Sarah Marshall (American stage actress)

Sarah Marshall (born 1955) is a stage actress working primarily in the Washington, D.C. region. She has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Award seventeen times and won the award in 1989.^[1]

Early life and education

Marshall was born in Kansas, the fifth of eight children in a Catholic military family.^[2] During her childhood, she lived in several places in the South.^[2] Most of her family currently resides in the south.^[3]

As a child, Marshall and her siblings produced plays at their home.^[2] Marshall decided to become an actress in the seventh grade after winning a citywide monologue competition in Huntsville, Alabama.^[2] Playing the comedic role of the maid in her middle school's production of Junior Miss led her to focus on character acting.^[2] She acted throughout high school and college, graduating from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in theater.^[2]

Career beginnings

Marshall moved to Washington with the intent of attending graduate school at Catholic University or American University, but enrolled in classes at the Studio Theatre instead, working as a maid to support herself.^[2] During the 1980s, Marshall performed in nine Studio Theatre productions, including a 1983 role as Jo, a pregnant waif in Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, termed Marshall's "breakthrough performance" by friend and Studio Theatre Artistic Director Joy Zinoman.^[2][3] She also drew attention for her roles in Studio Theatre's Miss Margarida's Way and My Sister is in This House, for which she received her first Helen Hayes nomination.^[1][2]

Other productions in which she performed during that time included Briar Patch at Arena Stage; The Stick Wife at Horizons; The Vampires at Woolly Mammoth; and Baby with the Bathwater at Round House Theatre in 1989, for which she won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Resident Production.^[1][2] She joined the Woolly Mammoth acting company in 1989.^[2]

Recent performances

Marshall's recent productions include Dead Man's Cell Phone at Woolly Mammoth in 2007;^[4] Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis at Woolly Mammoth^[5] and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, featuring Marshall in the title role, at Studio Theatre in 2006;^[6] and Camille at Round House Theatre^[7] and The Clean House at Woolly Mammoth in 2005, for which she received her fourteenth Helen Hayes nomination.^[1][8]

Other activities

Marshall began teaching acting at Round House Theater in 1985.^[3] Since 1988, she has taught at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.^[2] She is also an adjunct drama instructor at Georgetown University.^[3] In her spare time, Marshall has dabbled in crafts such as drawing, metal work and pottery.^[3]

Helen Hayes Awards

References

1. 1 2 3 4 Helen Hayes Awards
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Richards, David. "Sarah Marshall, From Myth to 'Monkey'; The Wooley Mammoth Actress and Her Rise from Character to Star." The Washington Post, 1990-01-14, p. G1.
3. 1 2 3 4 5 Davis, Daryl. "Miss Marshall's Ways." Washington Theater Review, summer 2005, p. 44-49.
4. ↑ Marks, Peter. "'Dead Man's Cell Phone,' Answering Some Biggies." The Washington Post, 2007-06-18, p. C1.
5. ↑ Marks, Peter. "Mixed Nuts, All Shook Up; 'Chinese Elvis' a Lively Comedy of Canned Laughs." The Washington Post, 2006-11-14, p. C1.
6. ↑ Marks, Peter. "Studio's 'Jean Brodie': Niceness Doesn't Count." The Washington Post, 2006-03-14, p. C5.
7. ↑ Marks, Peter. "Robinson Bows In With a Powerful 'Camille'." The Washington Post, 2005-09-21, p. C12.
8. ↑ Marks, Peter. "'Clean House': A Lemon-Fresh Shine." The Washington Post, 2005-07-19, p. C1.