Heather Raffo

Biography

Heather Raffo is an Iraqi-American actor and playwright originally from Michigan. She is best known for writing and performing 9 Parts of Desire, a one woman show. Raffo has also written one other play, entitled Noura, and is currently developing a libretto for an opera commissioned by the Annenberg Foundation. As an actor, she has performed in numerous plays including The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Over the River and Through the Woods, Macbeth, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Raffo received her bachelor of arts in English from the University of Michigan and her masters of fine arts in acting performance from the University of San Diego. She also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. She currently has an ongoing residency in the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University. She has received many awards in her career, including the Lucille Lortel Award, and the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn and Marian Seldes- Garson Kanin playwriting awards, as well as Helen Hayes, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations, for outstanding performance. 9 Parts of Desire was first performed in 2003 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh before moving to London and then later to an Off-Broadway run at the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre.

Career Highlight

Winning a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show.

Note: Lucille Lortel awards “recognize excellence in Off-Broadway Theatre”

9 Parts of Desire

  • Genre: Drama, Solo Performance
  • Breakdown:
    • One woman show – although some productions have used multiple actors. Nothing else specified but all of the characters are Iraqi or have Iraqi heritage.
  • Synopsis:
    • Set in the present day, 9 Parts of Desire brings to life nine distinct Iraqi women with very different stories that convey the complex and harrowing realities of modern-day Iraqi women. Their monologues quickly become a series of overlapping conversations leading to a breakdown in communication as the chaos of Iraq intensifies. Each character tells us their story to the fullest extent possible and is left waiting to see if we listened.
  • Development/Production History:
    • 9 Parts of Desire premiered in August 2003 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. It then moved to the Bush Theater in London’s Off-West End where it was praised highly by critics. In the next year, it was developed and performed as a reading at The Public Theatre as a part of their New Work Now Festival. It then premiered Off Broadway at the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre where it ran for 9 sold out months. In 2009, Raffo created a concert version of the play for the Kennedy Center called Sounds of Desire. Since then, she has been touring this show to universities and arts institutions around the globe.
  • Photos from production:
9 Parts of Desire, 2005, Manhattan Ensemble Theatre
9 Parts of Desire, 2005 Manhattan Ensemble Theatre

Noura

  • Genre: Drama
  • Breakdown:
    • 1F mid to late 40s. 2M mid to late 40s. 1F mid 20s. 1M 11-14 years old. All Iraqi.
  • Synopsis:
    • Eight years ago, Noura and her family fled their home in Iraq. Today, she plans the perfect Christmas dinner to celebrate their new life in New York. But when the arrival of a visitor stirs up long-buried memories, she and her husband are forced to confront the cost of their choices, and retrace the past they left behind. This play is a deep analysis of the intricate connection between motherhood and marriage and how fragile a family can become as the result of emigration.
  • Development/Production History:
    • Noura was developed over five years from inception to its February 2018 world premiere at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC and its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons later that year.
  • Photos from production:
Noura, 2018, Playwrights Horizons
Noura, 2018, Playwrights Horizons
  • Plays
    • 9 Parts of Desire – 2003
    • Noura – 2018

Reflection on Contribution to Anti-Racist Theatre

Heather Raffo has contributed to Anti-Racist theatre by establishing a conversation about the Arab-American community. Both of her plays, 9 Parts of Desire and Noura, provide an important perspective of Iraqi and Iraqi-American life. Raffo uses her plays to include American audiences in conversations and ideas about Arab-American culture. Raffo is keen on fostering a direct conversation about Arab-American culture. Her plays serve as a beginning to these conversations, and open doors leading to a larger pathway for dialogue. Raffo provides audiences with a compelling view of Iraqi and Iraqi-Americans. Raffo establishes a connection and empathy that can truly only be created during live performance. In turn, this can lead to the anti-racist theatre conversations needed today.

Compiled by James Cullinane, FTT, 2022.