Margo Rife studied dramatic writing at Chicago Dramatists and was part of their New Plays Student Showcase. Her monologues have received virtual and live staging at The Playground Experiment Faces of America Festival in NYC, the Burning Coal Theatre anthology Illuminated Dresses, MOJOAA Reclamation Project in Raleigh, NC and Paradox Theatre's Monologues and Cocktails. She also contributed to the Zero Tolerance Project at Theatre of Western Springs where she is a member of their Playwriting Group. Several of her short plays have been staged there. Margo’s short and full-length plays can be read on New Play Exchange and the Playwrights’ Center.

Margo is an editor and contributor for Basement Stories, a literary podcast. Her flash fiction has appeared in many online literary magazines like New World Writing. She is a reader for Reflex Fiction.

Margo graduated from UW Madison and DePaul University. She lives in the western suburbs of Chicago.


Once in a Whale was developed at Chicago Dramatists in their Play in Progress Class. My instructor was June Pyskacek the founding member of Victory Gardens Theater. A scene from the play was chosen to be in the Chicago Dramatists Student Showcase of Plays. Francis Limoncelli of Timeline Theatre was the director. Jeff Award actor Jason Kaye played Pinocchio.

Further development was through The New Plays Coop in Lincoln Park. Table reads with actors from Chicago Shakespeare Theater were available.

The play has been work shopped at LaGrange Writers Group. Key scenes were given a table read and critique by TWS Playwrights Group. Script Review provided by resident playwright Rob Koon of Chicago Dramatists.

The Wolf at the Library Door was chosen to be part of a new initiative at Theatre of Western Springs. The Collaboration Project 2018 paired up directors and playwrights after a "speed dating style" scenario. The end result was a staged reading by the actors from TWS. Critiques were based on Liz Lerman's System.
Rewrites after the project resulted in a production at TWS in the New Plays Festival.

As God is My Witness was chosen to be part of the Reclamation Project by MOJOAA Performing Arts. The monologue was read from the steps of the largest plantation in Mordecai Historic Park. It also was selected to be in The PGE Faces of America Festival at the Kaine Theatre in Brooklyn. A video is available on YouTube.

The Zero Tolerance Project at Theatre of Western Springs is in an exploratory phase. The outcome of this venture will hopefully be a staged production tackling immigration. Our recent group visit to Lincoln Methodist Church in Pilsen introduced us to a community struggling with deportations. The resulting 10-minute play is titled Another Brick in the Wall.

Finished my second full-length play called Last MEow at the Kitten Klub. It 's a ME TOO Play set in 1963 NYC.
Three of the female characters are based on the classic roles of women in Horror movies: First Girl to get killed, Middle Girl and the Final Girl.

Finally, I am currently drawn to small word count and enjoy writing flash fiction. Some of these micro fiction pieces end in play script ideas. Not Goodnight Shark, however. Sharks on stage never a good idea.

Grateful for every day that I can put words to a page and develop a character.