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SARAH RUHL (1974 - ) |
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Nationality: USA Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: Bret Adams Ltd |
Sarah Ruhl's plays include IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY (Tony Award nominee, 2010, finalist for Pulitzer Prize, 2010, Glickman Prize, 2009), THE CLEAN HOUSE (Susan Smith Blackburn award, 2004, finalist for Pulitzer Prize, 2005), DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE (Helen Hayes award for best new play), DEMETER IN THE CITY (nominated for 9 NAACP awards), EURYDICE, MELANCHOLY PLAY, ORLANDO, a new version of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS, and PASSION PLAY (Kennedy Center Fourth Forum Freedom Award). Her plays have premiered at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway, produced by Lincoln Center; Theater off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights' Horizons, and Second Stage; and regionally at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, Cornerstone Theater, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse, and the Piven Theater Workshop in Chicago, as well being produced at many other theaters across the country. Her plays have also been performed in England, Poland, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia, and have been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian, Korean and Arabic. Sarah received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel, and is originally from Chicago. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill award and a Whiting Writers' award, a PEN/Laura Pels award, and in 2006 was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her work is published by TCG and Samuel French, and she is a member of New Dramatists and 13P. She lives in New York City with her family.
Plays by Sarah Ruhl
Clean House, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Arts Nova, NYC | 2003 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Clean House and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group, USA, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | 1-55936-266-9 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #30359 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | ||||||
| This extraordinary new play by an exciting new voice in the American drama was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. After its acclaimed run at Yale Repertory Theatre it was done to equal acclaim at several major theatres coast to coast before winding up off Broadway at Lincoln Center, where it had an extended run. The play takes place in what the author describes as "metaphysical Connecticut", mostly in the home of a married couple who are both doctors. They have hired a housekeeper named Matilde, an aspiring comedian from Brazil who's more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in house-cleaning. Lane, the lady of the house, has an eccentric sister named Virginia who's just nuts about house-cleaning. She and Matilde become fast friends, and Virginia takes over the cleaning while Matilde works on her jokes. Trouble comes when Lane's husband Charles reveals that he has found his soul mate, or "bashert" in a cancer patient named Anna, on whom he has operated. The actors who play Charles and Anna also play Matilde's parents in a series of dream-like memories, as we learn the story about how they literally killed each other with laughter, giving new meaning to the phrase, "I almost died laughing". This theatrical and wildly funny play is a whimsical and poignant look at class, comedy and the true nature of love. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Dead Man's Cell Phone | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2007 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-573-66392-5 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70636 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | dramatic comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Gordon is dead, but his cell phone lives on. When Jean, an empathetic museum worker, answers his ringing phone beside her in a cafe, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to the man's grieving friends and family. Before she knows it, Jean's ensnarled in the underbelly of the dead man's bizarre life. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Demeter In The City | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #112460 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Eurydice | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2003 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Divine Fire by Back Stage Books, 2005. | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1408130438 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #30360 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | 90 min One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: |
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| In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play | ||
| 1st Produced: | Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre, Berkley, CA | Feb 2009 | ||||
Company: | Berkeley Repertory Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-573-69813-2 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #104887 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| In the Next Room or the vibrator play is a comedy about marriage, intimacy, and electricity. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat 'hysterical' women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating 'hysteria' in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter - and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new 'hysterical' patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Late: A Cowboy Song | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Clean House and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group, USA, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | 1-55936-266-9 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70634 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
Melancholy Play | ||
| 1st Produced: | Brown University | 2001 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Clean House and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group, USA, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | 1-55936-266-9 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70633 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Tilly is a melancholic - yet everyone she meets falls in love with her. Then one day she suddenly becomes happy and this wreaks havoc on the lives of all she knows. Meanwhile her hairdresser has turned into an almond | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Orlando | ||
| 1st Produced: | Classic Stage | 23 Sep 2010 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #118982 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | This is a new play by Sarah Ruhl based on the work of Virginia Woolf. Meet Virginia Woolf's Orlando, your typical Elizabethan Man: a favorite of the Queen, madly in love with a Russian Princess, fleeing an Archduchess, and waking up one fine day in Constantinople to find he has become, of all things, a woman. She survives the 19th and 20th centuries grappling with what it means to live fully in the present, in our own skin, in our own gender, and in our own time. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Passion Play, a cycle | ||
| 1st Produced: | Arena Stage, Washington DC | 02 Sep 2005 | ||||
Company: | Epic Theatre Ensemble | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-573-69908-5 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70635 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | dramatic comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | with doubling | |||||
Notes: | early version workshopped at Tristan bates, london July 2002 | |||||
| This intimate epic occurs at the timely intersection of politics and religion. Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergua, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagans presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background, as Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, and Reagan each appear, played by a single commanding actor. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Questions for Snowless Children | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #123352 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Stage Kiss | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #123353 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Three Sisters, the | ||
| 1st Produced: | Cincinnati Playhouse | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #112461 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Translation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Virtual Meditation 1 | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2002 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Humana Festival 2002: The Complete Plays, ed Tanya Palmer & Amy Wegener, Smith & Kraus, 2002 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #30361 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Technology Project | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Can machines sense how we feel? Playwright Sarah Ruhl, in collaboration with the students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, has harnessed the subtle energy of touch in this stunning virtual reality romance. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||






