Sarah Brown

Professor – Performance – Acting III, Solo Performance, Mask Performance, Playwriting, Acting for TV and Film

Phone 901-848-3137
Email sbrown8@memphis.edu
Fax (901) 678-1350
3745 Central Ave., Theatre, Room #131
Office Hours by appointment

 

About Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown, an MFA graduate of the Yale School of Drama, is an actor, published playwright, international director/ devisor, solo performer and three-time Fulbright scholar. Having grown up in a theatre family, Sarah has been a long-time member of Actors' Equity and Screen Actors Guild and has appeared in New York and regional theater, as well as in film and television since she was seven years old. She has authored two plays with music that have been published by Samuel French, Inc. (now called Concord Theatricals), which have enjoyed productions throughout the regional United States and Canada. Her plays, published and unpublished, have been performed or work-shopped in New York at the NY Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, the American Place Theatre, the American Jewish Theatre and the Miranda Theatre Company, among others. One of her plays, a satire about artistic censorship during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st, was produced in London at Theatre 503 by the Practicum Theatre Company. 
 
As a creator of solo shows, Sarah has performed her work internationally in cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel; Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland and São Paulo, Brazil. She has also performed her solo work at regional venues such as the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX, the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles and the New Ohio Theatre in New York City.

Sarah received a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel to teach Solo Performance and Commedia dell 'Arte at the University of Haifa, during which time she expanded her creative borders from traditional theatre-making to creating and directing groundbreaking site-specific shows for international theatre festivals. Her site-specific work has been seen in Jerusalem and Bat Yam, Israel; Sibiu, Romania and Izmir, Turkey. 

In Turkey she was engaged for seven weeks creating and directing a site-specific show with twenty-six performers called Angels of the Chimney, which performed outdoors in the giant expanse of a 150-year-old coal gas factory in the city of Izmir. The show was celebrated as the first site-specific show in Turkey's history. It was also the first show in Turkey to use giant puppets engaged with actors to perform a story around an itinerant audience, which averaged 3000 people a night. 

Sarah went on to receive two more consecutive 9-month Fulbright Scholarships to Romania where she wrote and directed A Secret About Joy, a site-specific play that was performed in a 125-year-old, nearly abandoned Grand Synagogue. This play was unique in that it brought to life Sibiu, Romania's long lost Jewish community - reviving a beautiful synagogue that, like many in Eastern Europe, have fallen into disrepair. Twenty-seven performers, all local professional Romanian actors and master's students, none of whom were Jewish, lovingly portrayed Sibiu's 1927 Jewish community, as imagined by the playwright. The play was performed for international audiences for two years in a row at Sibiu's acclaimed international theatre festival. VIP Attendees included David Saranga, the Israeli Ambassador to Romania at the time and Carmen Iohannis, Romania's First Lady.  

During Sarah's second Fulbright in Romania, she wrote a play with music called Heart of a Cabinetmaker, about Romania's important Transylvania Saxon minority. Cabinetmaker tells the story of a 14th century dyslexic craftsman with a poetic soul who learns to live his life authentically even when being pressured from all sides to conform. The music within the play, written by Sarah Brown and Brita Falch Leutert, was sung by Sibiu's prestigious Bach Choir. Performances continued for two years at its immersive venue: the landmark 14th century Evangelical Parish Cathedral of Saint Mary.

Sarah Brown teaches workshops on solo performance and mask performance at universities, theatre companies and performing arts festivals all over the world. Her solo show laboratories engage student-artists on a visceral and dynamic level, freeing them to discover the stories they want to tell. Her mask intensives draw from the Lecoq progression but emphasize body energy, character creation and the riches of collaborative play over rigid technique. Whether her workshops are 14 days or 90 minutes-long the artists draw from their layered process and present their resulting creations. 
 
Sarah's late mother, Patricia Brown, was a theater director and actor who was the founding director of Theatre Communications Group, the executive artistic director of the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, and a winner of the Burns Mantle Award for her production of Alan Ayckbourn's Seasons Greetings in the late 80s on Broadway at the Joyce Theatre in New York. 

Education 

BA Theatre, 1987 Brown University 
MFA Acting, 1994 Yale School of Drama, Yale University 

Admitted

International Association of Theatre Leaders 

Actor's Equity Association 
Screen Actors Guild - AFTRA 

Dramatists Guild of America 

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers 

Honors and Awards 

Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Creative Arts – University of Memphis, 2025 

Fulbright Scholarship: Romania – Awarded by the U.S. Department of State, 2022–2023 

Fulbright Scholarship: Romania – Awarded by the U.S. Department of State, 2021–2022 

Fulbright Scholarship: Israel – Awarded by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Israel Education Foundation, 2010-2011 

Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Creative Arts - University of Memphis, 2016 

Dean’s Creative Achievement Award - College of Communication and Fine Arts, University of Memphis, 2015 

Faculty Research Grant - University of Memphis, 2009 

International and Regional Creative Activities 

Playwriting / Acting / Directing 

Romania: Heart of a Carpenter – written and directed, site-specific play on Transylvanian Saxon craft guilds for the German ensemble of the Radu Stanca National Theatre; International Theatre Festival of Sibiu, 2023 and 2024. 

Romania: A Secret About Joy – written and directed, site-specific play with professional actors and master’s students in Sibiu’s 123-year-old synagogue; International Theatre Festival of Sibiu, 2021 and 2022. 

Turkey: Mask performance – devised and directed through a 5-day workshop with local theatre artists; Izmir’s 13th International Puppet Festival (Kukla Günleri), 2019. 

Brazil: Shooting Stars in Jordan (solo show) – performed at Teatro Gazeta (700-seat venue) on Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, as part of United Nations International Women’s Day events, 2017. 

Israel: Fleet of Golems – co-directed and devised, giant puppet performance; Bat Yam International Street Theatre Festival, 2015. 

Turkey: Angels of the Chimney – co-directed and co-devised, first site-specific giant puppet show in Turkey, staged on the grounds of a 150-year-old coal gas factory for audiences of 3,000 nightly; Izmir’s 8th International Puppet Festival (Kukla Günleri), 2014. 

Israel: Citadel of Golems – directed, 360° site-specific giant puppet performance in Jerusalem’s Talpiot industrial zone with audience interaction; 2013. 

USA (NYC): Shooting Stars in Jordan (formerly Bloodshed, Miracles, Deliverance, Good Food) – performed at New Ohio Theatre, New York International Fringe Festival; Karen Carpenter, director, 2012. 

Israel: Bloodshed, Miracles, Deliverance, Good Food (solo show) – performed at Theatre HaSimta, Teatronetto Festival, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 2011; University of Haifa by invitation, 2011; Fulbright banquet for U.S. Embassy in Israel, 2011. 

 

International Workshops / Lectures

Romania: Presented lecture The Magic and Relevance of Site-Specific Theatre, West University of Timișoara, 2023. 

Turkey: Taught two-week professional mask workshop, Kadıköy Boa Sahne, Istanbul, 2020. 

Turkey: Taught two-week mask workshop, Doğuş University, Istanbul, 2019. 

Turkey: Taught 5-day mask workshop, Izmir’s 13th International Puppet Festival (Kukla Günleri), 2019. 

Brazil: Taught workshops in Women’s Empowerment through Solo Performance writing at three institutions in São Paulo as part of United Nations International Women’s Day events, 2017. 

Israel: Taught / Directed Arab and Jewish Youth Theatre School (Duck Theatre), Jerusalem; co-created original plays performed locally and nationally, 2012–2014. 

Israel: Taught Stanislavski/Chekhov scene study (in Hebrew), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013. 

Israel: Taught Commedia workshop for medical clowns, University of Haifa, 2013. 

Israel: Taught Solo Performance and Commedia workshops, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2011 and 2012. 

Israel: Taught Solo Performance workshop, Tel Aviv University, 2011. 

Israel: Taught acting workshops for Haifa Theatre Young Company, 2010. 

 

University and Regional Creative Activities 

Played Lettice Douffet in Peter Shaffer’s Lettice & Lovage at New Moon Theatre, Memphis, Spring ‘16 

Played Sonya in Christopher Durang’s Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike at Playhouse on the Square, Memphis, Spring ‘15 

Played Mathilde von Zahnd in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicist in the University of Memphis theatre season, Fall ‘14  

Played Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever in the University of Memphis theatre season, Spring ‘10 

Played Pheobe Omlie, aviation pioneer, in the University of Memphis’s Center for Research on Women’s presentation, Great Tennessee Women, Spring ‘10 

Performed in and Directed my published play, The Winning Number, at Burlington, Vermont’s Off-Center for the Performing Arts at the Off-Center Switch On Grand Opening Theatre Festival, Sum ‘10 

Directed my published, King of the Pekinese Yellowtail with student actors in the University of Memphis’s Lab Theatre, Spring ‘09 

Wrote/ Directed staged reading of Driving Around in Troikas (adapted from a Chekhov short story, Big Volodya, Little Volodya) as part of the New Play series in the University of Memphis’s ’07-’08 theatre season 

Performed solo show, Miss Bishop, at Dekalb School of the Arts Fringe Festival, Atlanta, GA, Spring ‘09