The Drama and Theatre of Sarah Ruhl

(Hardback)

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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 Dont 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 Ruhls 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 Ruhls 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 Ruhls 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)

Reviews

Muses generous and affectionate approach might challenge some institutional notions of scholarship, but her critical methodology emulates and illuminates one of the hallmarks of Ruhls style, an aesthetic of lightness. For researchers, it provides an excellent overview of Ruhls canon. Playwrights looking to experiment with new forms will appreciate Muses detailed descriptions of the specific way that Ruhl constructs her plays. * Theatre Journal *
A comprehensive survey of Ruhls plays to date Provides valuable insight into Ruhls unique theatricality and her ability to capture audiences and invite them into a work to experience the soulfulness at its heart. The volume concludes with three critical essays, a useful chronology of Ruhls life and work, and detailed notes. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Amy Muse is associate professor and Chair of the English Department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.