NASHVILLE: Nashville Repertory Theatre has announced that playwright Sarah Ruhl will join the Ingram New Works Project as the 2018-19 Ingram New Works Playwriting Fellow. Each season, Nashville Rep welcomes a cohort of emerging playwrights and one established playwright into its Ingram New Works Project.

“We’re delighted to bring Sarah to Nashville,” said artistic director René D. Copeland in a statement. “There is no question that she is a brilliant artist. Her voice is so unique; every play is like an invitation into a new universe. Sarah Ruhl is precisely the sort of playwright the Ingram New Works Project was created to support.”

Ruhl will work alongside the 2018-19 Ingram New Works Lab Playwrights: Lindsay Joelle, Dean Poynor, Riti Sachdeva, and R. Eric Thomas. Under the direction of Nashville Rep playwright-in-residence Nate Eppler, the five writers will develop a new play over the course of the season. The plays will be presented as part of the Ingram New Works Festival (May 8-18, 2019).

Ruhl is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her plays include Melancholy Play, Stage Kiss, For Peter Pen On Her 70th Birthday, and In the Next Room, Or the Vibrator Play, among others.

“Nashville knows exactly how important stories are, we’re a city of storytellers, and at this moment in time we desperately need them,” said Eppler in a statement. “Each year we bring in extraordinary artists with extraordinary stories to share and Riti, Lindsay, Eric, and Dean are no exception. Nashville Rep is lucky to have them in residence. By amplifying their voices, we enrich our own community.”

The Ingram New Works Project was established in 2009 with the support of co-founder Martha R. Ingram to provide an opportunity for playwrights to develop new works while in residency at Nashville Rep.