Central Conversations for Guards at the Taj
We are excited to offer Pre and Post show Central Conversations with acclaimed artists and scholars for Guards at the Taj!
All Central Conversations are open to the public; seats are available on a first come, first serve basis except for the two Saturday Symposia which are free but require RSVP. Learn more about RSVP to those two special events Power, Politics, and Art: The Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan: Retelling History on the Stage.
Power, Politics, and Art: The Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan: Retelling History on the Stage are funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Power, Politics and Art: The Taj Mahal
Rajiv Joseph’s beautiful and provocative play, Guards at the Taj, revolves around the construction of the Taj Majal, and raises questions about how grand building projects affect the ordinary lives of people who are caught in the great game of power and politics.
Special Guests for this Symposium Include:
Rajiv Joseph (playwright, Guards at the Taj) Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. His play Guards at the Taj was a 2016 Obie Winner for Best New American Play and 2016 Lucille Lortel Winner for Best Play.
Neelam Khoja is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University studying Histories and Cultures of Muslim Societies. She is presently on a dissertation completion fellowship through the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard. Neelam has received numerous travel grants for dissertation research in India, England, France, and Austria. She has been part of the vibrant Cambridge community since 2008.
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Press Night Celebration for Guards at the Taj
Be amongst the first to see Guards at the Taj and join the cast and crew to celebrate with wine and refreshments after the show. -
Scholar Social for Guards at the Taj
Join us after the 7:30pm show on Thursday, March 8, 2018 for a fascinating discussion with Mou Banerjee about their work and Guards at the Taj.
Mou Banerjee is a College Fellow at Harvard, where she also received her PhD in Modern South Asian History. Her dissertation examines conversion to Protestant Christianity in colonial Bengal. She analyses and explains how conversion emerged as the earliest locus of public debate, social reform and anti-colonial resistance in colonial India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using conversion as an historical lens, Banerjee traces a history of the creation of the Indian political self.
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Shah Jahan: Retelling History on the Stage
This informal symposium will delve into the dynamics between the discipline of history on the one hand and the discipline of theater on the other.
Special Guests for this Symposium Include:
Sunil Sharma is Professor of Persian and Indian Literatures at Boston University's Department of World Languages and Literatures. He is the author of the recent book, Mughal Arcadia: Persian Poetry in an Indian Court (Harvard University Press). His teaching and research interests are in the areas of epic and Sufi poetry, history of the book, translation, and travel writing.
Subrata Das is the director, a co-founder, and an actor with the non-profit community English theater group Stage Ensemble Theater Unit (SETU) (www.setu.us) in the Boston area. The mission of SETU is to bridge the cultural gap between India and western society. Subrata is also a board member of the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. He has written and, along with Shah Jahan, has translated several plays. He is currently directing an all-female cast play to be staged in April.
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Artists & Audiences: Guards at the Taj
Join us after the 7.30pm show on Thursday, March 15, 2018 for a lively discussion with the cast and crew of Guards at the Taj.