Ruth Wolff

Ruth Wolff is a playwright whose plays have been seen around the world in many languages.  Her play THE ABDICATION premiered at the Theatre Royal Bath, produced by the Bristol Old Vic. Wolff wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros film of THE ABDICATION which starred Liv Ullmann and Peter Finch.  Her play SARAH IN AMERICA, about Sarah Bernhardt’s American tours, premiered at the Kennedy Center starring Lilli Palmer, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann.  Wolff wrote the screenplay for a film about Bernhardt’s early life, THE INCREDIBLE SARAH, which starred Glenda Jackson. Her play EMPRESS OF CHINA premiered in New York at the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre starring Tina Chen.  THE SECOND MRS WILSON premiered at the Barter Theater. JOSHUA SLOCUM SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD premiered at the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theatre.  AVIATORS premiered at the New Jersey Repertory Theater. Among her recent plays and readings are: STAGELIFE (New Jersey Repertory Theatre), LIFELINES, THE OUTLIERS (Urban Stages), THE SEVEN AGES OF DD (League of Professional Theatre Women) and A NIGHT OF STORM AND DANGER (Coffee House Club).​ Nineteen of her plays are collected in two volumes published by Broadway Play Publishing: NOTABLE WOMEN – AND A FEW EQUALLY NOTABLE MEN and FROM FAUSTIANA TO THE FALL OF ATHENS.

A native of Massachusetts who now lives in New York, Wolff was educated at Smith College and the Yale University School of Drama.  Her husband, architect Martin Bloom (d.2017), is the author of ACCOMMODATING THE LIVELY ARTS, An Architect’s View, the highly acclaimed book about the design of spaces for performance.

Martin Bloom

Martin Bloom (1927-2017), architect and urban designer, maintained an independent practice in New York City specializing in cultural projects – with emphasis on facilities for the performing arts.  Among other projects, he designed the Theater in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, the Midtown Theater Museum for the Museum of the City of New York, the Penguin Repertory Theatre in Stony Point, NY and other spaces for performance. His highly acclaimed book, ACCOMMODATING THE LIVELY ARTS, dedicated to analyzing and creating spaces for the performing arts, has been praised for its unusual insight into the challenges of theatrical presentation. In his book ACCOMMODATING LIFE he “points the way toward a new ‘modern’ architecture, an architecture that enhances existence, an architecture that, encompassing both use and beauty, accommodates and enhances life.” His essays and articles have been published in The Journal of the American Institute of Architects and its successor, Architect.

Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Bloom graduated from Tufts University and received a Master in Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  After attending the École des Beaux Arts at Fontainebleau (where he later taught), he worked in Paris, Boston and Cambridge before moving to New York.  He was married to Ruth Wolff, playwright and screenwriter.  Their son, Evan T. Bloom, is Director of Ocean and Polar Affairs at the United States State Department.