Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: David Mong (801) 363-0526
Email: mong@saltlakeactingcompany.org
Salt Lake Acting Company presents the regional premiere of THE CLEAN HOUSE by Sarah Ruhl.
For mature audiences
Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) is pleased to present the regional premiere of THE CLEAN HOUSE by Sarah Ruhl. THE CLEAN HOUSE will have preview performances April 2nd and 3rd, with the Press Opening on Friday, April 4th at 8:00 PM at The Salt Lake Acting Company. THE CLEAN HOUSE is scheduled to play Wednesdays through Sundays through April 27, 2008.
Keven Myhre, SLAC's Producing Director and Resident Designer, will direct and design the set.
In addition to Mr. Myhre, the design team will be Z - Lights; Brenda Van der Wiel- Costume Design; Cynthia L. Kehr Rees- Sound, Adrianne Moore- Dialect Coach, Cynthia Fleming- Choreographer, and Darrin D. Doman- Vocal Coach.
The cast features SLAC veterans Joyce Cohen, Anne Cullimore Decker, Mark Gollaher, Anne Stewart Mark, and new-comer Camila Borrero.
Sarah Rae Mohr will be the Production Stage Manager.
THE CLEAN HOUSE had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre and was produced at the Lincoln Center in New York in 2006. The first act of the play was commissioned by the McCarter Theatre. The play has been produced all over the country--- one of the most produced of this season, in fact. SLAC first ran into the play as a staged reading at South Coast Repertory Theatre's play festival in 2004 and has been pursuing it ever since.
THE CLEAN HOUSE occurs, as the playwright describes on the Character page of the script under PLACE, in "a metaphysicalConnecticut. Or, a house that is not far from the city and not far from the sea." Welcome to the off-kilter, occasionally magical world of Sarah Ruhl. Lane (Joyce Cohen) is a very successful doctor. She is married to Charles (Mark Gollaher), also a very successful doctor. They don't see a lot of each other, but nonetheless live a perfectly perfect life. Lane hires a young Brazilian woman, Matilde (Camila Borrero), as a live-in maid. After all, Lane states, "...I did not go to medical school to clean my own house." The problem is, Matilde really doesn't want to clean houses. She'd rather continue to think up the world's best joke. This is an inherited passion. Her father was the funniest person in their village, and her mother was a supremely appreciative audience. The arrangement proved to have fatal consequences for one of them. Now cleaning houses depresses Matilde. Lane and Charles took her to the hospital and had her medicated, but it hasn't solved the problem. Enter Lane's sister, Virginia (Anne Stewart Mark). She loves to clean. It fills her life with meaning and accomplishment. She has completely cleaned her house by three in the afternoon. The remaining day looms endless before her. Solution: clean Lane's house as a secret shared only with Matilde. Perfect. Meanwhile, Charles meets a new patient, Ana (Anne Cullimore Decker). She is Argentinean and has breast cancer. Sarah Ruhl describes her as "... impossibly charismatic." Charles falls in love. As does Ana. She is older. He is helpless. They fall even further in love. Now, Lane and Charles have a problem.
Sarah Ruhl has created a wonderful play to help us "spring clean" our hearts and minds. There are two notions that receive a great deal of attention in the play: cleaning and jokes. Both aid in the de-cluttering of external debris and give us at least a brief reprieve from that which weighs us down. Enjoy.
SARAH RUHL (playwright) Sarah Ruhl's plays include THE CLEAN HOUSE (Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2004, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Pen Award), MELANCHOLY PLAY, EURYDICE, LATE: A COWBOY SONG, ORLANDO, DEMETER IN THE CITY(NAACP image award nomination), PASSION PLAY, A CYCLE (Fourth forum freedom award, Kennedy Center) and DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE. Her plays have been performed at Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, the Goodman Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, Woolly Mammoth, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Wilma, Cornerstone Theater, Madison Repertory Theater, Clubbed Thumb, and the Piven Theatre Workshop, among other theaters across the country. Her plays have been translated into German, Polish, Korean, Russian and Spanish, and have been produced internationally in London, Canada, Germany, Latvia, and Poland. Sarah received her M.F.A. from Brown University, and is originally from Chicago. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill award, Whiting Writers' Award, and a Macarthur Fellowship. She is a proud member of New Dramatists and 13P.
KEVEN MYHRE (Director, Set Design, Producing Director) is in his 14th season as SLAC's Producing Director and Resident Designer. Keven most recently directed SLAC'S critically acclaimed productions of MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS, RABBIT HOLE and I AM MY OWN WIFE. Other directing credits for SLAC include: BAD DATES; GOING TO ST. IVES; WATER LILIES in CABBIES, COWBOYS AND THE TREE OF THE WEEPING VIRGIN; THE MEMORY OF WATER; WHITE PEOPLE; TWO-HEADED; THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE; GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIAL OF OSCAR WILDE; C'EST MOI in MERE MORTALS and THREE DAYS OF RAIN. Keven has designed all of SLAC's sets and many of the costumes for the last thirteen years.
(Actors and Designers bios available upon request)
SLAC NOTES:
APRIL 6TH - FIRST SUNDAY MATINEE POST-PLAY DISCUSSION: following the matinee performance, hosted by SLAC Dramaturg Mike Dorrell in the Upstairs theatre.
APRIL 9TH - 2ND WEDNESDAY PRESHOW PRESENTATION: an introduction to the play by SLAC's Literary Department.
APRIL 21ST- NEW PLAY SOUNDING SERIES: at 7:00 PM
TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED New plays, new voices. Theatre unplugged.
Free Staged Readings and Talk Backs. Be a part of theatre in the making.
Sponsored by American Express and the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Program
APRIL 26TH - SATURDAY MATINEE POSTPLAY DISCUSSION: following the Matinee performance, hosted by SLAC Dramaturg Mike Dorrell.
Salt Lake Acting Company
168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
Admin. (801)363-0526
FACT SHEET
SLAC PRODUCTION: THE CLEAN HOUSE
PLAYWRIGHT: Sarah Ruhl
DIRECTOR: Keven Myhre
CAST: Camila Borrero, Joyce Cohen, Anne Cullimore Decker, Mark Gollaher, Anne Stewart Mark
SET DESIGN: Keven Myhre
LIGHT DESIGN: Z
COSTUME DESIGN: Brenda Van der Wiel
SOUND DESIGN: Cynthia L. Kehr Rees
CHOREOGRAPHY: Cynthia Fleming
VOICE COACH: Darrin D. Doman
DIALECT COACH: Adrianne Moore
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: Sarah Rae Mohr
DATES:
Previews: April 2 and 3, 2008
Opening: April 4, 2008
Closing: April 27, 2008
TIMES:
Previews: Wed & Thurs- 7:30PM
Regular: Wed & Thurs- 7:30PM
Fri & Sat- 8:00PM
Sun- 2:00PM & 7:00PM
Sat. Matinee: Sat. April 26, 2008 - 2:00PM
TICKETS:
$13 - $34, students/30 & under/senior discounts available.
BOX OFFICE:
801) 363-SLAC (7522) (Mon-Fri- 10:00AM to 6:00PM) or
www.saltlakeactingcompany.org to buy online.
David Mong
Literary Manager/Media Relations
Salt Lake Acting Company
168 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
Admin- (801)363-0526