LA JOLLA–La Jolla Playhouse has appointed Jaime Castañeda to the new position of Associate Artistic Director. In addition to joining the Playhouse’s artistic team, Castañeda will direct several projects, including the final subscription show for the 2015/16 season, to be announced shortly.
“In this new role, we were looking for someone who brings experience in both the worlds of directing and administrative leadership, while sharing in the Playhouse’s deep commitment to new work and our eclectic artistic aesthetic. Jaime does all of these things brilliantly,” said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. “As a director, he’s given vibrant life to plays by writers such as Raúl Castillo (Playhouse’s upcomingBorder Crossing), Idris Goodwin, Mike Lew, Kristoffer Diaz, Fernanda Coppel and many other exciting voices. He brings a tremendous passion, strong artist relationships and a youthful energy to the institution, and it gives me great joy to welcome him to the Playhouse family.”
Jaime Castañeda comes to the Playhouse from Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company, where he served for five years as Artistic Associate. 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 nationally-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating some of the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including the currently running hits Jersey Boys and Side Show, as well as Memphis, Big River, The Who’s Tommy, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, 33 Variations, Bonnie & Clyde, Chaplin, Peter and the Starcatcher andHands on a Hardbody Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-art theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.
