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; Neighbors, Public Theater; Miss St.’s Hieroglyphic Suffering, Guggenheim; Telethon and Dot, Clubbed Thumb; What the Public Wants, Mint Theater Company; Sa Ka La, Oslo Elsewhere; Woman of Trachis, Target Margin Theater; and Beowulf, Banana, Bag & Bodice/Lower East Side. Regional work includes Peer Gynt, La Jolla Playhouse and Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Isabella and Payup, Pig Iron; and Love Song, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. She is a recipient of the New Dramatists' Charles Bowden Award. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College. less 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... more

Donald Carrier: (Mr. Daldry) has appeared at Cleveland Play House in In The Next Room, or the vibrator play (2012); Ten Chimneys (2012); Noises Off (2008); and Lincolnesque (2007). Selected directing credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Annex, As You Like It, Oh! What a Lovely War, Alms, Les Belles Soeurs, The Hollow, Habeas Corpus, and The Love Stories. Carrier will be directing The Crucible for the CWRU undergraduate theatre department in spring of 2013. Favorite regional acting credits include The Old Globe, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and The Tempest; Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Hamlet, Twelfth Night; Great Lakes Theater, A Christmas Carol; Studio Theatre-DC, Shining City; Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Noises Off; The Shakespeare Theatre, The Duchess of Malfi, Richard III; Wilma Theater, Arcadia; Huntington and Intiman Theatres, Gross Indecency; TheatreWorks, Shakespeare in Hollywood; and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The School for Scandal. He spent nine seasons at Stratford Festival appearing in As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, and Coriolanus among many others. He spent two seasons at the Shaw Festival appearing in Candida and Too True To Be Good. Television/film includes Guns, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Passion of Ayn Rand, and Dead by Monday. Writing credits include the musical Evangeline with Anaya Farrell, Alms, Footnotes, and Transmission. Carrier is associate director of the CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program. less has appeared at Cleveland Play House in In The Next Room, or the vibrator play (2012); Ten Chimneys (2012); Noises Off (2008); and Lincolnesque (2007). Selected directing credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Annex, As You Like It, Oh! What a Lovely War, Alms, Les Belles Soeurs,... more

Gail Rastorfer: (Annie) just 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. Recently she portrayed Elder Kate and Helen in Marisa Wegrzn’s premiere of Hickorydickory at Chicago Dramatists. Regional appearances include Indiana Repertory Theatre, Madison Rep, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, Hope Summer Rep and the Hangar Theatre. She is a proud participant in free to the public staged readings with The Shakespeare Project of Chicago. Television includes Chicago Code, Boss and a wide range of commercial work. Rastorfer is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and is on the Chicago Board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).  less just 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;... more

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. Regional work includes An Enemy of the People, Playhouse on Park; Dracula, Denver Center Theatre Company; The Pavilion, Dorset Theatre Festival; Fabuloso, Something in the Air, and The Art of Sacrifice, Merrimack Repertory Theatre; The Elephant Man and Othello, Virginia Stage Company; The Vertical Hour, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; The Importance of Being Earnest and Tartuffe, Pioneer Theatre Company; The Retreat from Moscow and A Christmas Carol, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; The Invention of Love and Ah, Wilderness, Guthrie Theater; and additional work at the Folger, Wilma, McCarter, Hangar, Crossroads, and Shakespeare Theatres, Dallas Theater Center, and Berkshire Theatre Festival. Film/television includes The Hoax, Boardwalk Empire, Hack, Cashmere Mafia, Gravity, As the World Turns, and Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Wiggins has a Master of Fine Arts, New York University. less 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. Regional work includes An Enemy of the People, Playhouse on Park; Dracula, Denver Center Theatre Company; The Pavilion, Dorset Theatre Festival;... more

Laura Kepley: (Director) directed Cleveland Play House mainstage productions of A Carol for Cleveland (world premiere); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; and My Name is Asher Lev; and CPH readings of Daphne’s Dive, by inaugural Roe Green Award-winner Quiara Alegría Hudes; Silent Sky; The Fagin Effect; and Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile. Most recently, Kepley directed The Heidi Chronicles for Asolo Repertory Theatre (Fla.). She joined CPH in 2010 as associate artistic director, having arrived from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island where she directed The Clean House, The Syringa Tree, and world premieres of Shapeshifter, Boots on the Ground, and Some Things are Private. She 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.), The New Harmony Project (Ind.), PlayhouseSquare’s Launch Program (Ohio) and WordBRIDGE Playwrights' Lab (S.C.). Kepley 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. less directed Cleveland Play House mainstage productions of A Carol for Cleveland (world premiere); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; and My Name is Asher Lev; and CPH readings of Daphne’s Dive, by inaugural Roe Green Award-winner Quiara Alegría Hudes; Silent Sky; The Fagin Effect; and Three Voyages of... more

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. Regionally she has performed at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in To Kill a Mockingbird, I Capture the Castle, Arms and the Man, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Sturgis spent three seasons at both Denver Center Theatre Company in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, You Can’t Take It With You, Pride and Prejudice, Doubt, and Richard III and also with The Old Globe in Life of Riley, Loves and Hours, Pentecost, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, and Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?. She has the recurring role of June Thompson in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Sturgis holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Old Globe’s Graduate Acting Program. less 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. Regionally she has performed... more

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. Favorite credits include Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at Folger Theatre, Black Mary in Gem Of The Ocean, and Millie in Trouble In Mind. She’s appeared regionally at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Geva Theatre Center, Indiana Rep, Guthrie Theater, Syracuse Stage, Round House Theatre, Triad Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Film and television credits include Quietly, Law & Order, All My Children, and Guiding Light. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Temple University. less 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. Favorite credits include Beatrice in Much... more

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. Hoogendyk recently directed What the Butler Saw at The Gallery Players and Thirds for Heiress Productions in New York. He has performed internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland and the International Shakespeare Festival, Germany. Other credits include The Life and Death of King John with New York Shakespeare Exchange, Uncle Vanya and Shakespeare’s R and J with This Bridge Theatre Company and Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Beauty and the Beast at Texas Shakespeare Festival. He has his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, Pepperdine University and his Master of Fine Arts, Case Western Reserve University/CPH MFA Acting Program. He is proud to be a member of Actors’ Equity Association. less 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. Hoogendyk recently directed What the Butler Saw at The Gallery Players and Thirds for Heiress Productions in New York.... more

Play Guide - In the Next Room, or the vibrator play: Click on the related files link below to view the Play Guide! It’s hard to believe it, but this is the final CPH Play Guide of the 2011-2012 season! We hope that this has been a useful and enjoyable resource, and that you’ve shared it with friends and family, making it a regular part of your theatergoing experience  Sarah Ruhl’s delightful and heartfelt In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is inspired by actual medical science from the 1880s. Just as poisonous mercury was once prescribed as a cure by doctors, the vibrator was initially seen as nothing but an antiseptic medical device. Set in the Victorian 1880s, at the dawn of the electric age, In the Next Room proves that although technology and perception have changed, humans all still long for one thing: connection.   In this Play Guide you’ll survey the strict social and moral codes that ruled the Victorian age.   You’ll explore Thomas Edison’s contributions to the world beyond the light bulb and phonograph (elephant execution, anyone?).   And you’ll discover how men put the HIS in the HIStory of a curious “disease” called “hysteria.” Once you’ve enjoyed the Play Guide, come be a part of our free, fun and informal pre-show conversations! They start 45 minutes before EVERY performance.     We’ll see you at the Second Stage!   Click on the related files link below to view the Play Guide! less Click on the related files link below to view the Play Guide! It’s hard to believe it, but this is the final CPH Play Guide of the 2011-2012 season! We hope that this has been a... more

That's Hysterical!: From medieval times to the mid-twentieth century, women (and occasionally men) presenting with symptoms of faintness, anxiety, sleeplessness, mood swings, nervousness, shortness of breath, irritability, chronic arousal or sensations of heaviness in the abdomen and lower pelvic region, were diagnosed with a curious disease known as “hysteria.” And for equally as long, the prescribed cure for female hysterical patients was induction of a “paroxysm” through vaginal massage.     Around 300 BC, Hippocrates defined hysteria (from the Greek  hystera, or uterus) as suffocation or madness of the womb. In the second century, the physician Galen wrote that hysteria was caused by sexual deprivation: it seemed particularly common among virgins, nuns, or widows—and even married women from time to time. He believed that inducing an expulsion of fluids by coaxing the uterus back into its rightful position would ease the troubling condition. During Elizabethan times a vigorous horseback ride was a prescribed remedy.   In the Victorian era—when In the Next Room is set—high collars, low hemlines and strict social and moral codes ruled the day.  Given this rigid society, it’s probably no surprise that in 1859 one doctor claimed that a quarter of all women suffered from hysteria, and the disease’s symptoms had come to include women with “a tendency to cause trouble.” Professional medical treatment was the only answer, and manual manipulation was prescribed to induce a “paroxysm” (i.e., orgasm) in an effort to alleviate the affliction. (Masturbation was not an acceptable cure.) This was a purely medical procedure—and one which male physicians considered tedious, often foisting it off on midwives.   Then, with the dawn of the electric age, came the electromechanical vibrator. It could produce a paroxysm in mere minutes and required no particular skill to operate, making it an ideal palliative for the female syndrome that Freud characterized as “frigidity.” And though the device served a woman’s physical (and sensual) needs, it remained a medical implement devoid of sexual connotation.  Sears Roebuck and Company’s 1918 Electrical Goods catalog encouraged husbands to purchase the appliance to restore their wives’ bright eyes and pink cheeks. But when vibrators began appearing in 1920s pornographic films, their once wholesome image was destroyed; the public now associated them with amoral sexual behavior rather than antiseptic healthcare.   Although hysteria was seen as the problem, the condition itself was actually a symptom—of a repressive male-dominated society. The Victorian woman was seen as inherently frail and flighty: “the weaker sex.” In society’s eyes (read: men’s eyes) she was a victim of her innately unstable reproductive system, and this defined her character and determined the roles she was meant to play. Since society was a male-driven enterprise, it’s no surprise that the invention and administration of the “cure” for this condition was, too.   Perhaps it’s also unsurprising that these men saw no connection between hysteria and a woman’s possible sexual dissatisfaction—or their role in it. The disease’s associations with pleasure, sex, or even physical love (or lack thereof) remained naively absent from the conversation.  With In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, Sarah Ruhl starts the conversation again—and this time with a female touch. less From medieval times to the mid-twentieth century, women (and occasionally men) presenting with symptoms of faintness, anxiety, sleeplessness, mood swings, nervousness, shortness of breath, irritability, chronic arousal or sensations of heaviness in the abdomen and lower pelvic region, were diagnosed with a curious disease known as “hysteria.” And for equally... more

A conversation with playwright Sarah Ruhl: Let’s start with the obvious question: how did you decide to write a play about the history of the vibrator? Sarah Ruhl: I read The Technology of the Orgasm by Rachel Maines, and I was so shocked and fascinated to find out that doctors treated women with vibrators in the 19th century for hysteria. The other fact that I found equally interesting was that before the invention of vibrators, the doctors stimulated the women manually, and it wasn’t seen as sexual at all. Once I started writing, the characters came to me, and then the relationships got complicated and entangled. You’re lucky if voices start speaking to you, which they did in this case, and then you follow the characters.   How consciously are you trying to write about sexuality with historical accuracy? SR: The play is set in the 19th century, so there are some details I want to get right, at least suggestively. When I'm writing the play, I want to have a firm sense of where and how these characters might have lived. But I'm a contemporary woman writing with subsequent knowledge that informs my view of the period. In terms of the sexuality, I was aiming less for self-consciousness than for a kind of innocence. In some ways, people then were innocent of sexuality compared to the biological knowledge we've acquired about the subject since.   Why did you decide to set the play in a single room? And in “a prosperous spa town outside of New York City, perhaps Saratoga Springs”? SR: I like to set myself formal challenges when I’m writing and wanted to write this particular one with the challenge of having simultaneous and continuous action in two rooms. Saratoga Springs— I was teaching [there] and loved the history of the place. I learned that vibrators were part of the healing treatment there, particularly hydraulic vibrators—the salubrious effects of “the waters” sometimes meant vibrators. I also learned that it had a thriving African American community after the war.   Why did you choose the title In the Next Room? SR: For a long time, I used The Vibrator Play as a working title. I was never satisfied with it; it seemed so utilitarian. At some point while working on the play's production…I told myself: The Vibrator Play is too facile. The play is not a sex farce about vibrators. It's about wet nurses; it's about the body. It's misleading to say it's purely about the object. So I changed the title to In the Next Room, with or the vibrator play as the subtitle. Subtitles are very 19th-century; a lot of great novels from that period have them.   Dr. Givings is presented much more sympathetically than technologically-minded doctors usually are in stories like this, going back as far as [Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story] The Yellow Wallpaper. Why did you make that decision? SR: Maybe because I am surrounded by doctors in my family, I have a lot of respect and compassion for doctors in general. Reading historical accounts, these men were not perverse. They genuinely wanted to help these women, and in a way you have to believe that they did, even as weird and misguided as it seems today.    It’s an interesting comment on where we are as a society that the play’s subtitle can still draw embarrassed giggles. But your treatment of the technology and patients in the play isn’t at all salacious. It seems the play moves beyond vibrators. SR: Ultimately the play is about intimacy. And I think in the age we live in, raw emotional intimacy is far more radical than physical intimacy or selling sex, which we see on every block. We see radical emotional intimacy far less frequently.– Excerpted from interviews with Brendan Lemonfor Lincoln Center Theater, Patrick Lee for TheatreDevelopment Fund and Walter Bilderback for TheWilma Theater. less Let’s start with the obvious question: how did you decide to write a play about the history of the vibrator? Sarah Ruhl: I read The Technology of the Orgasm by Rachel Maines, and I was so shocked and fascinated to find out that doctors... more