The Clean House
May 15 – June 14, 2015
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by JoAnne Winter
Production Mgr. Mark Toepfer
Prod. Advisor Mary Ann Rodgers
What would you do if the maid you hired to clean your house didn’t like cleaning? What if she spent her days working out her comic bits – in Portuguese? And what if you discovered that your sister secretly cleaned your house instead? This original, funny, and ultimately profound comedy will charm and delight with its quirky humor and deep compassion for the human condition. Discover the magic of The Clean House.
Winner of the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, awarded annually to the best English-language play written by a woman, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Clean House has received glowing reviews. Variety called the play a “wondrously mad and moving work” and Charles Isherwood of The New York Times dubbed it a deeply romantic comedy, “visionary, tinged with fantasy, extravagant in feeling, maybe a little nuts.”
Performances
Thursdays 7:30 pm on May 14, 21 & 28 and June 4 & 11
Fridays 8:00 pm on May 15, 22 & 29 and June 5 & 12
Saturdays 8:00 pm on May 16, 23 & 30 and June 6 & 13
Sundays 2:00 pm on May 24* & 31* and June 7 &14**
Cast and Crew
Lane – Sylvia Burboeck
Matilde – Livia Demarchi
Virginia – Tamar Cohn
Charles – Steven Price
Anna – Sumi Narendran
Director – JoAnne Winter
Stage Manager – Maureen Scheuenstuhl
Rehearsal Assistant – Ann Armour
Production Manager – Mark Toepfer
Production Advisor – Mary Ann Rodgers
Set Designer – David Shirk
Set Construction – Eugene DeChristopher
Costume Designer – Michael Berg
Lighting Designer – Ellen Brooks
Sound Designer – James Ard
Graphic Designer – Mark Shepard
Marketing Liaison – Gregg Le Blanc
Volunteer Coordinator – Eleanor Prugh
Publicity – Hamilton Ink
Webmaster – Jayme Catalano
Production Photos
A Note from the Director
“How to describe The Clean House? A Portuguese cleaning woman, the progression of dust, medieval love songs about surgery? Its disparate elements make it impossible to conveny the elegant beauty, the simple joy, and the tragic humanity of this play. If you want to believe the world is awful, well, there’s plenty of evidence to prove your point. But, there is just as much evidence to the contrary. Life holds such sublime beauty, such sheer, absurd fun, such glorious music and delicious flavors. Everyone is a mess, broken, needy, and frightened. We may not ever fully understand the jokes life plays on us. So maybe it’s better to just have a good laugh, go apple picking, and eat homemade chocolate ice cream.
I have loved exploring this play with this wonderful and talented cast, and design team. It is a joy to be reminded every day to embrace the messiness of life – to let go, and dive in. Many thanks to the RVP staff and volunteers for this wonderful opportunity to share this play with you.”
JoAnne Winter (Director) is a Bay Area director and actor. In 1993 she co-founded Word for Word Performing Arts Company, a theatre company that creates performances from short fiction and poetry. In the past 22 years, as Co-Artistic Director, she has produced over 100 shows and readings, as well as performed and directed for both Word for Word and other Bay Area theaters. She is also the director of Youth Arts, Word for Word’s arts education program and has produced 10 years of the YA School & Library Tour. She oversees scores of WfW workshops with students in Bay Area schools. As a WfW actor, she has originated roles in 36 Stories by Sam Shepard, In Friendship, John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven (a co-production with Cal Shakes and Octavio Solis), Three On a Party, Three Blooms, among many others. As a director, her favorite shows include Word for Word’s Wants and A Conversation With My Father by Grace Paley, Spring Rain by Bernard Malamud, and Ancestor by Greg Sarris. She is very pleased to be making her RVP debut with this lovely play by Sarah Ruhl.