Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Sarah Ruhl is one of the most highly-acclaimed and frequently-produced American playwrights of the 21st century. She has won the MacArthur 'Genius Grant', been nominated for a Tony Award for In the Next Room, twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - for The Clean House and In the Next Room - and had an entire season devoted to her work. This study provides a clear and accessible analysis of her ouevre, giving readers an experience of her plays, not just an explanation of them. Through a finely-grained, dimensional account of each play, readers are immersed in Ruhl's unique idiom; in themes of love and death, mourning and loss, intimacy and faith, and in inventive stagecraft to articulate consciousness onstage. Enriched by engaging essays by three scholars, a roundtable discussion with female directors of her generation, and an interview with Ruhl herself, this is a companionable guide for students of American literature and theatre studies.
Synopsis
Sarah Ruhl is one of the most highly-acclaimed and frequently-produced American playwrights of the 21st century. Author of eighteen plays and the essay collection 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write, she has won a MacArthur "Genius+? Grant and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, been nominated for a Tony Award for In the Next Room or the vibrator play and twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for The Clean House and In the Next Room.
Ruhl is a writer unafraid of the soul. She writes not about "this or that issue, +? but "about being, +? creating plays that ask "big questions about death, love, and how we should treat each other in this lifetime.+? In this volume, Amy Muse situates Ruhl as an artist-thinker and organizes her work around its artistic and ethical concerns. Through a finely-grained account of each play, readers are guided through Ruhl's early influences, the themes of intimacy, transcendence, and communion, and her inventive stagecraft to dramatize "moments of being+? onstage. Enriched by essays from scholars Jill Stevenson, Thomas Butler, and Christina Dokou, an interview with directors Sarah Rasmussen and Hayley Finn, and a chronology of Ruhl's life and work, this is a companionable guide for students of American drama and theatre studies.
Amy Muse specializes in dramatic literature and performance studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department. She is the author of "Sarah Ruhl's Sex Ed for Grownups+? (Text & Presentation 2013) and essays on Romantic drama, intimate theatre, female Hamlets, and travel in Romantic Circles, Romanticism: The Journal of Romantic Culture & Criticism, Frontiers, and other journals.
METHUEN DRAMA CRITICAL COMPANIONS
Series Editors: Patrick Lonergan (National University of Ireland, Galway)
and Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (Loyola Marymount University, USA)