Past and present Work

Ridge Theater

Prior Work

Ridge Theater’s roots started with guerrilla performances on the streets of New York City. These developed into cutting-edge shows in avant-garde nightclubs and performance spaces. To date our productions have been seen in The American Repertory Theater, BAM, Carnegie Hall, La MaMa E.T.C., Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Lightning At Our Feet
“This Is My Letter To The World”

A multimedia song cycle inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson. Four contemporary women channel the poet as they pore over poems, write songs, and contemplate mortality, while receiving dispatches from a distant war. Together, these collaborators create a theatrical prose poem that reimagines Dickinson’s words as songs for our time.

Lightning At Our Feet Composed by Michael Gordon. Directed by Bob McGrath. Film by Bill Morrison. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Set by Jim Findlay. Dramaturgy by Daniel Zippi.

Commissioned by BAM for the Next Wave Festival

Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston

Reviews:
The New York Times

Henryk Górecki Symphony No. 3
“No, Mother, Do Not Weep”

Conductor Michael Christie’s closing concert of the season features the world premiere Ridge Theater staging of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Gripping dreamlike visual artistry and hallucinatory film work accompany Gorecki’s prolific prayer for light in the midst of darkness.

Henryk Górecki Symphony No. 3 Produced by Ridge Theater. Film by Bill Morrison. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Nathalie Paulin, Soprano. Directed by Bob McGrath.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

Reviews:
The New York Times

The Sinking Of The Titanic
“Men Fear Death, As Children Fear To Go In The Dark”

The Sinking Of The Titanic immerses audiences into a rich sonic and visual world that imagines the music of the ship’s orchestra after it submerges through a multimedia theatrical re-visioning of British composer Gavin Bryars’ 1969 score.

The Sinking Of The Titanic Music by Gavin Bryars. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison. Directed by Bob McGrath. Voice, Toby Twining. Conducted by Thaddeus Squire.

The Union League Of Philadelphia

This realization of The Sinking Of The Titanic was co-commissioned by Peregrine Arts and The Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University with the generous support of The Philadelphia Music Project, a program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, administered by the University Of The Arts. Additional funding was provided by The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation and The Argosy Foundation.

The Difficulty Of Crossing A Field
“Why Father, What Has Become Of Mr. Williamson?”

The Difficulty Of Crossing A Field is an opera based on an Ambrose Bierce tale about an inquest into the strange disappearance of an Alabama planter just before the Civil War.

The Difficulty Of Crossing A Field Composed by David Lang; Libretto by Mac Wellman. Directed by Bob McGrath. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison. Set by Jim Findlay. Featuring Jay O. Sanders. Produced by Jedediah Wheeler, Peak Performances

Alexander Kasser Theater

Harry Partchs’ ‘Oedipus’
“For Death Is All The Fashion Now, Till Even Death Be Dead.”

The world premiere of a new production of Sophocles’ tragedy, using a score written by, and instruments created by the late avant-garde composer Harry Partch.

Harry Partchs’ ‘Oedipus’ Directed by Bob McGrath. Musical direction by Dean Drummond. Performed by The New Band. Film by Bill Morrison. Projections Laurie Olinder. Set by Jim Findlay. Costumes by Ruth Pongstaphone.

Alexander Kasser Theater

Reviews:
The New Yorker

Gotham
“Why Am I Living Here?”

A symphony with projections, Gotham captures the aura of a city through music and imagery. In this case, the city is our city where we live—New York.

Gotham Composed by Michael Gordon. Film by Bill Morrison. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Directed by Bob McGrath.

Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, New York City; Performed by American Composers Orchestra

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Performed by London Sinfonietta

Jennie Richee
“This Will All End Sadly, Badly.”

Obie Awards for Direction, and Collaborative Design.

Bessie Award for Visual Design.

A multi-media theater work inspired by the life and art of Henry Darger. The piece delves into the wildly fantastic world created by Darger in, The Story Of The Vivian Girls, In What Is Known As The Realms Of The Unreal.

Jennie Richee Written by Mac Wellman. Directed by Bob McGrath. Featuring Daniel Zippi as Darger. Music by Julia Wolfe. Songs by Cynthia Hopkins. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison. Set by Fred Tietz. Musical Direction by Matt Tierney. Costumes by Pilar Limosner.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, (World premiere)

Tanz Theater, Darmstadt Germany, (International premiere)

St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn

The Kitchen, New York City

Jennie Richee—or Eating Jalooka Fruit Before It’s Ripe “Technically impressive, with its intricate film and slide projections … staged with a fine feeling for theatrical space by Director Bob McGrath … he has conjured up a dreamlike world, in which the actors seem to float.”
—Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune

Reviews:
The New York Times

Jennie Richee “Exquisite, precisionist direction by Bob McGrath [Darger is] played to perfection by Daniel Zippi … acid, aching and both entirely mad and wholly lucid … alternately cataclysmic and radiant with a candy-colored light, this otherworldly theatrical excursion is the inside of an artist’s mind exposed to the sunlight. Odd, oddly beautiful, and disturbing.”
—Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
The Death Of Klinghoffer
“I Am An Old Woman. I Thought You Were Dead.”

An opera based on the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Few works have ignited more controversy than John Adams’ audacious, multilayered opera.

The Death Of Klinghoffer Composed by John Adams. Libretto by Alice Goodman. Performed by The Brooklyn Philharmonic. Conducted by Robert Spano. Directed by Bob McGrath. Films by Bill Morrison. Projections by Laurie Olinder.

BAM’s Next Wave Festival

Reviews:
The New York Times

Hypatia
“She Is No Longer Behind A Screen.”

A Play by Mac Wellman.

Directed by Bob McGrath. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Set Design by Molly Hughes. Lighting by Jane Cox.

SoHo Rep, New York City

Charlie In The House Of Rue
“Why Is Everybody Laughing?”

A silent play with music. Initially the story gives the impression of a strange but amusing dream with the Little Tramp at its center, then the dream becomes a horrific nightmare.

Charlie In The House Of Rue Written by Robert Coover. Directed by Bob McGrath. Thomas Derrah as Charlie. Adapted by Bob McGrath, Ridge Theater, and Robert Brustein. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison.

Presented by American Repertory Theater (ART), Cambridge, MA.

Chaos
“A Butterfly’s Wing In Beijing Can Magnify Till It Sets A Kansas Cyclone Spiraling.”

A modern opera.

Composed by Michael Gordon. Libretto by Mathew McGuire. Directed by Bob McGrath. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison. Dramaturgy by Daniel Zippi.

Co-Presented by The Creation Company and Bang on a Can.

The Kitchen, New York City

Reviews:
The New York Times

Alice In Bed
“The Innocent Boy Came And I Tried To Corrupt Him.”

A Play by Susan Sontag, Alice in Bed is a free dramatic fantasy which merges the life of Alice James, the brilliant sister of William and Henry James, with the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a play about the anguish and grief and rage of women; and about the triumphs and limitations of the imagination.

Alice In Bed Directed by Bob McGrath, Projections by Laurie Olinder, Film by Bill Morrison, Stephanie Roth as Alice, Thomas Derrah as Henry James.

North American Premiere.

Presented by American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA.