RED FROGS
(a burlesque mirror for the summer purgatorio)
"Edgy, confrontational…a seething chambermaid probes the resentments and psychosexual fantasies in the rituals of domination and submission that bind her to an unseen mistress. When an abrupt reversal of power, worthy of Jean Genet, puts her in charge, she mutates into an equally oppressive monster before contemplating the final leveler of human experience.”
– Los Angeles Times
“A joyful glee-ride through a landscape of contemporary culture blurred and distorted by tidal waves and the author's own wicked sense of humor...bursts with joie de vivre...a roller coaster of fun.” – American Theater Web

"Cherish good avant-garde theater, like Red Frogs at P.S. 122...brilliant ideas build on one another…and the stage and audience share an in-on-the-joke camaraderie...” – NewYorkTheater.Com

Published in the November, 2002 issue of American Theatre. http://static.highbeam.com/a/americantheatre/november012002/
redfrogsamericantheatreplayscriptplay/index.html
2002 Bolshoi Zol Moskva Contemporary American Series (Moscow, Russia);
2002 PS122/Hourglass Group New York premiere February 28 - March 24, 2002 dir. Elyse Singer (New York City); Commissioned by P.S.122 through the Jerome Foundation and NYSCA/Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Monologue excerpt "The Burlesque Flogging" was directed by Jim Martin with work by Erik Ehn and Mac Wellman at Bottomsdream for the 2001 Edge of the World Theater Festival to critical acclaim (Los Angeles). Workshopped by Bottom’s Dream Theater at the 2000 Common Ground Festival by Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater Projects, dir. Ian Belton in June, 2000 (Los Angeles). Reading at New York Theater Workshop and at the Gershwin Hotel by the Hourglass Group dir. Elyse Singer (New York); Reading dir. Beth Milles with Bottom’s Dream Theater, January 2001 (Los Angeles); Reading dir. Elyse Singer for Perishable Theater's 2002 Textplosion Reading Series January, 2002 (Providence).

THE ELEKTRA FUGUES
(a black box recording of classic disaster)
w/composer Graham Reynolds and Matthew Pierce
“The sheer beauty…of Ruth Margraff’s free-wheeling adaptation of the Electra legend about a family crashing and burning creates a hypnotic montage of words and literary images…Rhythm substitutes for tone, so there are no arias to speak of -- rather, soliloquies and overlapping rants – what the author aptly describes as “choral flotsam.” Sophocles’ play is about how the weight of vengeance destroys a family; Margraff’s is about pulling body parts from the wreckage…a discrepancy of style and power that would work against Margraff’s play were it about traditional storytelling and psychology. But it’s not. And it doesn’t.” – Los Angeles Weekly
“This cascading libretto...spinning emotional and scientific orbits...eloquently subtle symbiosis...Elektra's guttural ravings...of a cunning pattern -- but you can't put it down...more a series of theatrical events musically structured with little regard for stage convention...vocal endurance of a quintet of Diamanda Galases...words would form into motivic images sliding into unison...mesmerizing dynamic of rich material and uncanny...”-- Village Voice
Published by THE ELEKTRA FUGUES by Ruth Margraff in anthology Divine Fire: Eight Contemporary Playwrights Inspired by the Greeks from Backstage/Watson-Guptill Publications ISBN: 0-8230-8851-0 July 2005 Eight ground-breaking plays by the hottest contemporary writers in one affordable volume. Great for students and anyone who loves Greek drama or contemporary theater. http://www.watsonguptill.com or http://www.amazon.com
1999 Bottom’s Dream Theater Los Angeles premiere, dir. Jim Martin 2-3/99, L.A. Weekly "Pick of the Week" ; 1996 Tiny Mythic Theater commissioned premiere dir. Tim Maner, live 7-pc. chamber orchestra Originally scored by comp. Matthew Pierce for a 7-piece chamber orchestra for HERE’s OPERA PROJECT (1996) but produced as an a cappella play at Bottom’s Dream in Los Angeles (1999). Also developed by the Lincoln Center Library Reading Room Series dir. Liz Diamond.