Sarah Ruhl
c/o Bruce Ostler
Bret Adams Ltd Artists' Agency
448 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 765-5630
(212) 265-2212 fax
Agent Email:
BOstler.BAL@verizon.net
Email:
newdramatists@newdramatists.org
Sarah Ruhl’s plays include The Clean House (Susan Smith Blackburn award, 2004), Melancholy Play, Eurydice, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando, and Passion Play. She received her M.F.A. from Brown University, and is originally from Chicago. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whiting Writers’ award.
THE CLEAN HOUSE
Full Length Comedy
4W, 1 M
Flexible Set
Mathilda hates to clean. Virginia loves to clean. Lane doesn’t have to
clean. Mathilda, a woman from Brazil, is unhappy cleaning Lane’s house.
She would prefer to be a professional comedian. Lane, a doctor, takes
Mathilda to the hospital in the hopes of curing her depression. As
Lane’s life slowly unravels, Mathilda continues to search for the
perfect joke. A play about cleaning, healing, the humors and love.
Commissioned by the McCarter
Theater. Premiered at Yale Repertory Theater (fall, 2004); subsequently
produced by the Wilma Theater (November, 2004); South Coast Repertory
Theater (2005) and Woolly Mammoth theater (2005).
EURYDICE
90-minutes/no intermission Tragedy
1W, 3M, a chorus of 3, either women or men
Flexible Set
A re-imagining of the Orpheus myth, told from Eurydice’s point of view.
The play follows Eurydice as she rides a raining elevator down to the
underworld, where she meets her father. In the underworld, Eurydice
re-learns language and memory until she has to make her ultimate
decision—whether to follow Orpheus back to the land of the living.
Premier at Madison Repertory
Theater (2003). Subsequently produced at the Piven Theater Workshop,
Evanston, IL (2004), Berkeley Repertory Theater (2004), and at Theater
Heilbronn, Germany (2004). Workshop productions at Children’s Theater
Company, Minneapolis (2001), and La Jolla Playhouse (2004).
LADY WITH THE
LAP DOG and ANNA AROUND THE NECK
adapted from two Chekhov short stories part of one evening called
CHEKHOV SHORTS
A narrative lyric, 60 minutes
1W, 2M, and a choral ensemble between 2 & 5 people
Flexible Set
Adaptations of Chekhov’s Lady with the Lap Dog and Anna Around the Neck,
two of Chekhov’s most lyrical short stories about love.
Commissioned and produced at the
Piven Theater Workshop, directed by Joyce Piven (2001).
LATE: a cowboy song
Full Length Tragicomedy
2W, 1M
Flexible Set
Mary, always late and always married, meets a lady cowboy outside the
city limits of Pittsburgh who teaches her how to ride a horse. Mary’s
husband, Crick, buys a painting with the last of their savings. Mary and
Crick have a baby, but they can’t decide on the baby’s name, or the
baby’s gender. A story of one woman’s education and her search to find
true love outside the box.
Workshop production at Clubbed
Thumb, Ohio Theater, New York City (2003). Premier due to be produced at
Stages Theater, Houston (2005).
ORLANDO
An epic, Full Length adaptation from the novel by Virginia Woolf
Flexible Set
1W, and an ensemble of 3 to 10 players, women & men
A man named Orlando lives life to the fullest through three centuries,
and, after a long sleep, becomes a woman. A romp through the ages, a
meditation on time, gender, and sexuality, Woolf’s Orlando was called
the longest love letter ever to be written in literary history. This
adaptation uses narrative and a chorus to enact lyrical, instant, and
whimsical transformations as we follow Orlando through countless epochs.
Commissioned and first produced at
the Piven Theater Workshop, Evanston, IL. Subsequently produced at the
Actor’s Gang, Los Angeles.
PASSION PLAY, a cycle
An epic, Three Act
9M, 5W
Flexible Set
A small town in England performs the Passion in 1575. The man who plays
Pontius Pilate wants to play the role of Christ, played by his cousin.
The woman playing the Virgin Mary falls in love with the man playing
Christ. The players are haunted by the confusion between their roles
on-stage and off. The second act leaps to Germany in 1934, where the
young man playing Christ is slowly drawn towards the Nazi party.
Historically, the first actors in Oberammergau to join the Nazi party
were the director of the Passion and the actor who played Christ. In the
third act, a small town in South Dakota puts on their annual Passion
Play. The man playing Pontius Pilate goes to serve Vietnam, returning
only to find that his part has been given away to an equity actor. The
man playing the role of Christ ends up betraying his brother. Ronald
Reagan visits the town, campaigning for the 1984 election. The cycle,
together, explores the relationship between faith and politics,
authenticity and theatricality, community and political icons.
PASSION PLAY, a cycle, Ruhl, Sarah continued
Written with the intent to be
performed all together. However, Acts 1 and 2 can be performed as a
stand alone piece, as can Act 3. Part 3 commissioned by Arena Stage.
Workshopped at Arena Stage (2003 and 2004). Part 1 first performed at
Trinity Repertory Company. Parts 1 and 2 first performed in London at
the Actor’s Centre. The whole cycle to premier at Arena Stage.
MELANCHOLY PLAY
A contemporary farce; 90 minutes/no intermission
3W, 2M
Flexible Set
Tilly’s melancholy is of an exquisite quality. She turns her melancholy
into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her.
One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the
lives of her paramours. Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so
melancholy that she turns into an almond. It is up to Tilly to get her
back.
First workshop production at Brown
University (2001). Subsequently produced at the Piven Theater Workshop
2002; and at Princeton University (2002).
VIRTUAL MEDITATION #1
10 minute Virtual reality play
Flexible set
An audience of at least two, and a highly sophisticated computer
programmer
No actors
Commissioned and produced at the
Humana Festival, Actor’s Theater of Louisville (2002) in collaboration
with Carnegie Melon University’s Entertainment Technology program.
Subsequently produced by EST, New York (2003).