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]
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]
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 Acting Conservatory 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 Theatre Company; 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]
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]
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]
| 1985 | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Resident Production | ||
| My Sister in This House, The Studio Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 1989 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Production | ||
| Baby With the Bathwater, Round House Theatre | Award Recipient | ||
| 1990 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Production | ||
| Dead Monkey, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination | ||
| 1990 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Production | ||
| Briar Patch, Arena Stage | Nomination | ||
| 1992 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Production | ||
| When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout, The Studio Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 1993 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Elektra, Round House Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 1994 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Criminals in Love, Round House Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 1996 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Musical | ||
| Wanted, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination | ||
| 1996 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Escape from Happiness, Round House Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 1998 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Sylvia, The Studio Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 2000 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Dead Monkey, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination | ||
| 2000 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play | ||
| How I Learned to Drive, Arena Stage | Nomination | ||
| 2001 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Betty's Summer Vacation, The Studio Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 2006 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play | ||
| The Clean House, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination | ||
| 2008 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play | ||
| As You Like It, Folger Theatre | Nomination | ||
| 2009 | Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Boom, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination (award not yet announced) | ||
| 2009 | Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play | ||
| Maria/Stuart, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Nomination (award not yet announced) |