GUTHRIE THEATER PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
THE RUINS: A PLAY THROUGH MUSIC
BY GEORGE ABUD, DIRECTED BY OSH ASHRUF

The Guthrie reactivates the Dowling Studio with this poignant, music-filled production that explores universal and existential themes

Previews begin Friday, September 19; Opening on Sunday, September 21
Playing through Sunday, October 12

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) — The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, Artistic Director) today announced the cast and creative team for The Ruins: a play through music by acclaimed actor and playwright George Abud, directed by Tony Award-winning producer and artist Osh Ashruf. The show begins previews on Friday, September 19, opens on Sunday, September 21 and will play through Sunday, October 12 in the Dowling Studio. Single and group tickets are now on sale exclusively through the Box Office or online at guthrietheater.org. Accessibility services (ASL-interpreted, audio-described and open-captioned performances) are also available on select dates.

Artistic Director Joseph Haj said, “We’re thrilled to present the world premiere of George Abud’s moving new play The Ruins in the Dowling Studio. The studio is the perfect setting for exploring big questions together, and The Ruins does just that, wrestling with themes of mortality, meaning and connection in a way that feels both timely and timeless.” Haj continued, “Former Guthrie Artistic Director Liviu Ciulei once said that a community can be measured by the questions its theater asks. The Ruins asks profound questions about life and purpose, making it a powerful invitation for audiences to engage in meaningful dialogue at the Guthrie this fall.”

Director Osh Ashruf stated, “It is a dream to direct the world premiere of George Abud’s exquisite play The Ruins at the Guthrie. To present this work in the Dowling Studio feels symbolic and healing. Gazing through the Guthrie’s Amber Box out over the tree-lined Mississippi River, I am filled with wonder. The play mirrors the river’s current — fragile, beautiful, elusive — inviting us to pause (and, dare I say, laugh) while considering what really matters in this brief life.”

The cast of The Ruins: a play through music includes George Abud (Guthrie: debut) and Sydney Shepherd (Guthrie: debut).

The creative team includes George Abud (Playwright), Osh Ashruf (Director), You-Shin Chen (Scenic Designer), Abbie Kenyon (Costume Designer), Mextly Couzin (Lighting Designer), Peter Morrow (Sound Designer), Keely Wolter (Resident Vocal Coach), Jason Clusman (Stage Manager) and Caitlin Nasema Cassidy (Assistant Director).

In The Ruins, two master musicians meet in an empty space armed with only a cello, an oud and some old books of poetry. The strangers trade jabs and musical virtuosity until they’re stunned to learn that in a few days, they’ll both be dead. Faced with their untimely end, they become obsessed with a question: Were their lives enough? Over the course of eight movements of blistering music and tender verse, they struggle to find an answer before time runs out.

The Ruins marks George Abud’s professional playwriting debut. Written in 2020, the play was further developed in collaboration with Osh Ashruf through a workshop at El Barrio’s Artspace PS109 (Rolinda Ramos, Director of Operations and Programming) in New York City and a residency at New York Stage and Film (Christopher Burney, Artistic Director), both in 2022. Inspired by Abud’s pandemic-era reflections on life and death, it is structured around emotional sections in the iconic Arabic song “Al Atlal,” famously performed by Egyptian artist Umm Kulthum. Music becomes a vital language in the play — he plays the oud, she plays the cello — and each instrument echoes the characters’ emotional journeys. “I’ve always been fascinated by death,” said Abud. “I started writing this play during COVID-19, asking myself: Can you die tomorrow and still prove you lived a full life?”

Biographies

George Abud (Playwright/Actor) is an artist whose lifework spans the disciplines of acting, writing, music and directing. The Ruins marks his professional debut as a playwright. As with The Ruins, Abud’s other plays Of Soaring and Solitude and A Day focus primarily on human stories distilled to their essence, where individuals question life’s meaning in the small and unconsidered. His first volume of poetry and aphorisms, A Day and Its Night, will be released this fall through Cogrounded Publishing. As an actor, Abud features in the new Darren Aronofsky film Caught Stealing starring Austin Butler, Regina King and Zoë Kravitz. On Broadway, Abud starred in the new musical Lempicka and originated roles in The Band’s Visit starring Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub, receiving a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the show’s NBC Today performance, and Kander and Ebb’s final musical The Visit starring Chita Rivera and Roger Rees. Off-Broadway, Abud starred as Nerd Face in the new musical Emojiland, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, and many other productions, including The Beautiful Lady directed by Anne Bogart at La MaMa; Cornelia Street opposite Norbert Leo Butz at Atlantic Theater Company; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui opposite Raúl Esparza; and Nathan the Wise opposite F. Murray Abraham. He recently starred as Richard Nixon in Joe Iconis’ The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical at La Jolla Playhouse and Signature Theatre (Washington, D.C.), winning, for the prior, the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical. Descending from four generations of Lebanese oud players, Abud has been a frequent soloist at the United Nations as well as the first individual to play the oud for the late legendary composer Stephen Sondheim. In January 2026, Abud is set to adapt and direct a new Off-Broadway production of Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera through Off-Brand Opera in New York City. Abud’s artistry stems from his deep connection to his Arab heritage, which he wishes to explore and offer to audiences everywhere he goes.

Osh Ashruf (Director) is a Drama League and Tony Award-winning producer, director and filmmaker. He produced Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop and the 2023 Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along. As a director, Ashruf has helmed The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, Greg T. Nanni’s Love (Among Dreamers) with Broadway For All’s The House and will soon debut his first film, Driver Found. He is a co-creator of the Drama League Award-nominated interactive game show play American Dreams and has acted in The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater), My Friend Will (Tribeca TV Festival) and the film All We Had, directed by and starring Katie Holmes. As Creative Producer, he has worked on Guggenheim Fellow César Alvarez’ musical NOISE (a musical), directed by Sarah Benson and is currently working on Isabel Monk Cade’s My Way, a solo-show extravaganza about a serial morning-after pill-popper. A former Prince Fellow in Creative Producing at Columbia University and Presidential Fellow at Harvard, he holds degrees from Loyola University Chicago and an M.F.A. from Harvard University and the Moscow Art Theater. Before committing to a lifetime in the arts, he taught for five years in NYC public schools as a proud Teach for America alum. Ashruf is the founder of Broadway For All (BFA), the national arts training program which received a 2022 Tony Award Honors for Excellence in the Theatre. He is a TEDxBroadway speaker alum and currently sits on the National Board of Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit building affordable housing for artists and entrepreneurs nationwide.

Accessible Performances

ASL-Interpreted Performance 
American Sign Language interpreters sign the performance as it plays out onstage.

Saturday, October 4 at 1 p.m.

Audio-Described Performance
Audio describers provide live verbal descriptions of the action, costumes and scenery for people who are blind or have low vision.

Saturday, October 4 at 1 p.m.

Open-Captioned Performance
LED Screens display text simultaneously with the performance onstage.

Saturday, October 11 at 1 p.m.

The Guthrie also provides accessible services upon request. Requests must be received at least two weeks in advance and can be directed to 612.225.6390 or accessibility@guthrietheater.org.

Ticket Information

Single tickets range from $35 to $52 (handling fees included). Purchase single and group tickets (minimum requirement of 15 per group) exclusively through the Box Office at 612.377.2224 (single), 1.877.477.8243 (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group) or online at guthrietheater.org.

Land Acknowledgment

The Guthrie Theater would like to acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the Dakota People and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations, including the Ojibwe and other Indigenous nations.

The GUTHRIE THEATER (Joseph Haj, Artistic Director) is an American center for theater performance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, dedicated to producing a mix of classic and contemporary plays and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Under Haj’s leadership, the Guthrie is guided by four core values: Artistic Excellence; Community; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility; and Fiscal Responsibility. Since its founding in 1963, the theater has continued to set a national standard for excellence in the field and serve the people of Minnesota as a vital cultural resource. The Guthrie houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms and dramatic public spaces. guthrietheater.org