Cleveland Play House Presents IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY, 4/13-5/13

Directed by Laura Kepley, CPH Associate Artistic Director, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play takes place at the dawn of electricity, when a remarkable treatment for "hysterical" men and women is taking place. A funny and touching play about marriage and intimacy, A 2010 Tony Award® Nominee for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play will begin in the Second Stage at PlayhouseSquare on Friday, April 13 and is intended for mature audiences. Due to popular demand, the run has been extended one week and will now play through Sunday, May 13, 2012. Tickets are available at PlayhouseSquare ticket office by calling 216-241-6000 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is sponsored by Ambiance, and presented with support from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.

"In the Next Room is one of the most celebrated, recent American comedies," says CPH Artistic Director Michael Bloom. "And with our superb cast and director, I have no doubt it will be one of the highlights of the theatre season."

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is set in the Victorian era at the dawn of electricity and just before its corseted women shed their inhibitions. Dr. Givings is having tremendous success with a new electric-powered invention designed to alleviate the symptoms of "hysteria." But the noises in the adjoining room spark the curiosity of his wife Catherine, a lonely new mother eager for intimacy. Catherine's investigation into Dr. Givings' work leads to friendships with midwife assistant Annie, wet-nurse Elizabeth, and two of the doctor's patients: the high-strung Sabrina Daldry and the artist Leo Irving – and ultimately to a new relationship with her husband.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009 and debuted on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre later that same year; it has since been performed in theaters across the country and internationally. It received a Tony Award nomination for best play and was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Sarah Ruhl, a Chicagoan-turned-New-Yorker, spent her childhood reading and telling stories but didn't turn to playwriting until midway through her college years at Brown University, where she completed BA and MFA degrees under the tutelage of Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel. In her writing, she is attracted to the irrationality of emotions: "I like plays that have revelations in the moment," she told The New Yorker, "where emotions transform almost inexplicably." Ruhl, who is a wife and mother in her mid-30s, is the author of, among others, The Passion Play Cycle, Eurydice, Dead Man's Cell Phone and The Clean House, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2006, she received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for her "vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

IN THE NEXT ROOM Cast:

Birgit Huppuch: (Sabrina Daldry) most recently played the Bird Statue in 13P's production of Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue. Other credits include playing Mother Ann Lee in Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry's Angel Reapers at The Joyce and Olivia in Pig Iron Theatre Company's Twelfth Night. Her New York City credits include the Foundry Theatre's production of Ariana Reines' Telephone for which she won a 2009 Obie Award.

Donald Carrier: (Mr. Daldry) previously appeared at Cleveland Play House in Ten Chimneys (2012), Noises Off (2008), and Lincolnesque (2007). Regional credits include The Old Globe, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, and The Tempest. He spent nine seasons at Stratford Festival appearing in As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest, Measure for Measure and Coriolanus among many others. He is Associate Director of the Case Western Reserve University/CPH MFA Acting Program.

Gail Rastorfer: (Annie) recently appeared at Cleveland Play House as Louise Greene in Ten Chimneys. Her many Chicago area credits include The Gamester, Northlight Theatre; Murder by the Book, Drury Lane EP; Romeo and Juliet, Griffin Theatre; Shear Madness, The Chicago Theatre; Short Shakespeare! Comedy of Errors, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Twelfth Night, First Folio Theatre; The Rose Tattoo, Goodman Theatre; and As Bees in Honey Drown (understudy) at Northlight.

Jeremiah Wiggins: (Dr. Givings) appeared off-Broadway in An Experiment with an Air Pump, Manhattan Theatre Club; Good Morning, Bill, Keen Company; Avow, Cardinal Group; and the world premiere of Fly, Lincoln Center Institute. Film/television includes The Hoax, Boardwalk Empire, Hack, Cashmere Mafia, Gravity, As the World Turns, and Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.

Nisi Sturgis: (Catherine Givings) recently completed her second season with Pioneer Theatre Company where she played Emma Woodhouse in Emma and Ophelia in Hamlet. Her Broadway and other New York City credits include The 39 Steps, The Pretty Trap, Intimate Apparel, Dsyphoria, and The Less We Talk with Hoi Polloi.

Rachel Leslie: (Elizabeth) recently appeared in the world premieres of two plays: John Walch's In The Book Of at Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Sylvan Oswald's Nightlands with New Georges in New York City where she's also worked with Keen Company, 78th Street Theatre Lab and at HERE.

Zac Hoogendyk: (Leo Irving) last appeared at Cleveland Play House as the MP in A Soldiers' Tale, Mr. Frank Churchill in Emma, Tom Davenport in Inherit the Wind, and as Tom Sawyer in a CPH Theatre for Children production of Huck Finn. He is a CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program graduate, class of 2010 and recently directed What the Butler Saw at The Gallery Players and Thirds for Heiress Productions in New York.

IN THE NEXT ROOM Creative Team:

Sarah Ruhl (Playwright) had her most recent play Stage Kiss premiere at Goodman Theatre, Chicago in 2011. Her plays include In The Next Room, or the vibrator play (Glickman Prize, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony nominee for Best Play); The Clean House, produced by Cleveland Play House in 2007 (Susan Smith Blackburn award, 2004, finalist for Pulitzer Prize, 2005); Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes award for best new play); Demeter in the City (nominated for nine NAACP awards); Eurydice; Melancholy Play; Orlando; a new version of Chekhov's Three Sisters; and Passion Play (Kennedy Center Fourth Forum Freedom Award). Her plays have premiered at The Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, produced by Lincoln Center Theater; off-Broadway by Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and 2econd Stage Theatre; and regionally at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago, as well being produced at many other theatres across the country. Her plays have also been performed in England, Poland, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia, and have been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian, Korean and Arabic. Ruhl received her Master of Fine Arts from Brown University – where she studied with Paula Vogel – and is originally from Chicago. In 2003 she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill award and a Whiting Writers' award, a PEN/Laura Pels award, and in 2006 was recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her work is published by Theatre Communications Group and Samuel French, and she is an alumna of New Dramatists and a member of 13P.

Laura Kepley (Director) directed the CPH production of My Name is Asher Lev and FusionFest staged readings of Silent Sky and Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile for Cleveland Play House in 2011. She joined CPH in 2010 as associate artistic director, having arrived in Cleveland from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island where she served as a resident director and artistic associate for four seasons and interim head of the Master of Fine Arts Graduate Program in Directing at Brown University/Trinity Rep for one. While at Trinity Rep, she directed The Clean House, The Syringa Tree, and the world premieres of Shapeshifter, Boots on the Ground, and Some Things are Private. Kepley has directed over 20 new plays including Breadcrumbs at Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The K of D at The Kennedy Center and Orlando/University of Central Florida Shakespeare Festival, and several written by George Brant such as Grizzly Mama at Dobama Theatre, Elephant's Graveyard at The University of Texas at Austin, and shoptalk for The Drama League's DIRECTORFEST. She has worked with playwrights on the development of their work at The Public Theater (N.Y.), The Playwright's Center (Minn.), PlayPenn (Pa.), Naked Angels (N.Y.), PlayhouseSquare's Launch Program (Ohio) and WordBRIDGE Playwrights' Lab (S.C.). Kepley received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her Master of Fine Arts from Brown University/Trinity Rep. She is a Drama League Fellow and a recipient of the 2009-2011 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program for Directors.

The design team for In the Next Room, or the vibrator play includes Michael B. Raiford (Scenic Design), Michael Boll (Lighting Design), David Kay Mickelson (Costume Design), and Jane Shaw (Composer/Sound Design). Also on the team: Stage Manager Shannon Habenicht. 

Single tickets are on sale now; prices range from $49 to $69. Tickets are $15 for currently enrolled students under age 25 with valid ID. For single tickets, please call 216-241-6000 or go online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. Groups of 10+ save up to 50% off single ticket prices; call 216-400-7027 or email cwheeler@clevelandplayhouse.com.

 

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