TORN LIKE A ROSE

…birds of the world argue with a dark angel, scattering through ashen valleys—looking for the sublime…

libretto, paintings, design: Ruth Margraff
direction: Gabriel Thom Pasculli  music: Graham Haynes with vocals by Haleh Abghari     
International Nišville Jazz Theatre Festival August 9-10, 2024 (Serbia) 
  
featuring:  Gabriel Thom Pasculli, Malia’Kekia Nicolini, Jeysa de la Caridad and Anirudh Nair

choreography: Malia’Kekia Nicolini                  
 live vocal arrangement: Jeysa de la Caridad
 inspired by Farid ud-Din Attar’s 12th century Conference of the Birds….
Libretto originally commissioned by Peggy Choy Dance Company for KumbleTheater (Brooklyn). 
Presented with Wender Collective and Opre Glasso! Special thanks to Chicago Dramatists, 
Peggy Myo-Young Choy, Jeysa Martinez, Chicago Dramatists, Logan Center (UChicago).
Paintings by Ruth Margraff

Afro Yaqui Music Collective’s debut album, Mirror Butterfly: the Migrant Liberation Movement Suite dramatizes years of interviews and movement building with environmental and ecosocialist activists in Mexico, Syria, Kurdistan, and Tanzania. 

A 25-piece postcolonial big band delivers three portrait arias, woven in what poetic playwright Ruth Margraff calls “vocal art,” all accompanied by martial arts Afro-Asian choreography (Peggy Myo-Young Choy). The result been hailed as a “praise-song to the wretched of the Earth.” (Marcus Rediker, author, The Slave Ship) The staged work has travelled both activist and performing arts spaces: it has been presented at the Kennedy Center in DC, at the Mesopotamian Water Forum in Iraq, at the New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh (where it was incubated) and now, is available in this album form--a global siren call for a new world where many worlds fit. 2018 released on Innova Records, New Hazlett Theater (Pittsburgh) Oct 11-12, 2018, the opera featured a 15-piece band jazz band, three choral singers, and 7 dancer-actors. It then went on to the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage November 23, 2018 (Washington DC); and has been developed by Nov 4, 2018 National Ensemble Theater conference plenary performance (Tucson); NPN showcase Dec 14-15, 2018 (Pittsburgh); at the 1st Mesopotamian Water Forum Apr 6-8, 2019 (Kurdistan, Iraq); and released on Innova Records at Red Rooster/Ginny's Supper Club (Harlem); on Aug 3, 2019. Excerpts featured on howlround, the New Sounds playlist, on 91.3 WYEP Aug 27, 2019 in partnership with the Yaqui Námakasia Radio, and at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem on October 3, 2019 as part of the Jazz and Social Justice salon. 

CHORA is a dialogue of poem objects. 

Created for a forthcoming artist book, Ruth Margraff started painting "poem objects" in antique frames from a neighbor's family tree. She found an exhaustion of fertility and labor in this biodegrading of an aspirational avant garde.  Some larger m/other (Apothecary) turns away to resume her own identity “as if there is no two, no I or you, no then or now." Subtext and soliloquy grow thick as paint. A ghastly figure (Ambergris) must refuse the madness of loving disaster. Time signatures split into “as if / alamkara neo-cubism.” Camouflage is “torn like a rose” from the debris of trauma. Songlines flash in skies previously blue. At this forbidden boudoir, chance arias perfume us with unbridled presence.  

Developed by 2026 Maryland State Council for the Arts public art roster including Opre Glasso! studiowork 2026-28 from TEMPTATION: CHORA at The Peale Museum Nov 7, 2024-Jan 19, 2025 (Baltimore);  SAIC Galleries Triennial Aug 31-Dec 3, 2022 in acrylic, resin, book-pressed wildflowers, Snowball/Niagara photos on acetate from Cry Pitch Carrolls, sequins, lock of hair with salt from a performance of Erendira, and stained glass scrap;   Commissioned by Here Arts Center co-video project (NYC), MASS MoCA studios Jan 4-17, 2023 and Southeastern Theatre Conference keynote, 2021. Performances created for the International Nišville Jazz Theatre Festival August 6-9 2017 (Serbia).  Rehearsed at Red Tape Theater/Art Institute Ballroom (Chicago), and presented in a concert version at Coe Marquis Series Sinclair Stage Mar 14-18, 2019 (Iowa)--tracks are being recorded at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago for release by MI Records.  

Text, vocals, art, installation and music by Ruth Margraff.  Special thanks to director Beth Milles, guitar: Ignatius Valentine Aloysius, violin: Beltran Del Campo, design consultant: Anka Lupes

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgLGOd5VZZM&t=710s  BAHAYA a new opera w/composer Richard Marriott Dec 7, 2024 Overtone Industries Original Vision Teatro Frida Kahlo (Los Angeles); Oct 1 and Mar 2, 2024 Night of Ideas Festival;  (San Francisco);

LOCKET ARIAS 

Libretto/Lyrics: Ruth Margraff

Composer: Phil Fried

Written originally as soliloquies for Kristin Marting's multimodal downtown COURTESAN waltz

and quadrille choreography, the LOCKET ARIAS were later composed by Phil Fried in an

immersive 1850s Rossini opera buffa style with a 19th century touch of the burlesque. Six

courtesans sing self-portrait arias to appraise the value, price and impact of pre-modern feminist

desire. Courtesans have long been stigmatized in terms of conventional family values. But they

gave freely to their partners and nations their special gifts, talents and assets that were used to

inspire cultural greatness, world-class art, wealth and social power.

~ SEVEN the play~has been performed in more than 30 countries, translated into 25 languages, touring 27 venues nationwide  with LA Theatre Works.  SEVEN is published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc. including Ruth's “Night Wind” a monologue for Farida Azizi for SEVEN the play cowritten with Anna Deavere Smith, Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack and Susan Yankowitz, | Documentary | Full Length | 7 women| Flexible Set| A collaboration of seven award-winning women playwrights, SEVENISBN: 978-0-8222-2351-1 ©2009
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE SEVEN 2019-2020 Tour October 12, 2019 David & Dorthea Garfield Theatre - Lawrence Family Jewish Comm. Center – La Jolla, CA October 16, 2019 Kenan Auditorium - University of North Carolina - Wilmington, NC October 18, 2019 Center for the Arts - George Mason University - Fairfax, VA October 19, 2019 K.S. Gross Aud. - Carver Hall - Bloomsburg University - Bloomsburg, PA October 22, 2019 Rudder Theatre - Texas A & M University - College Station, TX October 24, 2019 Theater at Raritan Valley Comm. College - Branchburg, NJ October 26-27, 2019 Queens Theatre - Flushing, NY October 30, 2019 Modlin Center - University of Richmond - Richmond, VA February 22, 2020 Knickerbocker Theater - Hope College - Holland, MI February 25, 2020 Hall Auditorium - Miami University of Ohio - Oxford, OH February 28-29, 2020 Miller Center for the Arts - Reading Area Community College - Reading, PA March 1, 2020 Rose Lehrman Arts Center – HACC – Harrisburg, PA March 3-4, 2020 Wright Memorial Theatre – Middlebury College – Middlebury, VT March 7-8, 2020 Rinker Playhouse – Kravis Center – West Palm Beach, FL March 11, 2020 Page Theatre – Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota – Winona, MN March 13, 2020 Sheldon Mainstage Theatre – Red Wing, MN March 14, 2020 Stephen B. Humphrey Theater – Saint John’s University – Collegeville, MN March 16-17, 2020 O’Shaughnessy Auditorium – Saint Catherine’s University – St. Paul, MN March 18-19, 2020 Historic Holmes Theatre – Detroit Lakes, MN March 21, 2020 Halbritter Center – Juniata College – Huntingdon, PA March 24, 2020 Schaefer Center Auditorium – Appalachian State University – Boone, NC March 26, 2020 NC State LIVE – North Carolina State University – Raleigh, NC March 28, 2020 Fife Theatre – Moss Arts Center – Virginia Tech – Blacksburg, VA March 30-31, 2020 John C. Evans Hall – Connecticut College – New London, CT April 2, 2020 Zeiterion Performing Arts Center – New Bedford, MA April 5-6, 2020 Performing Arts Center – University of Albany – Albany, NY April 7, 2020 Howard Auditorium – Louisiana Technical University – Ruston, LA

VOICE OF THE DRAGON 2: Shaolin Secret Stories (Apollo Theater, NYC) Written by Ruth Margraff with composer Fred Ho, directed by Terry O'Reilly, martial arts choreography by Jose Figueroa, vocals by Marina Celander 

one of  6 martial arts operas created by Ruth Margraff & Fred Ho 1997-2014 see https://www.innova.mu/composers/ruth-margraff

DEADLY SHE-WOLF ASSASSIN AT ARMAGEDDAN (A SWORD BALLET) May 16-June 2, 2013 Ellen Stewart LaMama Theater (NYC); June 24-25, 2006 Mandel Theater @ Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA; April 29-30, 2005 NYSCA Individual Artist grant for The Japan Society city wide exhibit “Cool Japan: Otaku Strikes!”, choreography by Spinnin Ronin’s Tsuyoshi Kaseda, dir. Sonoko Kawahara with martial artists (NYC)

See--> 2:49 min. excerpt of VOICE OF THE DRAGON 2: Shaolin Secret Stories with photos from live performance at the Apollo theater soundstage here: https://vimeo.com/32748801 including track: "Li Wen Mao, The Peking Opera Orphan." The narrator’s vocal is recitative in vowels that extend in a Peking opera style of English. She inhabits the subjectivity of all the characters of the story, much like the chorus in Japanese Noh plays.

THE NEW YORK TIMES Arts Section Opera Review
"Crouching Leopard, Somersaulting Dragon"
By JON PARELES
Published: January 10, 2004

Long before martial-arts acrobatics became a staple of action movies, they were part of Chinese opera, and the composer and baritone saxphonist Fred Ho has decided they can be at the center of an American opera as well. His ''Voice of the Dragon 2: Shaolin Secret Stories'' is an opera without songs. But it has plenty of jazzy music from Mr. Ho's sextet, the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, and a nearly nonstop display of leaping, punching, somersaulting, pole-twirling, sword-wielding combat, choreographed for a dozen martial artists by Jose Figueroa. Its world premiere was presented by the World Music Institute's Interpretations series on Thursday night at Soundstage at the Apollo Theater, the small upstairs space at 253 West 125th Street in Harlem, where it continues through tonight.

''Voice of the Dragon'' tells tales of the Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese martial arts, and Mr. Ho plans to make it a trilogy. The first part, ''Once Upon a Time in Chinese America . . . The Martial Arts Epic,'' was presented in 2001 and depicted a battle at the temple against a traitorous female warrior, Gar Man Jang.

''Secret Stories'' is the prequel: coming-of-age stories for Gar Man Jang (played by Soomi Kim) and the Shaolin heroes who will go on to fight her. It is told, like the first installment, in narration written by Mr. Ho and Ruth Margraff that was delivered with melodramatic relish by an elegantly costumed narrator (Marina Celander); it was directed by Terry O'Reilly. The narrator shifted between high-flown storytelling and slangy retold dialogue, with glints of humor, while the martial artists rocketed across the stage.

''Secret Stories'' is about loyalty and self-renewal. Like the X-Men, the Shaolin heroes have varied talents. One has a crouching, feral attack because he was raised by leopards. One specializes in blades, one in wooden sticks, one in theatrical flamboyance. Each comes to a monastery as an orphan or outcast, chafes at the discipline but eventually accepts the teachings of the masters. As heroes in training, Tom Kaseda, Philip Silvera, Sekou and Scott Parker all made quick transitions from feigned clumsiness to taut precision.

There's also a girl, Ng Mui (Mei-Chiao Chiu), who grins and pouts with rubber-faced glee as she grows increasingly skillful. Gar Man Jang turns from Ng Mui's mentor to her jealous and vicious opponent, and as ''Secret Stories'' ends, Gar Man Jang and the narrator merge, moving in tandem and vowing to defy even the moon and sun.

Mr. Ho's music provided vamps and themes for each character, and it worked more as soundtrack and atmosphere than as foreground music. He often used closely harmonized saxophones akin to Charles Mingus's arrangements, but when melodies emerged, they often hinted at Chinese modes, and Royal Hartigan deployed Chinese cymbals, gongs and woodblocks alongside jazz drums. It was burly, foreboding music, using shifting meters to keep the tunes off balance and provide subliminal tension.

As a jazzy martial-arts pageant, it orchestrated some impressive razzle-dazzle.

2:00 minutes CENTAUR BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO by Ruth Margraff 

directed by Ralph Pena, music by Nikos Brisco

stills from Fordham/Lincoln Center production October 4-12, 2012 

soundtrack: "Arrow Willow for Crazy Horse" warcry sung by Nikos Brisco

Joey Mendoza is set designer; Becky Bodurtha is costume designer; Chad McArver is lighting designer; David Van Tieghem is sound designer; and Tim Zay is fight choreographer.

The Fordham College Theater Program at Lincoln Center, which is chaired by two-time Obie Award-winning actor and director Matthew Maguire, opens its newest season, tackling extremism as theme, with the New York premiere of Ruth Margraff’s “Centaur Battle of San Jacinto” (an extended barroom brawl) at Pope Auditorium at Fordham College, 113 West 60th Street at Columbus Ave. NYC

Directed by another Obie Award-winning director Ralph Peña, "'Centaur Battle...' is an abstraction on the events and the historical figures surrounding the fateful Battle of San Jacinto (1836), in which General Sam Houston and the Texan army won nearly one million square miles of territory for the United States from Mexico by slaughtering 630 Mexicans in 18 minutes, ignoring repeated orders to ceasefire," according to the show's production notes.

“Centaur Battle...” dissects, explodes, examines, and questions the universal themes of masculinity, leadership, and the eternal human tendency towards extreme violence.

Its cast, playing multiple roles, include Anna Crivelli, Quinn Coughlin, Dan Kleinmann, Marshal Thurman, Tom Feeney, and Emily Stout.

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-Fordhams-CENTAUR-BATTLE-OF-SAN-JACINTO-Now-Thru-1012-20121011

full video archive available at Fordham University Libraries here: http://digital.library.fordham.edu/u?/VIDEO,333