Press Room
Contact: Mary DeTurk
(603)862-3242, mary.deturk@unh.edu
UNH Celebrity Series presents Heather Raffo in Sounds of Desire
September, 2009
Durham NH –The University of New Hampshire’s Celebrity Series will present Heather Raffo in Sounds of Desire on Tuesday, September 22nd at the Paul Creative Arts Center’s Johnson Theatre at 7:00pm.
Heather Raffo, author and actress of the award winning one woman show 9 Parts of Desire, teams up with accomplished Iraqi maqam and jazz musician Amir ElSaffar, Syrian vocalist Gaida, percussionist Johnny Farraj and oud player Hadi Eldebek for a dramatic evening of spoken word and melodic solos. Using characters from Raffo’s acclaimed one-woman show like slam poetry, together they present a concert of urban and classical sounds that spring from both their Arab and American roots.
Described by The New Yorker as “an example of how art can remake the world”, 9 Parts of Desire details the lives of nine ordinary and extraordinary Iraqi women. The original play was inspired by Raffo’s trip to the Saddam Art Center in Baghdad in 1993 where she saw only billboard-size portraits of Saddam Hussein. However, in a back room she discovered a painting of a nude woman clinging to a barren tree with her head bowed and silhouetted against a sun. Through a series of interviews and deeply personal experiences researching the painting, she collected the stories of many of the Iraqi women that would make up her solo show 9 Parts of Desire.
This concert version developed by Amir and Heather, sheds the theatrical format of her one-woman show for a dialogue between actress and musician, male and female. It serves as a platform from which Amir and Heather could expand their already well known work with the addition of new characters, new music and new musicians. With the expertise of Gaida, Johnny and Hadi the work has taken on a full musical sound-scape enveloping many more influences and textures. With each musician fully steeped in not only the traditions of their heritage in the Middle East, but with the countries of their travels, studies and their present homes.
Tickets, priced at $30 general admission and $10 for youth, are available by calling the Memorial Union Building box office at 862-2290 Monday – Friday, 10am to 4pm or online at www.unhmub.com/ticket.
On Monday, September 21 Actress Heather Raffo will discuss “from page to stage” issues with Deborah Kinghorn of the UNH Department of Theater & Dance. The free program, In Conversation: Unfolding Women’s Stories , is at 1 p.m. in the Museum of Art, Paul Creative Arts Center, 30 Academic Way in Durham. For more information: (603)862-3712, www.unh.edu/moa, museum.of.art@unh.edu.