Ruth Margraff has been called a leader in America's operatic avant garde, one of America’s most singular theater artists known for her “audaciously original" (Moscow Times) use of language. Best known in the US for her collaborations with the late composer Fred Ho with whom she wrote six martial arts operas for the Apollo, Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, LaMama and several national tours. Ruth’s “Night Wind from Afghanistan” for the play SEVEN is touring all over the world, introduced in 2010 by Hillary Clinton featuring Meryl Streep at the Broadway Hudson Theater (NYC). She performs regularly with her Café Antarsia Ensemble, receiving awards from Rockefeller, McKnight, Jerome, NEA, TCG, TMUNY, NYSCA, IAC, Fulbright foundations, published by Dramatists Play Service, American Theatre, Theater Forum, Performing Arts Journal, Playscripts, Inc., Backstage Books, Autonomedia, New Village Press, Innova Records, NoPassportPress.  Recent work includes her LOCKET ARIAS with Nautilus’ Rough Cut new opera series (Minneapolis), FLEUR DE LYS for the Union Stockyards Ballroom/Great Plains Theater (Omaha), THE ELEKTRA FUGUES 2014 Varna International Theater Festival/City Art Gallery a promenade through the American avant-garde with Peculiar Works Project  (Bulgaria); WILD RICE for choreographer Peggy Choy at UW/Native Nations Summit Fluno Center (Madison), ANNE UNDER PARIS SKIES Dec 11-20, 2014 for Jason Phelps' Feast of My Heart at Salvage Vanguard (Austin) and ALL OF THIS for a 2014 US/Russia playwrights' exchange at Boyarskiye Palaty (Russia) and touring in 2015 PREVIOUSLY BLUE (Dah Teatar, Serbia; 7Stages, Atlanta; Coe College, Iowa; Links Hall, Chicago).  She’s been a New Dramatist, a Chicago Dramatist and is Chair of Writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  www.RuthMargraff.com