- Heather Raffo
Infobox actor
name = Heather Raffo
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imagesize = 200px
birthname = Heather Raffo
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location = flagicon|USAMichigan ,United States
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awards = 2005Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show in 9 Parts of DesireHeather Raffo (born in
Michigan ,United States ) is anLucille Lortel Award -winning [ [http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/2004/2004_2005ll.htm The Envelope - "LA Times"] ]Iraqi American playwright and actress, best known for her leading role in the one-woman play "9 Parts of Desire ".Biography
Early life
Her father is Iraqi, a civil engineer and her mother is American, [ [http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/2463 http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/2463] ] who are both of
Christian faith [ [http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=798982003 http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=798982003] ] and Heather is aRoman Catholic [ [http://www.levantinecenter.org/pages/heatherraffo.html http://www.levantinecenter.org/pages/heatherraffo.html] ] who grew up inMichigan . Heather holds a BA from theUniversity of Michigan , an MFA from theUniversity of San Diego and she also studied at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art inLondon . Having been born in the United States, she and her family have visited Iraq, in 1974 when she was a little girl and again in 1993.cite web | url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060120/ai_n16025405 | title =Heather "9 Parts" Raffo | accessdate =2007-08-27 | publisher =findarticles.com]Raffo credits
Ntozake Shange as her most significant artistic influence and has noted her an inspiration to writing her own work after reading "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf ".Career
She is most famous for her notable role in the one-woman play "
9 Parts of Desire ", which has been noted "Profoundly moving! Rated A" by "Entertainment Weekly ". The play focuses on the lifes of women in her fathers homeland, and was originally thought of in 1993 after a visit to her Iraqi relatives and it was also inspired by Raffo's trip to the Saddam Art Centre inBaghdad where she saw only billboard size portraits ofSaddam Hussein . Then in a back room, she saw a painting of a nude woman clinging to a barren tree, she took a photo of the painting, came back to America and has been digesting this painting into a play, a decade later she completed the play, which features monologues by nine highly distinct Iraqi women, all played by herself.When asked about "9 Parts of Desire", she quotes
"I'd love to hear an American say, 'That Bedouin woman is just like my aunt.' But at the same time, I want American audiences to walk out a little confused, not able to say, 'Oh, I get it,' but rather to understand how difficult it is to grasp the psyche of people who have lived under Saddam for 30 years with American support, then had a war with Iran, resulting in 1.5 million deaths, followed by 13 years of sanctions and two wars under American firepower."
The response to the play drew much media attention to Heather, as she has given numerous public appearances and interviews on American television shows. She has also spoken to the National Press Club, as well as featuring in
O Magazine as part of her "Aha Moment". With such major success inLondon ,Los Angeles ,New York ,Seattle ,Chicago ,Philadelphia andWashington DC , 9 Parts of Desire is currently being translated for international productions inFrance ,Brazil andTurkey . On July 18th, 2008, she will recreate some of her monologues from "9 Parts of Desire" at the New York Open Center [http://www.opencenter.org] and share what she has learned from what John Lahr in "The New Yorker" called "an example of how art can remake the world."
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