Idle Muse Theatre Company Has Announced the Cast and Creatives for IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY)

Idle Muse Theatre Company (IMTC) continues its 2019-20 Season with In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Morgan Manasa, March 9 - April 5, 2020 at The Edge Theatre Off Broadway, 1133 W Catalpa Ave. Previews are Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Monday, March 9, 2020 at 8 p.m. The regular performance run is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with an added performance Wednesday, March 25 at 8 p.m. Industry Night is every Thursday during the run with $10 tickets for industry members. Tickets are $10 for previews, $20 regular adult ticket, $15 senior (over 65) and students (any age) and are on sale now at www.idlemuse.org; or by calling 773.340.9438.

It's the 1880s in New York, during what many considered to be the Gilded Age of America. The second Industrial Revolution has ignited a desire to change the fabric of daily life. When her physician husband creates a unique piece of machinery to massage the growing affliction of "female hysteria," Catherine Givings embarks on some new discoveries of her own. As Dr. Givings garners the attention of new patients, Catherine finds her own attention inexplicably drawn to what occurs "in the next room" and what it means for her. In this intimate and humorous journey of self-examination and sexuality, human connection is not only a climax, but a vital part of life itself.

The cast of In The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) includes Kristen Alesia (Catherine Givings), Chad Bay (Leo), Michelle R. Bester (Elizabeth), Lena Dudley (Understudy), Eric Duhon (Understudy), Erin Gallagher* (Annie), Brendan Hutt (Mr. Daldry), Christina Renee Jones (Sabrina Daldry), Jennifer Mohr (Understudy) and Joel Thompson**(Dr. Givings).

The In The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) creative team includes Morgan Manasa (director), Shellie DiSalvo*(production manager), Robert Pacheco (stage manager), Milo Bue (scenic designer), Stephanie Johnson (costume designer), Laura Wiley* (lighting & projection designer), L.J. Luthringer (sound designer), Tristan Brandon* (properties designer), Samantha Kaufman (intimacy designer), Maureen Yasko (assistant intimacy designer) and Carrie Hardin (dialect coach).

*Connotes Idle Muse Theatre Company Member

**Connotes Idle Muse Theatre Associate Member

ABOUT Sarah Ruhl, PLAYWRIGHT

Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright, professor and essayist. Her plays include Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes award); Melancholy Play (a musical with Todd Almond); Eurydice; Orlando, Demeter in the City (NAACP nomination), Late: a cowboy song, Three Sisters, Dear Elizabeth, The Oldest Boy and most recently, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday and How To Transcend a Happy Marriage. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, Off-Broadway at Playwrights' Horizons, Second Stage and at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, with premieres often at Yale Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. Her plays have been produced internationally and have been translated into more than twelve languages.

Originally from Chicago, Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. An alum of 13P and of New Dramatists, she won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006 and most recently, the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She was the recipient of the PEN Center Award for a mid-career playwright, the Whiting Writers award, the Feminist Press' Forty under Forty award, and a Lilly Award. She proudly served on the executive council of the Dramatist's Guild for three years and she is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama. Her book of essays on the theater and motherhood, "100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write," was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Ruhl lives in Brooklyn with her family.

ABOUT Morgan Manasa, DIRECTOR

Morgan Manasa, a transplant from the metro-Detroit area, has been a theatre maker in Chicago for the past 18 years. Manasa is a graduate of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and an ensemble member of Babes With Blades Theatre Company where she was most recently seen in their all-female production of Henry V (Fluellen) and Witch Slap (Goody Blunt). This past spring, Manasa returned to the Idle Muse stage in Best for Winter (Time, and other roles). She has directed a handful of one act plays and 10-minute play festivals, but made her mainstage directorial debut with Arthur M. Jolly's The Lady Demands Satisfaction with Babes With Blades Theatre Company in the summer of 2018.

Idle Muse Theatre Company (IMTC) continues its 2019-20 Season with In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Morgan Manasa, March 9 - April 5, 2020 at The Edge Theatre Off Broadway, 1133 W Catalpa Ave. Previews are Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Monday, March 9, 2020 at 8 p.m. The regular performance run is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with an added performance Wednesday, March 25 at 8 p.m. Industry Night is every Thursday during the run with $10 tickets for industry members. Tickets are $10 for previews, $20 regular adult ticket, $15 senior (over 65) and students (any age) and are on sale now at www.idlemuse.org; or by calling 773.340.9438.

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