Williamston Brings Iconic Play by Okemos-raised Playwright

 

Attending Okemos High School in the 80s, award-winning playwright Heather Raffo enveloped herself in the arts. She was the lead in several plays, was a violinist in the orchestra and sang in the choir. Raffo remembers, “It was hugely exciting. I was born to be an artist but was always looking for an outlet. Okemos formed me as a bridge builder.”

Her acclaimed play “9 Parts of Desire” will be playing at Williamston Theatre Jan. 27 – Feb. 27.

“Growing up in Okemos was so important for me. Although my father was an Iraqi, I am white, Catholic, and blond and I felt that I was passing. It made it possible to build a bridge between communities. It’s the foundation for how I started my work [as an actress and playwright]. I’m like a translator.”

From OHS, Raffo received her undergraduate at University of Michigan. “My father didn’t want me to be a theater major, so I majored in English literature and took all the acting classes I could.”

After Michigan, she went on to University of San Diego for her Master of Fine Arts, and went to England to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

“When in England, I traveled through Europe and the Middle East, and ended up in Baghdad.”

Although Raffo’s father, George Raffo, left Iraq in 1976, her family had never been back.

It was her visit to Baghdad that transformed her life and her career. She visited all of the relatives she never knew and soaked up the Iraqi culture.

“It was a life altering experience,” says Raffo. “I found a proud family culture that was warm and welcoming. And I loved seeing pictures of my father when he was eight.”

She was also stunned by witnessing a bombed-out Baghdad, but whose people simply climbed over the rubble to go about their daily lives.  She found a city that was both modern and ancient.

“I brought back shoe boxes of pictures and my dad wept over then. He had been a civil engineer and worked for the State of Michigan. He passed away in 2020.”

After returning from Baghdad in 1993, she began to make a life for herself in New York but was constantly thinking about her experience in Iraq. Finally she began to write what was to become “9 Parts of Desire”, published in 1998.

She fashioned the play as a one-woman show depicting nine Iraqi women who existed in different time periods of Iraqi history, different religions and different cultures, telling their stories. Each character lands in her own place and time. It was completed during the US-Iraqi war.

Raffo says, “It was wonderful to write but I was shocked because every theater turned it down. There really wasn’t an understanding of Iraqi culture out there.  There was no “Cosby Show” for Arabs. We were very isolated. “

Ultimately, there was one brave producer who agreed to mount the play (with Raffo playing all nine characters) and it quickly became a huge hit, playing off Broadway, selling out the house for a total of nine months. Raffo says, “We found that audiences are willing to have deep and difficult conversations in the middle of a war, and many institutions are not so brave.”

Raffo says, “After the New York run we took it on tour and in 2009 we did a concert version at the Kennedy Center. Suddenly countries from around the world wanted to do it. So far “9 Parts” has been performed in Brazil, Turkey, India, Greece, Sweden, Israel, Malta, England, Canada and Mexico.”

The play received rave reviews and feature articles from all the major press outlets in the US. The New York Times called the play “Powerful! Impassioned! Vivid! Memorable!”  The New Yorker exclaimed “An example of how art can remake the world. A triumph. Thrilling.”

In addition, it was recently announced that “9 Parts” is being made into a movie, sponsored by Detroit Public Theater, Pennsylvania People Light Theater and DPTV public TV.

One would think that Raffo’s father would be extremely proud of his daughter traveling to Baghdad, finding her roots and delving into the history of Iraq and write a play. The playwright says, “Dad had very mixed feelings at first. He was confused. He could not understand why I was working on it.  He thought it would ruin my career. He never considered himself an Iraqi-American, he was an American. He was totally assimilated. He never looked back. And also, he was concerned with my safety.”

But after George Raffo saw the play several times and saw how it moved the audiences, sometimes to tears, he began to understand how powerful art can be.

When he passed away, Raffo came back to Okemos with her family for several months and added the experience with her father and other changes to modify “9 Parts” into a new edition.  The Williamston production will be the first performance since Covid and the first time with the new material.

Raffo is thrilled that it is being produced at Williamston.  “This is really really special. It’s being done in a theater so close to my house and near the church I went to as a child, St. Mary Catholic Church and it is staring one of my very closest friends, Sarab Kamoo. I’m very excited.”

IF YOU GO

Opening night is Feb 4. Showtimes: Thursday and Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets, williamstontheatre.org or (517) 655-SHOW (7469).

This article previsouly appeared in the Lansing State Journal