Sarah Scarborough
Sarah Scarborough
“All life is theatre,” he said. “We are all actors, you and I, in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves….” He laughed gently. “Some players would say that is the best kind of theatre there can be.”
– Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
I CONSIDER MYSELF A STORYTELLER OF ALL MEDIUMS.
My theatrical career has spanned 13 cities, six states and two continents over the past two decades, including two shows as a performer in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I already hold a B. A in English and Theatre (concentrations in Acting/ Directing and Scenic Design) from Anderson University, and an M.F.A. in Scenic Design from the university of Missouri-Kansas City, and I am currently studying for my second M.F.A in Shakespeare & Performance at Mary Baldwin University. My work as a performer and designer has been seen regionally in the United States at such companies as Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project, Summit Performance, Minnetrista Theatre Preserves and the Shawnee Summer Theatre of Greene County (Indiana); the Coterie Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO); and the Lied Center for Performing Arts (Lincoln, NE). I have previously taught or co-taught Design & Technology, Painting, Production, Script Analysis and New Play Workshop at the university level at Hollins University (VA) and Earlham College (IN).
As a performer, I am interested in exploring the mythic and universal through the specific and immediate.
How can this single story we experience together in this moment resonate with both our pasts and ripple through our futures?
This is pushing me as an artist to explore specific avenues where I and/ or the people I am sharing the experience of storytelling with have more control over the kind of stories we want to experience and share now because they are resonating now. This sometimes looks like devised theatre or new works (including a handful of plays I am writing, ones I have been in through a workshopping process or served as primary editor for), or recontextualizing classic or cannon pieces, but it also looks like developing new storylines and campaigns for table top roleplaying games (particularly those that are adapted from or are a reimagining of existing works, worlds or circumstances.
I consider myself a “storyteller of all mediums.”
My theatrical career has spanned 13 cities, six states and two continents over the past two decades, including two shows as a performer in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I am a classically trained actor with my M.F.A. in Shakespeare & Performance from Mary Baldwin University (as part of the 2023-2024 MFA cohort’s company, Meadowlark Shakespeare Players), as well as holding a B.A. in English and Theatre (concentrations in Acting/Directing and Scenic Design) from Anderson University and an M.F.A in Scenic Design from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. My work as a performer has been seen regionally in the United States at companies such as Endstation Theatre Company (Virginia) Dragon Productions (California), Silverline Theatre Exchange (Virginia), The Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project, Minnetrista Theatre Preserves and The Shawnee Summer Theatre of Greene County (Indiana). I have previously taught or co-taught Design & Technology, Painting, Production, Script Analysis and New Play Workshop at the university level at Hollins University and Earlham College.
I consider myself a “storyteller of all mediums.”
My theatrical career has spanned 13 cities, six states and two continents over the past fifteen years, including two shows as a performer in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I already hold a B.A. in English and Theatre (concentrations in Acting/Directing and Scenic Design) from Anderson University and an M.F.A in Scenic Design from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and I am currently studying for my second M.F.A. in Shakespeare & Performance at Mary Baldwin University. My work as a performer and designer has been seen regionally in the United States at companies such as The Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project, Summit Performance, Minnetrista Theatre Preserves and The Shawnee Summer Theatre of Greene County (Indiana); The Coterie Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and The Lied Center for Performing Arts (Lincoln, NE). I have previously taught or co-taught Design & Technology, Painting, Production, Script Analysis and New Play Workshop at the university level at Hollins University and Earlham College.
How can this single story we experience together in this moment resonate with both our pasts and ripple through our futures?
This is pushing me as an artist to explore specific avenues where I and/or the people I am sharing the experience of storytelling with have more control over the kind of stories we want to experience and share now because they are resonating now. This sometimes looks liked devised theatre or new works (including a handful of plays I am writing, ones I have been in through a workshopping process or have served as primary editor for), or recontextualizing classic or canon pieces, but it also looks like developing new storylines and campaigns for table top roleplaying games (particularly those that are adapted from or are a reimagining of existing works, worlds or circumstances).
As a performer, I am interested in exploring the mythic and universal through the specific and immediate.
How can this single story we experience together in this moment resonate with both our pasts and ripple through our futures?
This is pushing me as an artist to explore specific avenues where I and/or the people I am sharing the experience of storytelling with have more control over the kind of stories we want to experience and share now because they are resonating now. This sometimes looks liked devised theatre or new works (including a handful of plays I am writing, ones I have been in through a workshopping process or have served as primary editor for), or recontextualizing classic or canon pieces, but it also looks like developing new storylines and campaigns for table top roleplaying games (particularly those that are adapted from or are a reimagining of existing works, worlds or circumstances).
As a performer, I am interested in exploring the mythic and universal through the specific and immediate.
Recent Projects: Acting:
- Simulated Patient at Belmont Medical School
- Endstation Theatre Company (Lynchburg, VA)
- Understudy for Captain/Fabian, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (performed Captain/Fabian track)
- Beth in Good Birth by Patrick Earl
- Maggie in Dry Bones by Jim McManus
- Meadowlark Shakespeare Players (Mary Baldwin Shakespeare & Performance MFA Company, Staunton, VA)
- Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
- Norfolk, Griffith, Surrey (+ 8 other characters!) in our small scale production of William Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s Henry VIII or All is True
- Understudy/Swing for Devlin Ford’s TYA adaptation of A Winter’s Tale
- Lady Pompiona in The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Francis Beaumont
- Hecate in The Witch by Thomas Middleton
Current Projects: Acting:
- Women+ Theatre Festival (Baltimore, MD)
- Patricia in Sing It Out Loud by Marj O’Niell-Butler
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Dragons Eggs Development Readings for Dragon Production Company
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Lau in A Tragedy of Owls by John Mabey
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Patricia in Sing it Out Loud by Marj O’Neill-Butler
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Language of Perfomance (REN 531): Mary Baldwin Spring 2022
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Thaliard/ Ensemble for Pericles
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Current Projects: Writing:
I, Beatrice (WIP)
What does a 33 year old woman in 2022 have in common with Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing? More than you might think. This one woman show explores heartbreak, dating when you’re not in your 20s, love and loss and how we use our words to make our worlds, and what it feels like in the moments our words won’t work for us anymore.
Iphigenia Against the Afterlife (WIP)
What would happen if Iphigenia wakes up in the Underworld after being sacrificed to get the ships to Troy only to be told by Hades she isn’t technically dead yet? With a vow to “kill every man whose life has made [her] death”, Iphigenia walks back and forth through her timeline and the era at the end of the Trojan War, discovering just exactly what it takes to remember someone after they are gone.
Dear Mr. Lewis (WIP)
When C.S. Lewis arrives home from a lecture series and receives a telegram signed ‘Susan Pevensie’, he chocks it up to a joke from a fan – that is, until the newly orphaned Daughter of Eve and Queen of Narnia shows up on his doorstep with her belongings in tow, demanding recompense and to know which room is hers until they reach an agreement. As their lives are thrown together, both writer and character learn about love, grief, and what it means to live fully on this side of the veil.
Colonel Anne (WIP)
What is a Scots lady in the 1600s to do when her husband is captain of the Black Watch but she herself is in support of the Jacobite Rebellion? Whose orders do you take – your husband, the church, your king? For Anne Faquharson Mackintosh, the choice was neither simple nor easy. But, in true Scottish spirit, her choice was her own. This one woman show follows her escapades against the English, hosting and helping Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the loving and respectful relationship she shared with her husband even though they were on different sides in this fight.
Current Projects: Writing:
I, Beatrice (WIP)
What does a 30-something year old woman in the 2020s have in common with Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing? More than you might think. This one woman show explores heartbreak, dating when you’re not in your 20s, love and loss and how we use our words to make our worlds, and what it feels like in the moments our words won’t work for us anymore.
Iphigenia Against the Afterlife (WIP)
What would happen if Iphigenia woke up in the Underworld after being sacrificed to get the ships to Troy only to be told by Hades she isn’t technically dead yet? With a vow to “kill every man whose life has made [her] death”, Iphigenia walks back and forth through her timeline and the era at the end of the Trojan War, discovering just exactly what it takes to remember someone after they are gone.
Dear Mr. Lewis (WIP)
When C.S. Lewis arrives home from a lecture series and receives a telegram signed ‘Susan Pevensie’, he chocks it up to a joke from a fan – that is, until the newly orphaned Daughter of Eve and Queen of Narnia shows up on his doorstep with her belongings in tow, demanding recompense and to know which room is hers until they reach an agreement. As their lives are thrown together, both writer and character learn about love, grief, and what it means to live fully on this side of the veil.
Colonel Anne (WIP)
What is a Scots lady in the 1600s to do when her husband is captain of the Black Watch but she herself is in support of the Jacobite Rebellion? Whose orders do you take – your husband, the church, your king? For Anne Faquharson Mackintosh, the choice was neither simple nor easy. But, in true Scottish spirit, her choice was her own. This one woman show follows her escapades against the English, hosting and helping Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the loving and respectful relationship she shared with her husband even though they were on different sides in this fight.