Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface

1 “What aesthetic form might consciousness take?”
Snowless
The Lady with the Lap Dog and Anna Around the Neck
Three Sisters
Orlando
Dear Elizabeth
Coda

2 “I like plays that have revelations in the moment, where emotions transform almost inexplicably”
Eurydice
Demeter in the City
Melancholy Play
Scenes from Court Life or the whipping boy and his prince
Coda

3 “Getting in the same room is kind of the dream”
The Clean House
Late: A Cowboy Song
Dead Man’s Cell Phone
In the Next Room or the vibrator play
Stage Kiss
Coda

4 “I’m interested in those more invisible terrains”
Passion Play
The Oldest Boy
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage
Coda

5 Directing Sarah Ruhl
An interview with Sarah Rasmussen and Hayley Finn

6 Other Critical Perspectives
Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play and Contemporary Expressions of Medieval Performance
Jill Stevenson, Marymount Manhattan College, USA.

Arrested Dev-elopement: Myth-Understanding Father-Daughter Love in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice
Christina Dokou, University of Athens, Greece.

From Pontius Pilate to Peter Pan: Lightness in the Plays of Sarah Ruhl
Thomas Butler, Eastern Kentucky University, USA.

Chronology

Notes and References

Notes on Contributors

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

This is an accessible and clear study of the dramatic literature and stagecraft of one of today’s most imaginative playwrights, enriched by conversations with scholars, directors and the playwright herself.

About the Author

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

Reviews

Muse’s generous and affectionate approach … might challenge some institutional notions of scholarship, but her critical methodology emulates and illuminates one of the hallmarks of Ruhl’s style, an ‘aesthetic of lightness.’ … For researchers, it provides an excellent overview of Ruhl’s canon. Playwrights looking to experiment with new forms will appreciate Muse’s detailed descriptions of the specific way that Ruhl constructs her plays.
*Theatre Journal*

A comprehensive survey of Ruhl’s plays to date … Provides valuable insight into Ruhl’s 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 Ruhl’s life and work, and detailed notes.
*CHOICE*