NEW YORK-
Sarah lure, 35year-
The old playwright, who has already won the final of the MacArthur Foundation's $500,000 "genius Glen" award and the plice Award, is thinking about her tendency to focus on what is usually "the second string character" in the play ", and push him or her to the front of the stage.
Specifically, she refers to Jean, the introverted, vibrant protagonist of the dead man's mobile phone, which makes it a premiere in Boston on Friday at The Lyric Stage Company.
"People like Jean don't usually write a whole drama about her.
"She's usually your partner or best friend," Ruhl explains . ".
"I'm interested in what happens if you put that character at the front desk.
People like Jean are heroes in their own stories, but on the surface they don't feel like heroes.
In life, I am attracted by such people.
"In cell phones, when Jean picks up a trilling phone call from a dead person in a cafe, her world turns upside down.
Ruhl compares Jean to the quiet, passive heroine Lucy Snow in Charlotte Bronte's novel, Violet.
"To some extent [Lucy] is almost like an invisible or ghostly presence," Ruhl said . ".
"But with the development of the novel, she becomes more and more realistic and active.
The playwrights explained that the challenge was to understand "how do you put a character in front and center that doesn't always show all their emotions and then show them in a dramatic way.
"Ruhl may be discussing the main character of the" mobile phone ", but you can't help but think that she is describing her own humble appearance, even at a watershed moment in her career, this appearance is still when she prepares for the upcoming Broadway premiere of "next room" or vibrator drama.
"Relax in the spacious office of Lincoln Center Theater on a comfortable sofa, which has led the" next room "to Lyceum Theater since October.
Ruhr is very polite and gentle.
In the irony of all kinds of dialogue, burst out in the small laughter.
Her tan hair pulled back from her face, and she was wearing a dignified black dress, hiding her baby lump on a small frame.
However, the gentle Midwest demeanor of the Manhattan man conceals lively wit and sharp wisdom, which makes people when you hear her making rare cursing or small growls on a subject of annoyance
Luer's play is completely harmless.
They are hailed by critics and audiences in New York, Boston and elsewhere as bold, expressive, and dramatic works --
For those of you who eat too much kitchen food, breathe the fresh air-
Sinking the family drama of naturalism and dysfunctional.
Her work is a fable full of metaphysical moments and strange surreal events.
In Eurydice, Ruhl was inspired to write after her father's death, and she reimagined the Orpheus myth from the perspective of the dead bride, who reached the underworld in the rain-
The elevator was soaked with three stone heads from the Greek choir, Hector and Bray.
In clean house, the character throws the Apple out of the balcony into the sea, which happens to be someone's living room too.
In other plays, the fish walk on the tail fin of the fish, a woman turns into an almond, and a dog tells the story of death in the family.
"I'm not going to be a fictional person, but I'm not going to write naturalism either, and I'm not going to imitate reality --to-
"One ratio," Ruhl said.
"When Picasso was first introduced to photography, he was asked why he didn't create more realistic art, and he said, 'Oh, do you think that's a reality?
This woman is 2 inch tall and two years old.
No arms and legs.
Therefore, it is a logical fallacy for me that in the end it is impossible to represent and reflect reality.
Carmel O'Reilly, who directed the dead man's cell phone on the lyrical stage, said, "she took away predictable things.
It's as if she shines on a very ordinary and familiar thing, but from a different perspective, so that we can see it in a new way.
In doing so, sometimes we come across ideas that we may not have seen before.
"Ruhr's drama is also praised for its clever switch between laughter and sadness, excitement and regret, hope and resignation.
"I'm Irish descent, so I grew up in this culture where you have to have a sense of humor about terrible things," Ruhl said . ".
"This is a survival mechanism.
I think we can only deal with so much sadness and then the mind needs to retreat from the sadness and we need to laugh.
"In the" cell phone ", Jean commandeered Gordon's cell phone, the body in the cafe, and began to play Secretary, therapist and therapist to his loved ones.
Gordon seemed to mess up his life with a fickle mistress, a distant mother, a socially awkward brother and a dangerous career.
Ruhl wrote the show after she began to get frustrated with the lack of cell phone etiquette around her and began to think about the idea of connectivity and disconnection in the digital age.
"I always think there are some problems with technology," she said . "
"So I think the phone has become a puppet for me in modern life --
It is also a potential symbol and mechanism of contact and intimacy.
So I am very interested in the contradictory psychology of this problem. ’’A self-
Ruhl, who claims to be a collector of strange facts, said she was inspired to "be in the next room, or vibrator game" after a friend gave her a book "climax technology ", she learned in the book that in Victorian times, doctors treated women diagnosed with "hysteria" with vibrators, who manually stimulated women to receive treatment before using electricity.
Ruhl felt that such a drama resonated in the world today, "people distinguish work life from emotional life and sex life.
"We are immersed in the merchandising of desire.
Sex is everywhere.
"But intimacy is not," she said . "
"I think the dangers of the 19 th century and the show are those moments of real intimacy.
Just as the touch of the hand is dangerous, the sight of the ankle is dangerous --
In some ways, it is more dangerous than the vibrator on [a woman] because they are very innocent about it.
"Luer, who grew up in suburban Chicago, is the daughter of a high school English teacher who works part-time as an actor, her father works in the marketing department and is a greedy reader.
She is eager to become a poet, but during her senior year in English at Brown University, she asked Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize --
Award-winning playwright to advise her paper on the 19th-century actresscentury novel.
Vogel was surprised by Ruhr's work in the drama writing class and told the young woman that she would suggest her paper, but only if she wrote a drama.
"I will never forget how liberating it is to get out of her office and walk down the streets of Providence," Ruhl said . " Two years later, she returned to Brown and received her master's degree in performing arts under the guidance of Vogel.
Vogel became a mentor in her career. and in life.
"It's not just that I might not be a playwright without her, but I may not have the perseverance to move on," Ruhl said.
"Despite the success of Ruhl, she is not without critics.
She was accused by some critics
Rely on whimsical and special details that may be annoying.
Some people also think that her writing lacks rationality and psychological depth.
Ruhl got rid of these criticisms in a frustrated but dynamic defense.
"I do think that psychological realism is a pain because it makes emotions so rational.
This is not realism.
"I think it's just a form," said Ruhr, who is ironically a psychiatrist for both his husband and sister.
"From Shakespeare to the Greeks, drama has been talking about irrational in some profound way.
So I think it's a bit weird to turn it into linear, to turn it into causal.
Reasonable discovery of neurosis is not enough.
"As the Broadway premiere approaches, it is understandable that Ruhr may be overwhelmed by the current pressure.
But her appearance is usually standard.
Perhaps, she said, this is a function of the humble influence of the young mother (Ruhl has 3-year-
Old daughter and twins on the road ).
"Performing on Broadway is exciting, especially as a female playwright.
"But I do think you have to wear a horse eye mask and then be dragged into the fire to do your job," she said . ".
"Because for every writer there is a point where people will get tired of you and continue to focus on the other 26 writers --year-old is doing.
I have seen this in my friends.
Horton Hall runs through it.
Edward Arbi went through all this.
So I don't have any grand fantasies, and I don't see my career as something linear.
There will be fluctuations.
I just want to enjoy it while it lasts and don't be spoiled.