Rinne Groff
c/o Val Day
William Morris Agency
1325 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019
(212) 903-1192
(212) 632-1286 fax
Agent Email:
VDay@wma.com
Email:
newdramatists@newdramatists.org
JIMMY CARTER WAS A DEMOCRAT
Comedy/ 85 minutes
3M, 2F
One Set
Air. Traffic. Control. Welcome to the world of Samuel B. Shostakovitz.
Stuck in his apartment in Flushing, Queens, Sammy can’t help but ponder
the summer of 1980: Jimmy Carter flounders in the White House, hostages
rot in Tehran, America’s air traffic controllers prepare to make the
mistake of their lives, and Emily, a hot, young, labor organizer, can’t
decide who not to sleep with. A comedy with one song.
Workshopped by Clubbed Thumb in
2001, premiered by PS122, New York in 2002.
“Pitch-perfect... refreshing… Formally ambitious while maintaining a
casual downtown air… Groff's refreshing scope and humor ricochet back
only to propel us forward.”—Charles McNulty, The Village Voice
"Inventive...funny...quirky."—Jason Zinoman, Time Out
ORANGE LEMON EGG CANARY: A Trick
in Four Parts
Comedy/ 95 minutes
1M, 3F
Flexible Set
This play requires the purchase or building of a theatrical illusion
called Impaled.
Great is a magician with a dangerous past and a promising future. His
bright young new assistant Trilby is looking for the truth behind the
illusion. In this mysterious love story filled with top hats,
disappearing coins, floating objects, and seemingly impossible feats,
every player has a few tricks up his sleeve. Is it all smoke and
mirrors? Only the lovely assistant knows for sure.
Presented at Actors Theatre of
Louisville Humana Festival in 2003.
“Almost sinfully funny and spectacular.”—Rob Kendt, Back Stage West
“The play’s title is the name of a trick, like dolls nested within
dolls, and it’s a nice metaphor for the way playwright Groff keeps
peeling away layers to get closer to the truth”—Rick Pender, City Beat
(Cincinnati)
“Insightful… Compelling characters, a meaningful script and the
successful combination of the spectacle of illusion with the narrative
arts.”—Richard O. Jones, Journal News
THE FIVE HYSTERICAL GIRLS
THEOREM
Two-act Comedy/ 120 minutes
Flexible Set
20 characters total (5HG has been performed with 11M, 7W although other
options with double-casting and gender-blind casting are possible).
This twenty character extravaganza of thought and emotion tells the
story of Moses Vazsonyi, a renowned number theorist who at 47 already
fears that he has lost his edge in the intellectually grueling world of
prime number theory. In the winter of 1911 he brings his wife Vera and
his three daughters to the Hotel Hilbert, a seaside resort in England,
where a gaggle of his illustrious colleagues from all over the world
(some invited, others crashing) have gathered for a conference. As Moses
struggles to complete his latest work, investigating a special class of
prime numbers which he has knighted “The Hysterical Girls,” he brushes
up against his legacy and his failings, his genius and his blindness,
his desires and his will. With highly fanciful stylized language and
dizzingly intertwining storylines of deception, love, theater-making,
sex, family affairs, professional competition, and, above all, Math, The
Five Hysterical Girls Theorem paints a bright canvas on which the heart
and the intellect collide.
Commissioned and premiered by
Target Margin Theater, New York in 2000.
“Amazingly complex and layered.”—Constance Congdon, American Theater
“Breathtaking ambition and kaleidoscope style.”—Charles McNulty, The
Village Voice
INKY
Drama/ 85 minutes
1M, 3F (one of the F is a 9 year old girl)
Flexible Set
A love-starved Manhattan couple struggle to satisfy their childlike
desire to “have it all” during the high rolling, morally skewed 1980’s.
When Barbara and Greg take in Inky, a young Slavic nanny obsessed with
Muhammed Ali, to care for their nine-year-old daughter and infant son,
they are forced to face both their limitations and their potential for
change in this darkly comic story about the importance of fighting back.
Premiered by the Women’s Project,
New York in 2005. A previous version of the play was co-produced by Salt
Theater and Clubbed Thumb in 2000.
“Striking… Inky packs a punch.”—Gordon Cox, Newsday.
“Originality—it’s rare but you can experience the pleasurably sharp
intake of breath it brings by seeing Rinne Groff’s Inky… a neat little
noir comedy full of deft twists, acerbic quips, and a lunge at your
guts.”—Francine Russo, The Village Voice.
“Cheeky appeal… a revenge fantasy in which the humble prevail.”—The New
Yorker.
“Groff twists a realistic domestic framework into a revealing new
shape.”—Alisa Solomon, The Village Voice.
THE MOLIERE IMPROMTU
Translated and Adapted by Rinne Groff, Conceived by Christopher Bayes
Two-act Comedy/ 130 minutes
7M, 5F
Flexible Set
The place is Versailles; the time is 1665. The members of Moliere’s
Illustre Theatre gather to rehearse a new play commissioned by the King
for a performance this very night. Everything is fine except that the
script is in horrible shape, the straight man wants to leave the troupe
to work with tragedians, marital spats are ripping the company apart,
the intern is lobbying for a bigger part, and Mademoiselle Du Croisy can
never remember her lines. (A new translation/adaptation of three short
plays by Moliere.)
Premiered by Trinity Rep in 2004.
“Irreverent, cheeky, utterly over-the-top” – James A. Merolla, The Sun
Chronicle
“[The Moliere Impromptu] satirizes as its sashays, slyly infusing
pop-culture references even as it honors Moliere’s 17th-century
playwriting achievements…it crackles with entertainment and
energy…”—Gina Perille, Boston Globe
“Totally delightful, superbly executed and terribly clever…Low Comedy,
pure and simple…enchanting horseplay!”—Carl Rossi, TheaterMirror.com
“A medley of farce and feeling that’s pretty sweet.”—Bill Rodriguez, The
Phoenix
PRACTICING
Drama/ 85 minutes
2M, 1F
Flexible Set
Much to the dismay of his older, cooler brother, a young boy teaches
himself to levitate in the parking lot outside a baseball field while
the two wait to be picked up by their harried single mom.
Presented at Soho Rep, New York in
1999.
THE ELEVATOR
Drama/ 85 minutes
10M, 8F
Flexible Set
On an impossibly clear blue September day in 2001, the over-worked
security guard at the entrance to a magical elevator is forced to make
choices, according to an increasingly random set of rules, about who
does or doesn’t get to, or have to, take the long ride up.
Commissioned by Brave New World,
New York in 2002.