Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.
Bob McGrath is an American director, producer, and Professor. In 1982 McGrath co-found Pink which later became Ridge Theater in New York City directing multimedia collaborative productions such as: POUND IN A CAGE (1982), THE ABORTION TAPES (1983), PINK FRANKENSTEIN (1983), PROMETHEUS 84 (1984), PINKO or THE ARTIST IN SPITE OF HIMSELF (1985), WHITE POWER (1986), I KILLED JOHN BELUSHI (1986), ALL MY THREE SONS (1987), CZOLGOSZ (1988), JACK BENNY! (1989), THE MANSON FAMILY (1990), JUNGLE MOVIE (1992), PHOTO OP (1992), EVERYDAY NEWT BURMAN (1993), RIDGE IN FRAGMENTS (1994), MATHEW IN SCHOOL OF LIFE, (1995), ALICE IN BED (1996), THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1997), CHAOS (1998), CHARLIE IN THE HOUSE OF RUE (1999), CARBON COPY BUILDING (2000), HYPATIA (2000), DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER (2003), JENNIE RICHEE (2003/2001), GOTHAM (2004), OEDIPUS (2005),
THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD (2006), DECASIA (2007), HENRYK GORECKI SYMPHONY NO. 3 (2007), THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC (2007), THE SLUG BEARERS OF KAYROL ISLAND (2008), LIGHTNING AT OUR FEET (2008), SHELTER (2005), PERSEPHONE (2010), TERRA NOVA: SINFONIA ANTARCTICA (2010), THE GLASS MENAGERIE (2012), THE RITE OF SPRING (2013), SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER (2013), WOYZECK (2012), THE DEMO (2014)
THE WOMEN OF BERLIN (2015), ANATOMY THEATER (2017), LUCID POSSESSION (2018/2013), FANTINI FUTURO (2020/2019), LULU (2020), INHERENT RESOLVE (2021), and COMPANSHOP (2022). These productions were done in classic Off-Broadway venues like La MaMa, E.T.C., Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Vineyard Theatre, The Kitchen, American Repertory Theater as well as symphony halls and universities throughout this country and abroad. Obie Awards for Best Production, THE CARBON COPY BUILDING (2000); and for Direction, JENNIE RICHEE (2001); and an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement (1994) as well as nominations in Direction for both the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award for THE SLUG BEARERS OF KAYROL ISLAND; . He has received arts residencies at UC Davis (2015) and Yellow Springs Institute and a Fellowship at The Foundation for Performance Art. He teaches and has taught devised theater, directing, script analysis, multimedia theater/aesthetics, and performance media at universities including New York University, Virginia Tech, Harvard, Sarah Lawrence, Columbia, The Juilliard School, Carnegie Mellon, UC Davis.
In High School a seminal moment was finding a John Guare play, COP-OUT, from his drama teacher’s library, Guare’s play introduced him to the non-linear direct address fragmented form. His very first directing production was COP-OUT as a student at L.A. City College. McGrath used all the multimedia elements available in 1974 (slide projections, over-head projectors, sound and found music surrounding the audience and unorthodox lighting effects ). In this production McGrath discovered his form. As a student at Carnegie Mellon University he was open to every influence, particularly the visiting Romanian director Radu Penchulesque and Professor Leon Katz. Penchulesque who introduced him to Epic Theatre and his former student, director Andrei Serban. Katz exposed him to the writings of Antonin Artaud, he also brought in groups such as Squat, The Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Mabou Mines & The Wooster Group. McGrath’s studies solidified for him an approach to plays we now consider “immersive” and ground breaking.
John Adams, Douglas Aibel, Deborah Artman, Oren Bloedow, Robert Brustein, Gavin Bryars, Joseph Budenholzer, Lawrence Carra, Jennifer Charles, Robert Coover, Conrad Cummings, Sheila Dabney, Thomas Derrah, Mark Dion, John Dossett, Toni Dove, Alvin Epstein, Hugh Esten, Jim Farmer, Susan Feldman, Larry Fessendon, Jim Findlay, Jeff Lindsay, Philip Glass, Mimi Goese, Michael Gordon, Michael Harris, Matthew Harrison, Alan Johnson, Michael Kaniecki, Ben Katchor, Leon Katz, Neil LaBute, David Lang, Warren Leight, David Life, Matthew McGuire, Joseph V. Melillo, John Moran, Kate Moran, Kristen Morgan, Beth Morrison, Bill Morrison, Mark Mulcahy, Ben Neill, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Laurie Olinder, Rick Parks, Charlie Peters, Rachel J. Peters, Radu Penchulesque, Barry Plumlee, The Rave-Ups, Sanford Robbins, Stephanie Roth, Mark Russell, Dan Safer, Jay O. Sanders, Stephanie Sanditz, Scott Saunders, Anne Shea, James Siena, Michael Skloff, Susan Sontag, Matthew Harrison,Robot Spano, DJ Spooky, Ellen Stewart, Julia Stiles, Jeff Sugg, Howard Thies, Natalie Thomas, Matthew Tierney, Fred Tietz, Jewel Walker, Mac Wellman, John Wells, Richard Wesley, Jedediah Wheeler, Julia Wolf, Alex Wright, Daniel Zippi, Alexander Kasser Theater, American Repertory Theater, Attucks Theater (VA), BRIC (Brooklyn, NY), Brooklyn Academy of Music, California Renaissance Faire, Carnegie Hall-Zankel Hall, Company Theatre (L.A.), Club 57, 8BC, Edinburgh Festival, Historic Asolo Theater (Sarasota, FL), The Kitchen, L. A. City College, La MaMa E.T.C., L.A. Opera, Life Café, Lincoln Center, The Mitchell Performing Arts Center (Houston, TX), New York University, One Dream NY, Pacific Repertory Co., Philadelphia Orchestra Verizon Hall, Soho Rep, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Stanford Live-Bing Concert Hall-Stanford University, The Sharp Theater at Ramapo College (Mahwah, NJ), Theater Express, UC Davis-Main Theater, The Union League (Philadelphia, PA), University of the Streets, The Vineyard Theatre, Virginia Tech, THE ABORTION TAPES, ALICE IN BED, ALL MY THREE SONS, ANATOMY THEATER, BERTRANO or HATS DON’T LIE, BIG BANG AT BIKINI BEACH,THE BOX OF PARADISE, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, CARBON COPY BUILDING, CHAOS, CHARLIE IN THE HOUSE OF RUE, COMPANIONSHIP, COWBOY MOUTH, COP-OUT, CZOLGOSZ, DECASIA, DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER, THE DEMO, THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD, EVERYDAY NEWT BURMAN, FANTINI FUTURO, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, GOTHAM, HENRYK GORECKI SYMPHONY NO. 3, THE HISTORY OF DETERENCE, HYPATIA, I KILLED JOHN BELUSHI, INHERENT RESOLVE, JACK BENNY, JENNIE RICHEE, JUNGLE MOVIE, OEDIPUS, LIGHTNING AT OUR FEET, LUCID POSSESSION, LULU, THE MANSON FAMILY, MATHEW IN THE SCHOOL OF LIFE, NOH-COMEDIA, PERSEPHONE, PHOTO OP, PINK FRANKENSTEIN, PINKO or THE ARTIST IN SPITE OF HIMSELF, POUND IN A CAGE, PROMETHEUS 84, RIDGE IN FRAGMENTS, THE RITE OF SPRING, SHELTER, THE SIMPLE PEASANT OF EL POMPADOR, THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC, THE SLUG BEARERS OF KAYROL ISLAND, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, TERRA NOVA: SINFONIA ANTARCTICA, THE TOOTH OF CRIME, WHITE POWER, THE WOMEN OF BERLIN, WOYZECK, THE YALTA CONFERENCE