Heather Raffo is a renowned playwright and actress whose illustrious career has spanned numerous prestigious stages, from the Kennedy Center to the Aspen Ideas Institute, and from London's House of Lords to classrooms across the nation. Her work has been showcased in various forms, including off-Broadway, off-West End, regional theater, and film.
Raffo is perhaps best known for her groundbreaking play, 9 PARTS OF DESIRE, which premiered in London and received widespread critical acclaim. The play's success helped establish a new genre of Middle-Eastern American theater and was the first commercial hit by an Arab American playwright on a national and international scale. The play ran for nine sold-out months off-Broadway, earning a Lucille Lortel award, a Susan Smith Blackburn commendation, and several nominations from the Drama League, OCC, and Helen Hayes Awards.
Since 2005, 9 PARTS OF DESIRE has been produced in nearly every major regional theater in America, with ongoing international productions in over a dozen countries. Raffo's most recent performing credits include plays such as :The Profane (Playwrights Horizons),Food and Fadwa (New York Theater Workshop),In Darfur (The Public Theater),Palace of the End (Drama League Nomination/Epic Theater Ensemble),Macbeth (The Acting Co.),Over the River and Through the Woods (Houseman Theater),and the feature film, Vino Veritas, alongside Carrie Preston, Bernard White, and Brian Hutchison.
Although Raffo began her career as an actor, she has expanded her creative horizons, venturing into new genres. She was chosen by the Annenberg's Explore foundation to author the libretto for Fallujah, the first ever opera about the Iraq war. The opera was developed as part of the Kennedy Center's International Theater Festival and received its world premiere at Long Beach Opera in March 2016, before opening at New York City Opera later that year. A film was also made of both the opera and a documentary titled Fallujah: Art, Healing and PTSD.
Raffo's recent focus has been on her newest play, NOURA, which won the prestigious Weissberger Award at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and is on the Kilroy's List. NOURA premiered at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C. in 2018 before moving to Abu Dhabi in the spring of that year. Its New York premiere will take place at Playwrights Horizons in their 2018/19 season, with Raffo performing in the title role.
