Sarah Ruhl (born January 24, 1974) is an American playwright, professor, and essayist. Among her most popular plays are ''

Eurydice Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice') was a character in Greek mythology and the Auloniad wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music. Etymology Several meanings for the na ...

'' (2003), ''

The Clean House ''The Clean House'' is a play by Sarah Ruhl, which premiered in 2004 at Yale Repertory Theatre, was produced Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater in 2006, and has since been produced in many theaters. The play is a whimsical romantic comed ...

'' (2004), and ''

In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) ''In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)'' is a 2009 play by Sarah Ruhl, published by Samuel French. It concerns the early history of the vibrator, when doctors allegedly used it as a clinical device to bring women to orgasm as treatment for " ...

'' (2009). She has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career. Two of her plays have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and she received a nomination for Tony Award for Best Play. In 2020, she adapted her play ''Eurydice'' into the libretto for

Matthew Aucoin Matthew Aucoin (born April 4, 1990) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and writer best known for his operas. Aucoin has received commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Repertory Thea ...

's opera of the same name. In 2015, she published a collection of essays, ''100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write''. Her most recent play, ''Becky Nurse of Salem'' (2019) premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She currently serves on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. In 2018, ''Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship'', co-authored by

Max Ritvo Max Ritvo (December 19, 1990 – August 23, 2016) was an American poet. Milkweed Editions posthumously published a full-length collection of his poems, ''Four Reincarnations'', to positive critical reviews. Milkweed published ''Letters from Max ...

, was published by Milkweed Editions. Her memoir ''Smile'' was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021.

Biography

Early life

Ruhl was born in Wilmette,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Her mother, Kathleen Ruhl, studied theater at Smith College and earned a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric from the University of Illinois and became an English teacher, as well as an actress and a theatre director. Her father, Patrick Ruhl, became a marketer of toys, with an appreciation for literature and music. Her older sister, Kate, is a psychiatrist. Beginning in the fourth grade, Ruhl received dramatic training at the Piven Theatre Workshop, in Evanston, Illinois.Iglarsh, Hugh (April 30, 2015).
Family Affairs: Sarah Ruhl Brings Her 'Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical' Home to Piven Theatre Workshop
. Newcity Stage. newcitystage.com. On the occasion of a 2015 production at Piven of her ''Melancholy Play'', Ruhl credited the institution with teaching her about the role of language and narration in theater. Ruhl attended Interlochen Arts Camp for several summers in her youth. Ruhl had intended to become a poet, but after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University, she was persuaded to switch to playwriting. Her first play was ''The Dog Play,'' written in 1995 for one of Vogel's classes. At Brown University she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English (1997) and Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting (2001). She also spent a year of graduate work studying English literature at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Career

Playwriting

'' Orlando'', an adaptation of the novel by Virginia Woolf, was commissioned by the Piven Theatre Workshop and premiered in Evanston, Illinois in May 1998 featuring Justine Scarpa as Orlando. Director

Joyce Piven Joyce Hiller Piven (born February 21, 1930) is an American director, teacher, and actress. She and her late husband, Byrne Piven, were actors in the Compass Players. Later they founded the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois and became t ...

later helmed the show again in March 2003 at The Actors' Gang, Hollywood, California, with Polly Noonan taking on the title role. The play was produced Off-Broadway by the Classic Stage Company in 2010. In 2015, Orlando premiered for the

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

at the Sydney Opera House with actress Jacqueline McKenzie playing the lead. ''The Lady with the Lap Dog'', and ''Anna Around the Neck'' (adapted from Anton Chekhov) were commissioned and produced by the Piven Theatre Workshop in 2001. The two plays are Ruhl's stage adaptions of

Anton Chekov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

short stories. ''Late: A Cowboy Song'' was produced by

Clubbed Thumb Clubbed Thumb is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned five OBIES (including t ...

(New York City) in 2003. The Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles) commissioned Ruhl for a play about young people living in Los Angeles. Cornerstone presented the play, ''Demeter in the City'' at REDCAT in June 2006. The play is based on the myth of Demeter and

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld aft ...

. ''The Oldest Boy'' premiered in November 2014 at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. The play was directed by Rebecca Taichman and starred Celia Keenan-Bolger and James Yaegashi. Her play ''Scenes from Court Life, or The Whipping Boy and His Prince'' premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre on October 1, 2016 in previews, officially on October 6, and ran to October 22, 2016. The play, directed by Mark Wing-Davey, involves "privilege and politics in both 17th century Britain and current day America." The play was presented by the graduate acting class at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in November 2015. Her play ''How to Transcend a Happy Marriage'' premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on February 23, 2017 in previews, officially on March 20, 2017, directed by Rebecca Taichman. The cast featured Lena Hall, Marisa Tomei, Brian Hutchison, David McElwee, Naian González Norvind, Omar Metwally, Austin Smith, and

Robin Weigert Robin Weigert (born July 7, 1969) is an American television and film actress. She is best known for portraying Calamity Jane on the television series '' Deadwood'' (2004–2006), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award f ...

. The play, which takes place in New Jersey, involves two married couples. ''For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday'' premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon on August 18, 2017 (previews), directed by Les Waters and featuring Kathleen Chalfant and Lisa Emery. The play had its debut at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in May 2016 and then with the Shattered Globe Theatre at Theater Wit in Chicago in May 2017, starring Ruhl's mother Kathleen Ruhl. ''Becky Nurse of Salem'' premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre on December 19, 2019, directed by Anne Kauffman and featured Pamela Reed as the title character. She is an active member of

New Dramatists New Dramatists is an organization of playwrights founded in 1949 and located at 424 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The members of New Dramatists part ...

, a development space for new playwrights that is in partnership with the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program.

''The Clean House''

Ruhl gained widespread recognition for her play ''

'' (2004). "The play takes place in a 'metaphysical Connecticut' where married doctors employ a Brazilian housekeeper who is more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in cleaning. Trouble erupts when the husband falls in love with one of his cancer patients". It won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2004 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005.

''Eurydice''

'' (2004) was produced Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in June to July 2007. Prior to that it had been staged at Yale Rep (2006), Berkeley Rep (2004), Georgetown University, and

Circle X Theatre Circle X is a not-for-profit ensemble theatre company located in Hollywood, California. Circle X's productions have been described by critics as "refreshingly original and imaginative" and "consistently stellar".

Each Saturday, from the time Ruhl was five, Patrick took his daughters to the Walker Brothers Original Pancake House for breakfast and taught them a new word, along with its etymology. (The language lesson and some of Patrick's words—"ostracize," "peripatetic," "defunct"—are memorialized in the 2003 ''Eurydice'', a retelling of the Orpheus myth from his inamorata's point of view, in which the dead Father, reunited with his daughter, tries to re-teach her lost vocabulary.)

''Eurydice'' is Ruhl's version of the classic Eurydice and Orpheus tale. It portrays an Alice in Wonderland-esque underworld, complete with talking stones and a Lord of the Underworld, who can be seen riding a red tricycle. In keeping with the play's Greek origins, the Stones serve as a new take on a Greek chorus. The Stones comment on the action and warn the characters, but cannot intervene in any of the events. The play explores relationships, love, communication, and the permeability between the world of the living and the world of the dead, in a quest to discover where true meaning lies in life and thereafter. In 2020, Ruhl adapted the play as a libretto for a new opera composed by

. It premiered at the Los Angeles Opera on February 1, 2020. and at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

on November 23, 2021.

''Passion Play''

Ruhl's ''Passion Play'' cycle premiered at the Arena Stage, Washington, D.C. in 2005, directed by

Molly Smith Molly Smith is an American theatre director and the artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. She was formerly artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded in 1979 and led until 1998. Biography Smit ...

. It was next produced by the Goodman Theatre (Chicago) and Yale Rep (New Haven). Ruhl began writing ''Passion Play'' at age 21, while studying with Paula Vogel at Brown University. She did not finish the play until eight years later, after Wendy C. Goldberg and Arena's Molly Smith commissioned the third act.Vogel, Paula
“Sarah Ruhl"
'' BOMB Magazine''. Spring 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2011. ''Passion Play'' made its New York City premiere in Spring 2010 in a production by the Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Irondale Center in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Each part of the trilogy depicts the staging of a Passion Play at a different place and during a different historical period: Elizabethan England, Nazi Germany, and the United States from the time of the Vietnam War until the present.

''Dead Man's Cell Phone''

'' Dead Man's Cell Phone'' (2007) premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2008 starring Mary-Louise Parker. Its world premiere was at Washington D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 2007. It was subsequently produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre in 2008 and at the

Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1935 by Angus L. Bowmer. The Festival now offers matinee and evening performances of a wide range of classic and contemporary pla ...

in 2009. The play received a UK premiere at

The Arches (Glasgow) The Arches was a bar, arts venue, theatre, live music venue and nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, which first opened in 1991. It was a not-for-profit organisation, and was situated in the City Centre under Glasgow Central station and the West ...

in June 2011. The play explores technology and the disconnect people are experiencing in the digital age:

"Cell phones, iPods, wireless computers will change people in ways we don't even understand," Ruhl stated. "We're less connected to the present. No one is where they are. There's absolutely no reason to talk to a stranger anymore—you connect to people you already know. But how well do you know them? Because you never see them—you just talk to them. I find that terrifying."

''In the Next Room''

In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) ''In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)'' is a 2009 play by Sarah Ruhl, published by Samuel French. It concerns the early history of the vibrator, when doctors allegedly used it as a clinical device to bring women to orgasm as treatment for " ...

'' premiered at Berkeley Rep in February 2009. The play opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre with previews starting on October 22, 2009 and an official opening in November 2009. This marked Ruhl's Broadway debut. The play explores the history of the vibrator, developed for use as a treatment for women diagnosed with hysteria. ''In the Next Room'' was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play, Best Featured Actress, and Best Costume. Ruhl explains,

One physician quoted in the book 'The Technology of the Orgasm''argued that at least three-fourths of women had ailments that could be cured by the vibrator. Which is kind of stunning. The economy for vibrators, even then, was vast; I mean, it was a million-dollar enterprise.

The play then moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, Australia and premiered for the

with Jacqueline McKenzie in the title role. The production was directed by Pamela Rabe.

Themes and style

In September 2006, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. The announcement of that award stated: "Sarah Ruhl, 32, playwright, New York City. Playwright creating vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war." John Lahr, in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', wrote of Ruhl:

But if Ruhl's demeanor is unassuming, her plays are bold. Her nonlinear form of realism—full of astonishments, surprises, and mysteries—is low on exposition and psychology. "I try to interpret how people subjectively experience life," she has said. "Everyone has a great, horrible opera inside him. I feel that my plays, in a way, are very old-fashioned. They're pre-Freudian in the sense that the Greeks and Shakespeare worked with similar assumptions. Catharsis isn't a wound being excavated from childhood."

In a discussion with Paula Vogel for '' BOMB Magazine'', Ruhl described the psychology of her plays as "putting things up against Freud ... it's a more

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

sensibility of the humors,

melancholia Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly d ...

, black bile, and transformation." Rather than "connect the dots psychologically in a linear way," Ruhl prefers to create emotional psychological states through transformation of the performance space.

Personal life

In 2005, Ruhl married child psychiatrist Tony Charuvastra. He taught a course at NYU on marriage and divorce and sometimes included ''In the Next Room'' on his syllabus. Ruhl and Charuvastra have three children: Anna and twins William and Hope.

Awards, nominations and honors

Ruhl was awarded the Residency 1 program by the

Signature Theatre Company Signature Theatre Company is an American theatre based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 1991 by James Houghton and is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans. Signature is known for their season-long focus on one artist's work. It has be ...

in 2019. This involves "a year-long intensive, exploration of a writer's body of work." In 2006, Ruhl received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship with a cash award of $500,000. Ruhl commented: "...the money is truly astounding. The whole thing really does leave one speechless." Ruhl has been awarded the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award for 2016; the awardee is given a cash award of $200,000. The Steinberg committee said, in part: "Her work sparks conversation in audiences of all ages with its emotionally vivid language ..Sarah Ruhl is unique. She fills her intelligent and highly theatrical plays with striking oddities and playful humor. Sarah is a prolific playwright of great distinction. * 2003

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

* 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for ''

'' * 2005 Pulitzer Prize, Finalist for ''The Clean House'' * 2006 MacArthur Fellowship * 2008 Helen Hayes Award for '' Dead Man's Cell Phone'' * 2008 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award * 2010 Lilly Award * 2010

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

, Nomination for Best Play for ''

'' * 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Finalist for ''In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play'') * 2016 Samuel French Award, for Sustained Excellence in American Theatre.

Plays

;Original plays *'' Melancholy Play'' (2001) *''Virtual Meditations#1'' (2002) *''Passion Play'' (2003 and 2004) *''

'' (2003) *''Late: A Cowboy Song'' (2003) *''

'' (2004) *''Demeter in the City'' (2006) *''Dead Man's Cell Phone'' (2007) *''

'' (2009) *''Stage Kiss'' (2011) *''Two Conversations Overheard on Airplanes''

hort Hort may refer to: People * Erik Hort (born 1987), American soccer player * F. J. A. Hort (1828–1892), Irish theologian * Greta Hort (1903–1967), Danish-born literature professor * Josiah Hort (c. 1674–1751), English clergyman of the ...

(2013) *''The Oldest Boy'' (2014) *''Scenes from Court Life, or The Whipping Boy and His Prince'' (2016) *''How to Transcend a Happy Marriage'' (2017) *''For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday'' (2017) *''Becky Nurse of Salem'' (2019) ;Adaptations * ''Lady with the Lap Dog'', and ''Anna around the Neck'' (adapted from Anton Chekhov) (2001) *'' Orlando'' (adapted from Virginia Woolf) (2003)Hitchcock, Laura. (March 9, 2003)
" ''Orlando'' review"
Curtainup.com. * '' Three Sisters'' (adapted from Anton Chekhov, Yale Repertory Theatre, 2011) *''Dear Elizabeth'' (2012) - (Adapted from ''Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop'')

Other works

* ''Letters from'' ''Max: A Book of Friendship'', (co-authored with

), Milkweed Editions (2018) * ''Eurydice'' (libretto), opera, (composer,

), (2019) * ''44 Poems for You'', Copper Canyon Press, (2020) *''Smile: The Story of a Face'', Simon & Schuster, (2021)

References

External links

* *
Profile and Production History at The Whiting FoundationSarah Ruhl at Pen American Center
''New York Times'' - review of ''In the Next Room'' * Sarah Ruhl Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruhl, Sarah 1974 births 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American women writers Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford American opera librettists American women dramatists and playwrights Brown University alumni Living people MacArthur Fellows People from Wilmette, Illinois Wesleyan University people Women opera librettists Writers from Illinois