SARAH
CUNEO
actress, aerialist, playwright, director
ABOUT SARAH
I'm a born-and-raised Jersey girl who fell in love with theater at an early age – one of my earliest memories is seeing the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and getting upset when I wasn’t allowed to get up on stage to dance with the Rockettes. After graduating from Princeton University with a major in Psychology and certificates in Neuroscience and Theater, I moved to Cleveland, Ohio to pursue my MFA at the Tony Award-winning Cleveland Play House in the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program.
I now work as a theater maker, aerialist, and educator who is passionate about collaboration. My work plays with juxtaposition: modernity and antiquity,
language and movement, realism and magic. I believe in creating theater that is inherently theatrical; I want to tell stories in a way that necessitates the stage. Above all, I believe in storytelling as a powerful tool to combat alienation and foster human connection.
Upcoming projects
"Therapy Won't Kill You", the comedic short film I acted in this March, is now in post-production. Keep an eye out for festival news!
I also voice acted in "Stoned For Christmas", an animated short film that will premiere in winter of 2023.
I'm finishing up my current playwriting project, "Antistrophe". The play tells the story of Jane, who, in the wake of dropping the charges in her sexual assault case, begins to have visions of the Greek prophet Cassandra.
Recent projects
"The Golden Age of Content", a short film that I acted in, co-wrote, and co-directed, recently made the festival rounds. We were a featured selection at numerous 2022 film festivals, including the Chelsea Film Festival, The Chain Film Festival, and YoFiFest. We also won best cast at the Gallatin Film Awards and Best Ensemble at the BAAD Awards!
I directed & dramaturged "Food Service", a solo show by Bella Florence performed at United Solo in March 2023.
I co-directed "She Said, She Said", a new play by Megan Medley. We first presented the play as a staged reading at Playwrights Downtown, and then mounted it as a fully staged premiere production at the Chain Theater.
"If you want to experience a beautifully written show about a woman's fight for freedom and dignity performed by one of the finest actresses in the festival, come see Sarah Cuneo—who, to
my eye, is a star in the making.
-Hy Bender Reviews
SELECTED REVIEWS
For Eulalia: A Bedtime Story at FringeNYC:
"What makes this show truly special are writer/actress Sarah Cuneo's smart, thoughtful choices for her script, and her sensitive, passionate, graceful performance...if you want to experience a beautifully written show about a woman's fight for freedom and dignity performed by one of the finest actresses in the festival, come see Sarah Cuneo—who, to my eye, is a star in the making."
-Hy Bender, HyReviews.com
"'Eulalia: A Bedtime Story' is an insightful and emotional performance by Sarah Cuneo.... Ms. Cuneo beautifully showed us how the Princess of Spain came to terms with herself, realizing she 'is not merely royalty, she is Eulalia.'...Ms. Cuneo gave a vulnerable and strong performance...Her reimagining of Eulalia’s life was charming and bewitching."
-Mehr Gunawardena, All About Solo
"A fascinating look at how Princess Eulalia of Spain must break out of her social roles to become a writer...Because of its foundational concern with Princess Eulalia as a public intellectual, Eulalia takes on additional resonance against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement...Cuneo's inspirational account reminds us just how relevant the past can be, both now and in the future."
-Jacob Goldbas, Theatre Is Easy
For The Real Inspector Hound:
"Mrs. Drudge (Sarah Cuneo), the Muldoon Maid, is the comic center. In a scene so funny that it had her fellow actors suppressing laughter, Mrs. Drudge circumambulates the parlor with tea, then milk, then sugar, then biscuits, pausing at each Muldoonian in turn.”
For A Catered Affair:
"...her ability to deliver laughs is unquestionable. One scene has her as the weird and naïve Lisa Loeb-looking bridesmaid who tries to score a late-night rendezvous with a good-looking stranger. In another, she plays a cute waitress who wants to provide more than dinner. Like her cast mates, Cuneo’s ability to play diverse characters allows the performance to make the most of a group of actors and limited set."
For The Diary of Anne Frank:
"As Anne's meek and nearly invisible sister, Margot, Sarah Cuneo bestows on her a quiet integrity that keeps her always present."
"The ensemble is lovely...Lise Bruneau and Sarah Cuneo make the most of their parts."
For Macbeth:
"Kyle Cherry, Sarah Cuneo and Peter Hargrave are downright disturbing as the three witches...their crazed expressions, manic movements and demented voices are horrifying."
For Clybourne Park:
"Delivering a heightened take on a ’50s housewife, Sarah Cuneo brilliantly satirizes the stereotypical decorum for a white woman of the time period.”
For Wait Until Dark:
"Sarah Cuneo, in the central role as Susy, projects both beauty and strength, vulnerability, and an intrepid spirit, as she gradually realizes she is being conned, then struggles to concoct and carry out her plan to outwit her ruthless adversaries. Believable throughout as the blind woman trapped and terrorized, Ms. Cuneo displays a wide range of emotions and readily wins the audience’s sympathies.”
For Rock N Roll:
"Sarah Paton as his dying wife Eleanor, a classics professor, and Sarah Cuneo as his daughter Esme, a teenager in act one, then the key character in the play’s resolution in act two, are both excellent — appealing, impassioned, and articulate in voicing their needs and desires."
GALLERY
