What does “home” mean and what will we do to protect it?
Noura challenges our notions of modern marriage and motherhood through a portrait of Iraqi immigrants living in New York. As Noura and her husband Tareq prepare to celebrate their first Christmas as American citizens, she looks forward to welcoming a special guest—Maryam, a young Iraqi refugee. But the girl’s arrival upends the family, forcing them to confront where they are, where they’ve been and who they have become.
In this world-premiere production, award-winning playwright and performer Heather Raffo (Nine Parts of Desire) draws on personal stories of Arab American women responding to A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama of one mother’s quest to balance her duty with her identity.
STC presents Noura as part of the second Women’s Voices Theater Festival, taking place in January and February of 2018. First launched in 2015, the Festival highlights the scope of new plays written by female playwrights and the range of professional theatre being produced in and around the nation’s capital.
Experience more of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival with a Festival Pass from TodayTix and receive exclusive discounts on all shows in the festival. Visit the Festival Pass website to find out more.
Photo of Heather Raffo by Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi.
Prosecast – NOURA Green Room
NOURA Trailer
NOURA Production Photos
NOURA Asides
Prosecast – NOURA
NOURA Open Rehearsal Photos
DC THEATRE SCENE: Bringing Iraqi women’s stories to the stage
THEATREWASHINGTON: Take Ten with Heather Raffo
DC METRO THEATER ARTS: Interview with Heather Raffo
Heather Raffo’s NOURA through the Eyes of Teen Critics
THE GUARDIAN: Heather Raffo challenging stereotypes
ON TAP: Heather Raffo on NOURA
BWW: STC to stage Heather Raffo’s NOURA
Heather Raffo: A response to Ibsen’s A DOLL’S HOUSE
Heather Raffo: NOURA and Washington, DC audiences
Heather Raffo is an award-winning playwright and actress whose work has been seen Off-Broadway, off West End, in regional theatre and in film. She is the author and solo performer of the play Nine Parts of Desire (Lucille Lortel Award, Susan Smith Blackburn commendation, Drama League, OCC, Helen Hayes nominations), which the New Yorker called “an example of how art can remake the world.” The play ran Off-Broadway for nine months and has played across the United States and internationally for over a decade, with current productions in Greece, Hungary and India. Heather’s newest play, Noura, just won Williamstown Theatre Festival’s prestigious Weissberger Award.
Recently, her libretto for the opera Fallujah was heard as part of Kennedy Center’s International Theater Festival. It then received its world premiere at Long Beach Opera in March of 2016 and opened at New York City Opera later that year. A film was made of the opera, as well as a documentary titled Fallujah: Art, Healing and PTSD.
Raffo is the recipient of multiple grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to use theatre as a means of bridge-building between her Eastern and Western cultures. She continues to grow her storytelling workshop, Places of Pilgrimage, taking it to universities and community centers both in America and the Middle East. Clips of participants’ work from her New York workshop have been shared online through the organizations Bridges of Understanding and Refugees Deeply, as a means to connect the stories of young Middle Eastern women with their peers globally. Raffo continues her focus on cross-cultural work by speaking at universities across America and internationally. Her work has taken her from classrooms in Tampa to the U.S. Islamic World Forum in Qatar, and from the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati to the Rumi Festival in Oslo. She is a proud member of Epic Theatre Ensemble’s Artistic Advisory Council and prizes her decade long collaboration with Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. WEB: Facebook: Heather Raffo—Actor/Playwright.
ACTING BIOGRAPHY NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Manhattan Ensemble Theater: Nine Parts of Desire (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show; Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations); Epic Theatre Ensemble: Palace of the End (Drama League Award nomination); Playwrights Horizons: The Profane; New York Theatre Workshop: Food and Fadwa; Public Theater: In Darfur; Houseman Theatre: Over the River and Through the Woods; The Acting Company: Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, The Rivals. REGIONAL: Geffen Playhouse / Arena Stage (Helen Hayes nomination) / MASS MoCA: Nine Parts of Desire; Kennedy Center Arabesque Festival: Nine Parts of Desire concert; Old Globe: As You Like It,* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
INTERNATIONAL: London: Harold Pinter Theatre: Oslo; Almeida Theatre: Oil; National Theatre: Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State; Royal Court Theatre: Fireworks; Arcola Theatre: I Call My Brothers, The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes; Crucible (Sheffield): Love Your Soldiers; Tricycle Theatre / U.S. Tour: Crossing Jerusalem, The Great Game–Afghanistan. TELEVISION: Deep State, The Night Of, The Missing, 24: Live Another Day, Top Boy, Mad Dogs, Generation Kill, The Path To 9/11 and EastEnders. FILM: Sandcastle, Hyena Road, Zero Dark Thirty, Charlie Wilson’s War, In This World, Ali G Indahouse, The Sum of All Fears.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
NEW YORK: East 13th Street Theatre: Glamping. REGIONAL: Purple Rose Theatre Company: A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley), Boeing Boeing (Robert), A Stone Carver (Raff), Escanaba in Da’ Moonlight, Best of Friends, Apartment 3A, Corktown, Bleeding Red, Consider the Oyster, Growing Pretty, White Buffalo; Jewish Ensemble Theatre: American Buffalo (Teach), Disgraced (Amir); Vertigo Productions: Nuts; Flint City Theatre: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Much Ado About Nothing. TRAINING: University of Michigan: BFA in Theater.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Women’s Project Theater: Veil'd (Dima); The Play Company: I Call My Brothers (Valeria/Tyra). INTERNATIONAL: American University in Cairo (Egypt): The School for Wives, Three Sisters, The Taming of the Shrew. TRAINING: The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London): MA in Acting; The American University in Cairo (Egypt): BA in Theatre.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
REGIONAL: Pallas Theatre Collective: Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (dir. Clare Shaffer); Noura (New York workshop, dir. Ron Russell); Noura (D.C. workshop, dir. Derek Goldman). OTHER: NU Sass Productions: Reading of Blue Skies Over Pluto; Voice recording: Theater J: Falling Out of Time. TRAINING: Edmund Burke School, Camp Arena Stage.
Before immigrating to the U.S., Ni served with the coalition forces in Iraq as an interpreter. Building upon this experience, she worked as a dialogue facilitator and trainer at the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding (CERRU) in New York. During this time, she was also a participant of Places of Pilgrims, an intensive writing project with theatrical elements. Run by Heather Raffo and Ron Russell, the project examined and highlighted themes not often explored in the experiences of women from the MENA regions. In addition to exploring identity and belonging, Ni’s writing sheds light on the experience of being queer in a conservative society and deals with the taboos of rape, apostasy and female independence from family. Currently, she’s working on refining the monologues and scenes that resulted from Places of Pilgrims.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Public Theater: Stew and Heidi Rodewald’s The Total Bent, Winter Miller's In Darfur, Finale of Suzan-Lori Park's 365 Plays/365 Days; Manhattan Ensemble Theater: Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire. REGIONAL: Wilma Theater: Rapture Blister Burn, An Octoroon; Shakespeare on the Sound: Artistic Director (2009–2012), Director: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet; Division 13 Productions: Artistic Director (1998–2004), Director/Adapter: 15 of D13’s 17 projects, including BLOOD LINE: The Oedipus/Antigone Story, two plays by Sophocles, Macbett by Ionesco, and several Samuel Beckett shorts including Cascando and Play. TEACHING: Currently Associate Arts Professor of Theater at NYU Abu Dhabi; Director of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts (2014–2016); Bard College, Williams College, Juilliard, Cornell, Stanford University’s PhD Program. TRAINING: The Juilliard School: MFA; Hampshire College: BA in Theater Directing and Design.
STC: The Merchant of Venice. NEW YORK: Broadway: The Glass Menagerie, Picnic; Off-Broadway: New York Theater Workshop: Othello starring Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo; Public Theater: The Total Bent; Manhattan Theater Club: Fulfillment Center. Upcoming: Signature Theater: At Home at the Zoo. INTERNATIONAL: Toneelgroep Amsterdam: The Glass Menagerie; Royal Shakespeare Company: Poor Beck. OPERA: English National Opera: Julius Caesar, Partenope (Olivier and Helpmann Award winner for Best Opera, Green Room Award for Best Design); Festival d’Aix en Provence: Il Turco in Italia; Deutsche Oper Berlin: Aida; Saarländisches Staatsoper: Fidelio; New York City Opera: Roberto Devereux, Così fan Tutte, A Quiet Place; Glimmerglass Opera: L’étoile, The Consul, Orphée; Spoleto Festival: L’isle de Merlin, Kepler; Opera Philadelphia: Don Carlos; Long Beach Opera: Powder Her Face; Boston Lyric Opera: Turn of the Screw; Virginia Opera: Orphée aux Enfers, Ariadne auf Naxos; Opera Theater of St. Louis: Dialogues of the Carmelites; Montreal, Dijon, Den Ny, Torino, San Francisco, Sydney, Dallas, Portland, Pittsburgh Operas. AWARDS: Lieberman’s design for Aida was shown at the American Exhibit of the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space; Princess Grace Award Winner. TEACHING: Head of Stage Design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
NEW YORK: Ars Nova / National and International Tours: Underground Railroad Game, Small Mouth Sounds (dir. Rachel Chavkin); Women’s Project Theater: Theresa Rebeck’s What We’re Up Against; Red Bull Theater: The Government Inspector; Roundabout Theatre Company; Atlantic Theater Company; Foundry Theatre; Cherry Lane Theatre; Flea Theatre; Pearl Theatre Company; Clubbed Thumb; Here Arts Centre; Barrow Group; La MaMa. REGIONAL: Williamstown Theatre Festival; American Repertory Theater; Sacramento Theatre Company; New York Stage and Film; Alley Theatre; Goodspeed Opera; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Wilma Theater; Hudson Valley Shakespeare; Two River Theatre; Trinity Repertory; Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Westport County Playhouse. OPERA: Boston Lyric Opera; Philadelphia Opera; Curtis School of Music; Juilliard School of Vocal Arts. AWARDS: Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Costume Design (Underground Railroad Game), Balsamo Grant for Immigrant Artists, Irish Design Award, Irish Times Theatre nomination, Onstage Critics Award. OTHER: Guest artist at Juilliard, NYU Grad Design, Duke University, Trinity College Dublin. TEACHING: Brown University; University of Rochester. TRAINING: NYU Tisch: MFA. WEB: TillyGrimes.com; Instagram: @missTgrimes.
NEW YORK: The Kitchen: Electric Lucifer; Bushwick Starr: Frontieres Sans Frontieres; BAC: Heart of Darkness; Page73: Ultimate Beauty Bible; New Saloon/Invisible Dog: Minor Character; The Flea: The Place We Built, Wolf in the River; Lesser America: The Bachelors, Wyoming. REGIONAL: Chautauqua Theatre Company: Romeo and Juliet, In The Next Room; CalShakes: As You Like It; Playmakers Rep: My Fair Lady; Wilma Theater: Constellations; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It/Three Musketeers; Sharon Playhouse: Music Man, Minor Character; Triad Stage: The Price, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Member of the Wedding; InterAct: Grounded; Theatre Exile: Invisible Hand; Yale Repertory: American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose; Marin Theatre Company: The Way West; Hangar Theatre: 4000 Miles. INTERNATIONAL: BAM/South America: CONTRA-TIEMPO DanceMotion Tour; Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow): Romeo & Juliet (Associate); OperaDagen (Rotterdam/Amsterdam): LoveFail (Associate). OTHER: LA Dance Project: Sarabande; Nichole Canuso Dance Company: The Garden of Forking Paths; CONTRA-TIEMPO: Agua Furiosa. TRAINING: Yale School of Drama: MFA. WEB: MashaLD.com.
NEW YORK: Broadway: The Country House (dir. Daniel Sullivan); The Assembled Parties (dir. Lynne Meadow); Harvey (dir. Scott Ellis); A Life in the Theatre; Collected Stories; Accent on Youth; Come Back, Little Sheba; The Lieutenant of Inishmore; Shining City (dir. Robert Falls). Off-Broadway: Manhattan Theatre Club: The Portuguese Kid (dir. John Patrick Shanley), The American Pilot, Moonlight and Magnolias; Roundabout Theatre Company: If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, The Understudy; Public Theater: The Total Bent (dir. Joanna Settle), Fucking A (dir. Michael Greif), Hamlet, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot; Manhattan Ensemble Theater: Nine Parts of Desire (dir. Joanna Settle). REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (dir. Chay Yew); Seattle Repertory: Constellations, Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem, The Comparables, A Great Wilderness; Center Theatre Group: The Night Watcher, Romance. TELEVISION: HBO, Nickelodeon, Discovery, History Channel, Bravo, A&E, The Learning Channel. AWARDS: Lucille Lortel Award, Viv, Bay Area Critics Circle. OTHER: Fisher-Price Toys.
STC: Richard III; Camelot; Noura; The Lover and The Collection; Macbeth; The School for Lies; The Secret Garden; Romeo and Juliet; The Taming of the Shrew; Othello; Kiss Me, Kate; Salomé; The Metromaniacs; The Tempest; Man of La Mancha; As You Like It; The Winter’s Tale; Strange Interlude; Old Times. NEW YORK: Broadway/Off-Broadway/Tours: Encores! Off-Center, Side Show, After Midnight, A Night With Janis Joplin, Follies, Cotton Club Parade, Lombardi, Ragtime, Impressionism, The Seafarer, Radio Golf, Coram Boy, The Glorious Ones, Flight, Translations, All Our Children, Fetch Clay Make Man, The Brother Sister Plays, Tryst, Jitney, The Woman in Black, Dirty Dancing, The Cripple of Inishmaan (also national tour), Encores! Summer Stars: Damn Yankees, Urinetown (also national tour). REGIONAL: Alliance Theatre, Alley Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Drury Lane, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, Royal George Theatre, Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre, Wilma Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Theatre Royal Bath, Hampstead Theatre, London, Druid Theatre Company (Galway), Rough Magic (Dublin); Dublin/West End: The Shawshank Redemption.
STC: Timon of Athens; The Amen Corner; Peter Pan and Wendy; Everybody; Hamlet (2018 and 2019 Free For All); The Oresteia; Vanity Fair (STC/A.C.T.); Richard III; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet (2016 and 2018 Free For All); Camelot; Noura; Twelfth Night; The Lover and The Collection; Othello (2016 and 2017 Free For All); The School for Lies; Macbeth; King Charles III; The Secret Garden; The Tempest (2014 and 2016 Free For All); The Taming of the Shrew; The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Kiss Me, Kate; Salomé; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015 Free For All); Tartuffe; Man of La Mancha; The Metromaniacs (STC/Old Globe); As You Like It; The Winter’s Tale (2014 Free For All); The Merry Wives of Windsor; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Much Ado About Nothing; The Merchant of Venice. NEW YORK: NYC McCorkle Casting (2008–2012), Casting Assistant and Casting Associate: Broadway: End of the Rainbow, High | Off-Broadway: Tribes, Our Town, The Acting Company, Freud’s Last Session, A Perfect Future, The Irish Curse, An Error of the Moon, et al. | Lincoln Center Institute: Hamlet, Fly, Sheila’s Day. REGIONAL: Alley Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, The Broad Stage, CATF, Crossroads Theatre Company, George Street Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, TheaterWorks Hartford. FILM: Premium Rush, Junction. OTHER: BBC Radio: The Piano Lesson.
STC: 50 productions over ten seasons, including 19 works from the 36-play Shakespeare canon and world premieres by David Ives, Robert Pinsky, Jeffrey Hatcher, Yaël Farber, and Heather Raffo. NEW YORK: Broadway: Roundabout: Time and the Conways (dir. Rebecca Taichman). REGIONAL: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Arsonists (German translation/Text Consultant) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival: The Taming of the Shrew (Play on!) | STC/McCarter Theatre Center: The Winter’s Tale | Baltimore Center Stage: Caroline, or Change; Cyrano; Around the World in 80 Days | Yale Repertory Theatre: Lulu (dir. Mark Lamos) | Williamstown Theatre Festival: The Front Page, The Physicists, The Corn Is Green | New York Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth (dir. Moisés Kaufman). EDUCATION: DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama.
Developmental Dramaturg
REGIONAL: Arena Stage/Georgetown Partnership: Incubation for Fallujah (Losing the Boy) libretto by Heather Raffo, 33 Variations by Moises Kaufman, Jenufa by T. Wertenbaker; Joe Goode Performance Group: The Leavers; Aurora Theatre: Season Dramaturg; The Marsh-San Francisco: Closed Wards (Solo); Omaha Magic Theatre: Sea of Forms by Megan Terry. OPERA: New York City Opera and City Opera Vancouver: Fallujah (Heather Raffo, composer Tobin Stokes). OTHER: As director/ dramaturg, upcoming world premiere of Amanuensis by L. Feldman; D.C. area premieres of Trojan Barbie by Australian Playwright Christine Evans and The Grace of Mary Traverse by British Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker; Festivals: Mutual Inspirations Festival (Czech Republic-U.S.), new multidisciplinary works on Franz Kafka and Vaclav Havel; Kennedy Center, Page to Stage Festival (Landas, Brother of War, Scared of Sarah and others); Director/curator of national prize for feminist playwriting, the Jane Chambers Award, whose recent recipients include Emma Stanton, Lisa Loomer, Claire Chafee and Jen Silverman. TEACHING: Georgetown University: Della Rosa Distinguished Professor of Theater, Founding Artistic Director of Davis Center. TRAINING: U.C. Berkeley: Ph.D.
STC: Much Ado About Nothing; Red Velvet; Our Town; Peter Pan and Wendy; Everybody; The Oresteia; Vanity Fair; Richard III; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; Camelot; Noura; Hamlet; Twelfth Night; The Lover and The Collection; Othello (2017 Free For All); The School for Lies; Macbeth; King Charles III | ACA: As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Pericles, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Coriolanus. INTERNATIONAL: Vancouver, Canada: Rumble Theatre: Indian Arm | Vancouver Playhouse: The Music Man | UBC Theatre: The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, The House of Atreus, Arcadia | York University: Our Country’s Good. FILM: Dialect, voice, text: Warcraft, Horns, Firewall, Monster Trucks, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Suckerpunch, The Watchman, Hidden, Apollo 18, The Uninvited, Hot Rod, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Elektra. TELEVISION: Dialect: The Good Doctor, Tin Star, Bates Motel, The 100, Alcatraz, Rogue, Red Widow, The Secret Circle, Heavenly, Human Target, The Good Wife, Inseparable, Just Cause. PERSONAL: Directing: The Bay at Nice, Agamemnon | Teaching: STC’s Academy for Classical Acting: Voice, Speech and Text Instructor; Canada’s National Voice Intensive: Voice and Text Instructor | Training: York University: MFA in Acting, Voice Teacher’s Diploma; University of British Columbia: BFA in Acting.
STC: Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Assistant Director), The School for Lies, Macbeth, The Secret Garden, The Tempest (2016 Free For All, Directorial Assistant), STC Fellows Project: God Is Dead and April's Getting Married (Director). NEW YORK: Broadway: SDCF Observer, A Time to Kill (dir. Ethan McSweeny). REGIONAL: Director: Birmingham Children’s Theatre: The Jungle Book; Assistant Director: Goodman Theatre: Smokefall (dir. Anne Kauffman); Court Theatre: A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (dir. David Auburn); Northlight Theatre: Mothers and Sons (dir. Steve Scott); SDCF Observer, SHREW! (dir. Art Manke). OTHER: Pointless Theatre: Imogen; The Side Project: Lysistrata; AstonRep Theatre Company: Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Dead Writers Theatre Collective: Game of Love and Chance (Remount), House of Mirth; Open Door Repertory Company: Game of Love and Chance, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks; Proud Kate Theatre Project: The Ruby Sunrise, November, Dumb Waiter; G&S Opera Company: HMS Pinafore. TRAINING: Northwestern University. WEB: CharlieMarieMcGrath.com.
NEW YORK: Broadway: In the Heights. REGIONAL: The Old Globe: 40 productions including Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Twelfth Night, Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood!, The Imaginary Invalid with Fiasco Theater, Red Velvet, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Measure for Measure, Love’s Labor’s Lost, tokyo fish story, The Metromaniacs, In Your Arms, Buyer & Cellar, Bright Star, Othello, Water by the Spoonful, The Winter’s Tale, A Doll’s House, Pygmalion, A Room with a View, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Robin and the 7 Hoods; La Jolla Playhouse: Indecent, Side Show, Ruined, The Third Story, Memphis; Center Theatre Group: Post Office. TRAINING: Vanderbilt University.
STC: The Amen Corner, Peter Pan and Wendy, Everybody, The Oresteia, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (2018 Free For All), Camelot, Noura, Twelfth Night. NEW YORK: Broadway: Sister Act (PA) | Off-Broadway: Public Theater: Paper Dolls (ASM), Titus Andronicus (PA). REGIONAL: Delaware Resident Ensemble Players: You Can’t Take It With You, Tartuffe, The Elephant Man, The Bells, Clybourne Park, Waiting for Godot, Things We Do for Love, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wait Until Dark, Heartbreak House, The Patsy, The 39 Steps, Juno and the Paycock, The Millionairess, Macbeth | Trinity Repertory Company: Intimate Apparel, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, House and Garden | Baltimore Center Stage: The Container (SM), The Wiz, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (ASM) | Everyman Theatre: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Heroes. PERSONAL: Training: University of Maryland, Baltimore County: BA in Theatre.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
Seven days a week: Noon-6 p.m.
(Box office window open until curtain time)