Originally from Chicago, Sarah Ruhl received her MFA from Brown University, where she studied under Paula Vogel. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whtiing Writers' award. She gained widespread recognition from The Clean House, winner of the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2004 and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her Eurydice, which opened at New York's Second Stage in June 2007, prompted Charles Isherwood of the New York Times to write, "Ms. Ruhl's theatrical vision is an idiosyncratic one. She is not a journalist of domestic life, as so many playwrights today seem to be, but an adventurer who is not afraid to blend the quotidian and the fantastic, deep feeling and airy whimsy." Ms. Ruhl's other works include Melancholy Play, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando, and Passion Play.