Ruth Margraff

Playwright and performer Ruth Margraff has toured extensively with her Café Antarsia Ensemble and other writings throughout the USA, UK, Canada, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Sweden, Japan, Egypt and India.  Her collaborative play Seven with seven female playwrights about seven female world leaders from Vital Voices was introduced by Hillary Clinton at Tina Brown's Daily Beast summit at the Hudson Theater this Spring starring Meryl Streep. She wrote the libretti for composer Fred Ho's trilogy of martial arts operas Voice of the Dragon presented at BAM’s Next Wave Festival and by 33 Performing Art Centers nationwide; they collaborated first on Ruth’s Night Vision: A Third to First World Vampyre Opera.  Her writing has been developed and produced at numerous NYC venues including the Apollo Theatre, Guggenheim Museum, HERE Arts Center, Cooper Union, Lincoln Center, the New Group and the Kitchen; and nationally at Actors Theatre of Louisville; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Red Eye, Frank/Walker Art Center (MN); Salvage Vanguard, Rude Mechanicals, Granada, Club Dada (TX); Iowa Playwrights' Workshop (IA); Theater of Note, Bottom’s Dream, Overtone Industries (CA); Chicago Cultural Institute/Music Without Borders, Viaduct Theater, Prop Theater, Victory Gardens among others.  Ruth has been the recipient of numerous awards including four Rockefeller Foundation commissions, a McKnight National Commission & Residency, a Jerome Fellowship with the Playwrights’ Center, an NEA/TCG national playwriting residency, a Fulbright new opera award to Greece, several awards from TCG/ITI, Arts International, Trust for Mutual Understanding of New York, two NYSCA awards, and a CultureConnect envoy to Calcutta (India).  Ruth’s work is published by Dramatists Play Service, Kendall/Hunt, Backstage Books, Drama Review, Performing Arts Journal, American Theatre, Theater Forum, Playscripts, Inc., Applause Books, CUNY/Martin Segal Press, Dramatist, Johns Hopkins, Manchester, NuMuse Anthology/Brown, Conjunctions/Bard, Autonomedia, etc. Ruth is an alumnae of New Dramatists, member of League of Professional Theater Women, and co-leader of a Theatre Without Borders initiative with Brandeis University’s Slifka Coexistence International. Ruth has taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama, Brown University, University of Texas/Michener Center for Writers, University of Iowa, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, etc. Ruth is Associate Professor of Writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a resident playwright with Chicago Dramatists.