The Playwrights Database
RUTH WOLFF
Nationality: USAemail: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: The Lantz Office
Ruth Wolff's play THE ABDICATION premiered at the Bristol Old Vic starring Gemma Jones. The Eureka Theater of San Francisco presented its American premiere. Produced in almost every one of the United States, it has been performed worldwide in many languages with notable productions in Canada (in French), in Italy (in Italian) and in The Hague and Belgium (in Dutch). It was produced in London in 2005. Its acting edition is published by Dramatic Publishing. With screenplay by Ms. Wolff, the Warner Bros. film of THE ABDICATION starred Liv Ullmann and Peter Finch. The Kennedy Center produced her play SARAH IN AMERICA starring Lilli Palmer as Sarah Bernhardt, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann. The play was also produced at the Pasadena Playhouse featuring Katherine Helmond and at Hofstra University featuring Tovah Feldshuh. Ms Wolff's film about the early life of Sarah Bernhardt, THE INCREDIBLE SARAH, starred Glenda Jackson and Daniel Massey. A native of Massachusetts who now lives in New York, Ms. Wolff was educated at Smith College and Yale University. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and other publications. She is a recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship and a Kennedy Center Bicentennial Commission, is a fellow of the McDowell Colony and a member of the Dramatists Guild, the League of Professional Theater Women and the Writers Guild of America, West.
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below is a list of Ruth Wolff's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Abdication, The Arabic Two Beyond Gravity Buffaloes Eleanor of Aquitaine Empress Of China Folly Cove From Faustina to The Fall of Athens George and Frederick Golem, The Hallie Joshua Slocum Sailing Alone Around the World Perfect Marriage, The Sarah in America Second Mrs Wilson, The Shakespeare Road Sky Pool Still Life With ApplesAbdication, The
Synopsis:
Why, having become Queen in childhood, would Christina of Sweden give up the throne? Confused about her sexual identity and religious beliefs, and thwarted in love, she decides to abdicate, convert to Catholicism, and throw herself, for life, on the hospitality of the Vatican. Once there, this proud but troubled woman is stunned to discover that, before she can be received by the Pope, she must submit to intense questioning by Cardinal Azzolino. At first she sees him as an adversary. But then, against all rules and expectations, Christina finds herself falling in love with her inquisitor. A probing exploration of the Nature of Woman, whether Queen or commoner, is the subject of this highly original play.
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1st Published:
in "The New Woman's Theatre", Vintage Books, New York, 1977 -
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Male: 6 Female: 4 Other: -
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Top of PageArabic Two
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageBeyond Gravity
Synopsis:
A haunting story of love and loss and the price we pay for success.
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aka Aviators
1st Produced:
New Jersey Repertory Company
179 Broadway, Long Branch, New Jersey 07740 31 Mar 2005
179 Broadway, Long Branch, New Jersey 07740 31 Mar 2005
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1st Published:
as "Aviators", Broadway Play Publishers, 2005 088-1454249
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageBuffaloes
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Top of PageEleanor of Aquitaine
The sweep of Eleanor's entire life--from her early marriage to Louis VII, King of France, through her marriage to Henry II of England, to her imprisonment, reign and death--is encompassed in this drama. Through every challenge, Eleanor, with her grace and independence--in a world which expected women to stay in their place--triumphs, as wife, soldier, mother, queen and patron of the Courts of Love.
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1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
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Male: 11 Female: 5 Other: extras (some roles may be doubled)
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Top of PageEmpress Of China
Synopsis:
As the 19th century moves into the 20th century, the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi struggles to hold together the proud ancient Chinese empire, which is being assaulted by foreign nations and the technological advances of the age. Following the arrest of a Young Actor who is playing her in the streets, she finds herself, powerless at the pinnacle of power, trying to preserve traditional Chinese civilization against overwhelming forces for change.
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Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
1st Published:
Broadway Play Publishing, New York, -
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Genre:
Historical Epic
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Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
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Top of PageFolly Cove
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageFrom Faustina to The Fall of Athens
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Broadway Play Publishing, New York, -
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Top of PageGeorge and Frederick
George Sand had many lovers--but the one to whom she was most attached, and who almost ruined her life, was Frederic Chopin. His illness and dependency, the rivalries of two artists living under the same roof, the conflicting demands of two careers, all these batter the relationship. But most damaging is what the affair does to her family. Sand is hailed as an icon of female liberation. In GEORGE AND FREDERIC we see what can be the consequences of that liberation. Her rebellious daughter Solange embraces the tenets of feminism as an excuse for wild behavior, eventually causing the final rift between her mother and her mother's lover. To assert his own creativity in this maelstrom, Maurice, George's doting and doted-upon son, creates puppets of each member of this explosive menage, puppets who, throughout the play, comment wryly on all the heated goings-on with humor, irony and wit.
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1st Produced:
University of Utah -
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1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
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Genre:
play with music
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageGolem, The
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Samuel French, NY, -
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Genre:
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Male: 18 Female: 3 Other: -
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Top of PageHallie
Hallie Flanagan Davis headed the Federal Theater in the 1930s and 40s--until the anti-art element in Congress decided that federal support of what they saw as lazy left-wing artists must end. This play, based on the tumultuous hearings before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, pits artists against philistines and demonstrates that then, as now, politics and art don't mix.
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in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
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Genre:
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Male: 6 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageJoshua Slocum Sailing Alone Around the World
As he is making preparations to set out on what will become his final sea journey, Joshua Slocum (hounded by an unsympathetic off-stage second wife), tells us about his previous Great Adventure when, in 1895, he set out on a three-year journey in his 34-foot sloop the Spray to prove that a man could sail around the world alone. In vivid anecdotes, he shares the tale of his unprecedented 46,000 mile journey, when (years before radio or G P S systems), he sailed through sun and storm, blazing heat and relentless cold, through hunger and delirium, across the world's great oceans and seas, battled wind and waves to traverse the world's two great capes, fought pirates and savages, and put into port in some of the wildest, weirdest and most inhospitable lands around the world. Slocum takes us with him on his epic adventure, told with humor and originality through the eyes of a weather-beaten sea salt who, against all expectation, did what no one had ever done before
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1st Produced:
Newport, Rhode Island 16 Jul 1992
Organisations:
The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater
1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
Music:
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Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
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Top of PagePerfect Marriage, The
In this comedy about the nature of marriage, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley battle out their relationship at the gates of Heaven and Hell. Predeceasing Mary by several decades, Shelley can hardly wait for her to come to him in Limbo--but when she does, he is astonished to find that the woman who seemed for all her life to worship him now wants an independent existence. The Archangel/Devil must adjudicate between them and decide whether, in this afterlife, they will enter Heaven or Hell.
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1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
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Genre:
Comedy
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Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageSarah in America
Sarah Bernhardt made her lasting fame in America. This tour de force for one actress takes Bernhardt from her first American tour, in her thirties, to her last, when, with leg amputated, she toured the country at age seventy-two. Her indomitable spirit, summarized by her motto "Quand Meme", is abundantly displayed as she travels from coast-to-coast experiencing triumphs and tragedies.
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1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
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Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageSecond Mrs Wilson, The
This play depicts the dramatic final year of the Woodrow Wilson White House when, on her husband's urging, his new second wife Edith (sometimes criticized as being "America's First Female President") hides the gravity of his illness from his Cabinet and the entire country, hoping to keep him in office long enough to achieve his goal: US entry into the League of Nations--in his view the only possible guarantor of future world peace. A pivotal moment in the play is the Woodrow Wilson/Henry Cabot Lodge confrontation over isolationism vs. internationalism--a topic as fraught with conflict then as it is today.
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1st Produced:
Barter Theater, the State Theater of Virginia 2001
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1st Published:
in Notable Women; And a Few Equally Notable Men, Broadway Play Publishing, 2010 978-0881454499
Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageShakespeare Road
Synopsis:
Two elderly down and out actors grapple with the Bard
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Top of PageSky Pool
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Top of PageStill Life With Apples
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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