DH
Daraja Hinds
  • Theatre - Acting
  • Class of 2016
  • Pawtucket, RI

URI Theatre student Daraja Hinds of Pawtucket featured in production of "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play"

2015 Nov 24

The audience responded with lots of laughter during the University of Rhode Island Theatre Department's production of "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play," by Sarah Ruhl. This fall production featured student Daraja Hinds of Pawtucket, R.I., as Elizabeth.

In this play, which hovers at the dawn of electricity, Dr. Givings, a scientist, happily embraces his invention with which he can cure the "hysteria" of his patients, who are primarily female. His wife, Mrs. Givings, a new mother, is consistently pulled toward the sounds emanating from the next room. With the innocent aid given her by the other characters -- a distraught female patient and her upright husband, a midwife assistant, an African-American wet nurse and a male artist, Mrs. Givings pursues the light that can infuse her marriage with loving intimacy and open the heavens to delight here on earth. Ruhl's comedy of manners was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play and selected as a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

The playwright and the University's production enlightened the community with its tender, hilarious and contemporary take on the universal desire to achieve intimacy with others. The play was staged this fall as part of the URI's Honors Colloquium on "The Power of Humor."