door debuted at Houston's Alley Theatre in May 2011.[17]

The Lake Effect premiered at Chicago's Silk Road Rising on April 23, 2013. [18] The production received the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work. [19]


Awards

In 2008, Joseph was awarded the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Award given to emerging playwrights.[20]

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was chosen by the NEA in 2008 as one of two Outstanding New American plays.[21]

Joseph received the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship awarded to emerging dramatists.[22]

Joseph participated in the 10th Annual Sundance Playwrights Retreat in Ucross, Wyoming in February, 2009.

Animals Out of Paper received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for 'Outstanding Play' on April 2, 2009.

The 2009 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards nominated Joseph for "Playwriting for an Original Play" for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.[23] The play also won five Backstage Garland Awards in 2010.

Joseph also received a Whiting Writers' Award in 2009, an international award given annually to 10 writers of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and/or poetry who show "exceptional talent and promise in early career".[24]

On April 12, 2010 Joseph was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.

Joseph was named a 2010 USA Rockefeller Fellow by United States Artists.

The North Pool was awarded the 2011 Glickman Award for the best play to make its world premiere in the Bay Area.

Quotation

"The need to tell a very interesting and compelling story makes certain then that my plays are not in the least bit autobiographical." Rajiv Joseph, 2008[25]

Little Known Facts

Joseph acted in the experimental interactive commercial "The Pitchman" in 2009.[26]

Joseph was a member of the Miami University Men's Glee Club.

On November 15, 2010, Joseph took part in the Urban Arts Partnership's "24 Hour Plays" at the American Airlines Theatre, writing The Bitch Downstairs starring Jennifer Aniston, Sam Rockwell, Kyra Sedgwick, Nia Vardalos, and Lee Pace.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Monji, Jana (June 13, 2009). "Talking to the Man Behind the Tiger: Rajiv Joseph". LA Examiner. 
  2. ↑ http://www.mucheezies.org/#!vstc0=members
  3. ↑ Vineyard Presents Paula Vogel Award To Rajiv Joseph (BroadwayWorld.com)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 D'Souza, Karen (5 March 2011). "Rajiv Joseph: A fresh and compelling voice in theater". Silicon Valley Mercury News. Retrieved 15 March 2011. 
  5. ↑ Healy, Patrick (December 29, 2010). "Rajiv Joseph's ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries,' Second Stage". The New York Times. 
  6. ↑ offoffonline - off-off-Broadway reviews, listings, and more
  7. ↑ Genzlinger, Neil (July 28, 2006). "‘All This Intimacy’ Shows a Louse’s Animal Magnetism". The New York Times. 
  8. ↑ La Rocco, Claudia (October 31, 2007). "An Old Story, With No End in Sight". The New York Times. 
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ http://bctheater.org
  11. ↑ http://www.sfplayhouse.org/
  12. ↑ Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo | May 10 - June 7, 2009 | Kirk Douglas Theatre | Los Angeles | Center Theatre Group
  13. ↑ Jones, Kenneth.Robin Williams Will Prowl Richard Rodgers Theatre as Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" playbill.com, November 12, 2010
  14. ↑ theatermania.com
  15. ↑ theatermania.com
  16. ↑ "Welcome to TheatreWorks". Theatreworks.org. Retrieved 2013-03-29. 
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ "The Lake Effect - Live Theatre". Silk Road Rising. Retrieved 2013-03-29. 
  19. ↑ "2013 Equity Jeff Awards". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-12-12. 
  20. ↑ Rajiv Joseph Wins Paula Vogel Playwriting Award: Theater News on TheaterMania.com
  21. ↑ Itzkoff, Dave (October 28, 2008). "N.E.A. Gives Grants to Seven Productions". The New York Times. 
  22. ↑ Cox, Gordon (February 13, 2009). "Kesselring Fellowship honors duo". Variety. 
  23. ↑ "Janney, Hilty, Louis & Keely, Fitzgerald, Margulies, Ellis Among L.A. Ovation Nominees". Playbill.com. Retrieved 2013-03-29. 
  24. ↑ "10 writers each win $50,000 prize". Victoria Advocate. 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2013-03-29. 
  25. ↑ Crease Patterns: Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper - The Brooklyn Rail
  26. ↑ "THE PITCHMAN: Simplicity Synergy (START HERE)". YouTube. 2009-08-30. Retrieved 2013-03-29. 

External links

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