Sarah Ruhl: A Comprehensive Analysis of The Clean House, Eurydice, Passion Play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone and In The Next Room or the Vibrator Play by Heather Welch, B.F.A. A Thesis In THEATRE ARTS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTERS OF ARTS Approved William Gelber, Ph.D. Chair of Committee Bruce Hermann, M.F.A. Peggy Miller Dean of the Graduate School May, 2012 Copyright 2012, Heather Welch Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would be remiss if I didn’t thank several people who have been instrumental to the process of writing this thesis and to my development as a student of the theatre. First and foremost, I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Bill Gelber and Bruce Hermann. Dr. Gelber’s guidance throughout the entire process and his probing questions and thorough reviews of each chapter during the editing process has been extremely beneficial to this project. Bruce Hermann also has provided helpful insight and critical questions that shaped the methodology of this thesis and ultimately, the project is better because of it. I am indebted to both of them for their guidance, their kindness and for reassuring me when I was “in the weeds.” I must also give thanks to Dr. Norman Bert. It was in his Dramatic Analysis class in Fall 2010 that I first attempted to write about Sarah Ruhl. Once the semester was over, I realized that I was not quite done with writing about her. This project is a much larger and satisfying result of that small paper. Dr. Dorothy Chansky, Dr. Rebecca Hilliker and Dr. Fran Averett Tanner are also deserving of my thanks. All three have pushed me forward, believed in me, and have provided me with the strength to continue my education as a theatre practitioner and scholar at varying stages of my academic career. They are all responsible for my academic successes. These phenomenal women are excellent examples of theatre scholarship and education in practice. I am grateful to have been under their tutelage. Lastly, I give thanks to Emmett and Hannah for supporting me in my dreams and loving me unconditionally. I love you both very much. ii Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE CLEAN HOUSE 7 III. EURYDICE 23 IV. PASSION PLAY 36 V. DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE 59 VI. IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY 73 VII. CONCLUSION 95 WORKS CITED 98 APPENDIX: THE PLAYS OF SARAH RUHL 102 iii Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Sarah Ruhl has only been working as a published playwright for a decade; however, her clear distinctive voice, profound dramatic statements and unique ideas in staging techniques have already made their mark on American theatre. Sarah Ruhl earned a MFA in Playwriting from Brown University in 2001 under the tutelage of Paula Vogel. Vogel, who is an accomplished playwright and is now the head of the playwriting program at Yale University, sees great promise in her former student. In the Spring 2007 edition of Bomb Magazine, Vogel wrote: ”I have worked with many stunning young voices, but I have been blessed with a continuing conversation with Ruhl over the years...and now I turn to Sarah as a trusted and beloved colleague who still has one of the most unique minds in theater I’ve encountered” (Vogel). Vogel’s views concerning Ruhl’s unique mind and the distinctive nature of her plays are echoed in the performance reviews written about her work. In the New York Times review of Ruhl’s play, Eurydice, Charles Isherwood called her “weird and wonderful” and later wrote: “Ms. Ruhl’s theatrical vision is an idiosyncratic one. She is not a journalist of domestic life, as so many playwrights today seem to be, but an adventurer who is not afraid to blend the quotidian and the fantastic, deep feeling and airy whimsy”(Isherwood). Ruhl’s work is hallmarked by configurative play structures that employ metaphysical locations loosely tied to reality that focus on distilled elements of 1 Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 the human condition. Her work is distinctly poetical, deeply personal and highly conceptual. The subject of her work varies, from the domesticity of house cleaning, to the staging of the Passion, to the invention of the orgasm, to dealing with death and loss—but are all tied together by her sharpness and wit. Biographical Information Sarah Ruhl was born on January 24, 1974 and was raised in Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago (Al‐Shamma, Sarah Ruhl, A Critical Study of Plays, 9). Her mother, Kathleen Kehoe Ruhl, taught high school English and also acted in and directed plays. She now holds a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Rhetoric from the University of Illinois. Her late father, Patrick, marketed toys. He died of cancer when she was twenty years old (9). She credits them both for her career in theatre: her mother for taking her to theatre rehearsals at a young age and her father for his love of “puns, reading, language and jazz” (Lahr, “Surreal Life.” The New Yorker, March 2008). Sarah has one sister, Kate, who is a psychiatrist. Sarah wrote her first play in elementary school. In an interview with Susan Stamberg for the National Public Radio, she described the play as a court case between two landmasses that had a dispute. She admitted loving such words as “isthmus” and “peninsula” (Ruhl, “Playwright Sarah Ruhl Entertains with Big Ideas”). Sarah Ruhl went on to attend Brown University where she studied English and had decided to be a poet. In 1995, she met playwright and mentor Paula 2 Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 Vogel, when she enrolled in Vogel’s intensive playwriting seminar in her sophomore year. Her first assignment was a short exercise in which she was asked to write a play with a dog as the protagonist. Ruhl wrote “Dog Play,” a short play that dealt with her own father’s death from a dog’s perspective. In an article for Bomb Magazine, Paula Vogel described it as: [A] dog is waiting by the door, waiting for the family to come home, unaware that the family is at his master’s funeral, unaware of the concept of death. And, oh yes, the play was written with Kabuki stage techniques, in gorgeous, emotionally vivid language. I sat with this short play in my lap in my study, and sobbed. I interrupted my then partner, now wife, Anne Sterling, at her computer in her study, and read it to her, and the two of us shared that playworld, and the recognition of who this young woman could become: Sarah Ruhl (Vogel). After studying abroad at Pembroke College in England, Sarah completed her B.A. in English from Brown University in 1997. For her senior thesis, she turned to her professor from two years earlier, Paula Vogel. Although Ruhl originally wanted to write a Victorian novel, Vogel agreed to work with her if she chose to write a play instead (Goodman). The thesis project turned out to be the first part of her three‐part work, Passion Play. It was produced in a student new work showcase at Brown University, where it caught the eye of director Molly Smith 3 Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 who would later direct the world premiere of the three parts at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. in 2005. After completing her undergraduate studies, Ruhl took a few years off from school before returning to Brown to complete an MFA in Playwriting in 2001, also under the tutelage of Paula Vogel. In the few short years since graduating from Brown University, and at just 37 years old, Ruhl has had her plays produced in regional theatres across the nation as well as internationally, and she has been considered for or won many major playwriting prizes and grants. She has been honored as a two‐time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has received the Susan Blackburn Prize, The MacArthur Genius Grant award, and three Tony Award nominations. The Study The purpose of this thesis is to offer a comprehensive dramaturgical analysis of Sarah Ruhl’s five most highly produced and critically acclaimed plays, The Clean House (2004), Eurydice (2003), Passion Play (2006), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (2007) and In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (2010). Also, this thesis sets out to fully examine the nature and form of Ruhl’s plays while comparing commonly used writing strategies to explore Ruhl’s writing style. Since it is relatively early in her career, very little has been written about Sarah Ruhl. In fact, other than performance reviews of her plays, several interviews with the playwright, and one master’s thesis, her written work has yet to be explored in great detail. Only one author, James Al‐Shamma, has published 4 Texas Tech University, Heather Welch, May 2012 books about Sarah Ruhl. His books, Ruhl in an Hour and Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays have been invaluable to the development of this thesis and will be incorporated with the available performance reviews and interviews throughout my comprehensive analysis of her work. Taking into consideration the unique nature of Sarah Ruhl’s plays, it is difficult to adhere strictly to standard, formalistic dramaturgical approaches to her work. Although I will certainly employ some methods of formalist analysis to examine the plays of Sarah Ruhl, I will primarily focus on the language‐based nature of her work.