Heather Raffo News

Late last month, a small group of regional and not-for-profit theatres, all committed to finding ways to keep people connected to live theatre, came together by phone and email and Zoom to create the Play At Home project, a series of short plays commissioned specifically for this moment of unprecedented isolation to inspire joy and connection for all.

NOURA star Gamze Ceylan took time from the Guthrie's latest main stage production to answer 6 Questions & 6 Quick Hits.

Heather Raffo's critically acclaimed, 9 Parts of Desire, will open this March at Portland Center Stage at The Armory, starring Nora el Samahy. An intimate and complex examination of the extraordinary (and ordinary) lives of nine Iraqi women, this remarkable solo work offers a meditation on what it means to be a woman in a country overshadowed by war. Based on Raffo's interviews with real women during the reign and fall of Saddam Hussein, Raffo weaves nine utterly distinct voices into a tapestry of humanity, love, and endurance in the face of oppression.

Heather Raffo's NOURA, a variation on themes from Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE set within an immigrant Iraqi family, serves as the mainstage anchor for an ambitious, multi-month series of four shows plus a distinguished panel talk at the Guthrie Theater. Collectively, these comprise the theater's Celebration of Arab Artistry. It's been a vital, eye-opening, boundary-crossing initiative. Artistic Director Joseph Haj says, a?oeExpanding the idea of what the classical canon is and should look like is very much in the Guthrie's charge.a??

The Guthrie Theater presents the regional premiere of Noura (January 11 February 16, 2020) by Heather Raffo. A story of identity and belonging, Noura had its world premiere at Shakespeare Theatre Company in February 2018 and subsequently played at Playwrights Horizons.

The Old Globe today announced its latest cast and creative team as the illustrious actors in The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program expertly perform William Shakespeare's magical comedy Twelfth Night, directed by Jesse Perez, the program's Director of Professional Training and a noted actor (Off Broadway's Party People, the Globe's Romeo and Juliet, La Jolla Playhouse's Seize the King). The classical actors of tomorrow will bring to life a world filled with some of the Bard's most unforgettable characters and memorable moments. Twelfth Night will run November 2a?"10, 2019 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Saturday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets to Twelfth Night are now on sale and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE, or by visiting the Box Office.

NOURA, by Heather Raffo AT tHE oLD gLOBE is an emotionally complex play exploring what happens when you leave your country but not your culture or sense of identity.  How do you find the balance between who you are now and what you have left behind?

Hartford Stage will open its 2019/2020 season with Quixote Nuevo, an inspired, Tejano music-filled, contemporary reimagining of the Miguel de Cervantes classic Don Quixote, by award-winning playwright Octavio Solis. Performances run  through Sunday, October 13.

A riveting West Coast premiere loosely inspired by Ibsen's A Doll's House from acclaimed playwright (and Old Globe/USD Shiley M.F.A. Program graduate) Heather Raffo.

Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts have announced the winners of Columbia@Roundabout's 2019 New Play Reading Series. As part of the collaborative partnership between Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University, the reading series awards three playwrights from the current MFA program and recent alumni with a cash prize as well as a reading in Roundabout's Rehearsal Hall, followed by a post-reading reception. Five finalists have also received cash prizes in recognition of their exceptional work. No other collaborative partnership in the New York area brings together an esteemed Ivy League MFA program with a Tony Award-winning, not-for-profit theatre. The reading series is made possible by a grant from The Tow Foundation.   

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team of the riveting West Coast premiere of Noura by Heather Raffo (the award-winning 9 Parts of Desire, the opera Fallujah), a graduate of The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Loosely inspired by Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Noura received the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Original New Play and the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. Directed by Johanna McKeon (Off Broadway's I Have Loved Strangers and Tokio Confidential), Noura begins performances September 20, 2019 and runs through October 20 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run September 20a?"25. Opening night is Thursday, September 26 at 8:00 p.m. Single tickets on sale now, starting at $30.00, and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE [234-5623], or at the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

Hartford Stage will open its 2019/2020 season with Quixote Nuevo, an inspired, Tejano music-filled, contemporary reimagining of the Miguel de Cervantes classic Don Quixote, by award-winning playwright Octavio Solis. Performances run Thursday, September 19, through Sunday, October 13.

SWELL is a music-theatre work that weaves together ten original avant-garde/new music compositions written by ten richly inventive composers drawing from their personal histories as immigrants and children of immigrants. Their unique, surprising, and deeply human stories are told through voice, piano, cello, and violin in this music-based contribution to the global immigration narrative.

Now in its eleventh consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents Vibrant 2019 A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between 16 June-4 July 2019.

The 35th annual Helen Hayes Awards honored local theater on Monday, May 13, at The Anthem.

The Old Globe's 2019–2020 Season includes three world premieres, five West Coast premieres, and a Tony Award–winning production of an American masterwork.

Portland Center Stage at The Armory announced their 2019-2020 season, the first that new Artistic Director Marissa Wolf has planned for the company.

Continuing McCarter's tradition of producing timely, socially relevant work that engages with the central questions of our culture, McCarter has partnered with Princeton University's Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) on The Migration Plays: a new initiative focusing on the nature of migration, how it is represented culturally, and the ways in which it shapes the world around us.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) today announced the nine productions of its 2019 2020 subscription season: Tennessee Williams' classic family drama The Glass Menagerie; Shakespeare's rollicking comedy Twelfth Night; an adaptation of Emma based on the Jane Austen novel; and Kander and Ebb's musical Cabaret will grace the Guthrie's signature Wurtele Thrust Stage while the McGuire Proscenium Stage's lineup will include Robert Harling's female-driven comedy Steel Magnolias; the regional premiere of Noura, Heather Raffo's complex tale of identity; Anne Bogart's acclaimed production of Euripides' The Bacchae; Karen Zacar as' comedic telenovela Destiny of Desire; and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat.