Dramatists Guild's IN THE ROOM Series Features Tina Howe and Sarah Ruhl

To celebrate the centennial year of the Authors League, The Dramatists Guild of America unveils archived audio unheard by the public since its initial recording. Over the next year, In the Room will host some of the most celebrated playwrights, composers and lyricists in the American theatre discussing craft while sharing their influences and experiences creating some of their most celebrated work. Currently featured is a session with Tina Howe and Sarah Ruhl, originally recorded in 2007.

In this episode, the inimitable Tina Howe brings Sarah’s unique style of poetic language, dynamic stage directions and wide range of mythical characters to discussion of Aristotle, Mac vs. PC, motherhood, weeping coins and working with invisible colleagues. The conversation between Howe and Ruhl taps into real struggles of finding time to write, getting started with a first draft and the extensive process of editing and revisions.

In the Room also features episodes with Stephen Sondheim, David Auburn, Terrence McNally, Doug Wright, Paula Vogel and Arthur Kopit. To view the full lists of episodes visit: http://www.dramatistsguild.com/eventseducation/intheroom.aspx.

Tina Howe (b. 1937) has received an Obie for Distinguished Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Rockefeller grant, two NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the Dramatists Guild Fund Madge Evans/Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, two honorary degrees and the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre. Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Howe has been a visiting professor at Hunter College since 1990 and has also taught master classes at New York University, UCLA, Columbia University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Howe has served on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America since 1990.

Works include: The Nest (1969); Birth and After Birth (1972); Museum (1976); The Art of Dining (1979); Painting Churches (1983); Coastal Disturbances (1986); Approaching Zanzibar (1989); One Shoe Off (1993); Pride's Crossing (1997); Such Small Hands (2003); Rembrandt's Gift (2002); new translations of Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano (2004) and The Lesson (2004); and Chasing Manet (2009).

Sarah Ruhl’s (b. 1974) plays have been produced across the country and internationally, translated into Polish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian, Korean, German and Arabic. Originally from Chicago, Sarah received her MFA from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She was the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, the Whiting Writers' Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, nine NAACP Image Award nominations and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She is a recent recipient of the PEN Center Award for a mid-career playwright.

Works include: Melancholy Play (2001); Eurydice (2003); Orlando (2003); Late: a cowboy song (2003); The Clean House (2004); Passion Play, a cycle (2003); Demeter in the City (2006); Dead Man's Cell Phone (2007); In The Next Room (or the vibrator play) (2009); and Stage Kiss (2011).

The Dramatists Guild of America was established over eighty years ago, and is the only professional association which advances the interests of playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists writing for the living stage. The Guild has over 6,000 members nationwide, from beginning writers to the most prominent authors represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theaters. The Dramatists Guild of America was established for the purpose of aiding dramatists in protecting both the artistic and economic integrity of their work. The Guild believes that a vibrant, vital and provocative theater is an essential element of the ongoing cultural debate which informs the citizens of a free society. The Guild believes that if such a theater is to survive, the unique, idiosyncratic voices of both men and women who write for it must be cultivated and protected. In addition to its contract services, the Guild acts as an aggressive public advocate for dramatists’ interests and assists dramatists in developing both their artistic and business skills through its publications, which are distributed nationally, and the educational programs which it sponsors around the country. Through a variety of activities, the Dramatists Guild of America works to ensure that theater in America will continue to flourish and that the voices which give it life will continue to reflect and celebrate the richness and diversity of the American experience.