Theater News

World Premiere by Disgraced Playwright Ayad Akhtar Set for La Jolla Playhouse Season

The complete season will feature four world-premiere productions.

Ayad Akhtar's new play, JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt, will play La Jolla Playhouse.
Ayad Akhtar is the author of the new play JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt, which will premiere at La Jolla Playhouse.
(© David Gordon)

La Jolla Playhouse will present four world-premiere productions as part of its 2016-17 season, including works by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro, Pulitzer Prize winners Quiara Alegría Hudes and Ayad Akhtar, and Little Children Dream of God playwright Jeff Augustin.

The season will feature Hollywood, by Joe DiPietro (Memphis), directed by Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley; JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt by Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced), helmed by Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes; The Last Tiger in Haiti by Jeff Augustin (Roundabout’s Little Children Dream of God), directed by UC San Diego directing alumnus Joshua Kahan Brody (cofounder of San Diego’s The Trip); and the world premiere of the Playhouse-commissioned musical Miss You Like Hell, with book and lyrics by Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights), music and lyrics by renowned musician Erin McKeown, directed by Lear deBessonet (The Winter’s Tale).

"These first four announced shows in our 2016/2017 season come from a beautiful multiplicity of voices, each of which transforms a specific community, setting or locale into a story that speaks to us in a universal way," said Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley in a statement.