Horoscope Examines Young People’s Search for Meaning

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Twelve characters. Twelve scenes. Twelve months of the year. Such is the setting for Rajiv Joeph’s new play revolving around 20-somethings searching for meaning beyond their current orbit.

Joseph, who was named the most produced playwright of the 2024-25 theatre season in the United States by American Theatre, will present a free reading of “Horoscope” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, at The Argyros Theatre for the Performing Arts in Ketchum.

Joseph will discuss his work ahead of the play with Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency Artistic Director John Baker.

Reservations for the reading being held in partnership with the Argyros are recommended but not required at https://www.theargyros.org/calendar/horoscope.

Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, started work on the play while spending a month at the Hemingway House in Ketchum last year as part of the Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency.

“The very first time he’ll hear the play aloud and with an audience will be this week,” said John Baker, who co-founded the Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency with Jon Kane. “We’re really looking forward to audiences joining us to be a part of the development process of this new play.”

Baker and Joseph are in Boise right now workshopping the play with 12 Theatre Arts majors from Boise State University. The students will produce a free reading of the play at Boise Contemporary Theatre tonight before bringing it to Ketchum on Friday.

“This is part of a really exciting partnership between Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency, Boise State’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing and Boise Contemporary Theatre,” said Baker, noting that the program is also supported by grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts , the National Endowment for the Arts and the Idaho Humanities Council. “We were just announced as a grant recipient from the City of Boise Department of Arts and History to help make this possible.”

Joseph, a prolific playwright, has a Top 10 play in “King James,” as well as productions of “The Lake Effect” and “Guards at the Taj” this year. His new thriller “Dakar 2000” will go up at the Manhattan Theatre Club in Winter 2025.

The Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency was established to give playwrights an opportunity to spend a month at the Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in partnership with The Community Library. Playwrights are also are given other types of support.

In return, each playwright presents a reading of one of their already-published plays for the Sun Valley community during their residency. They then return the following year to present a reading of the work they labored over during their residency.

Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama. He has won the Obie Award for Best New American Play twice—for “Guards at the Taj” and “Describe the Night.”

“Spending a month at Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency last year was transformational for me. Not only was it creatively productive and inspiring, but I felt like I became a part of the Ketchum and Sun Valley artistic community,” said Joseph. “I can’t wait to come back.”  

The Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency began taking playwrights into the schools last year, thanks in part to support from the Spur Community Foundation.

MacArthur Genius Samuel D. Hunter, who wrote “The Whale,” led playwrighting workshops and discussions with high school students at The Sun Valley Community School and Silver Creek High School a couple weeks ago. The 2024-25 Resident Playwright Max Posner,” who authored “The Treasurer,” and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah DeLappe, author of “The Wolves,” led a free monologue writing workshop at The Community Library this past weekend.

Posner will also visit students at Wood River High School this week while the 2023-24 Resident Playwright Rajiv Joseph speaks with Boise State University students.

Learn more about the Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency at https://www.sunvalleyplaywrights.org/.