ST. LOUIS ACTORS’ STUDIO 2008-2009 SEASON:
POWER AND POLITICS

Nov. 7, 2008 - Nov. 23, 2008
9 Parts of Desire by Heather Raffo
Directed by Artistic Director Milton Zoth



From November 7 – 23, St. Louis Actors’ Studio presents a St. Louis premiere—Iraqi-American playwright Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire. First performed in August 2003, this play shines a spotlight on a cross-section of Iraqi women in “an unusually timely meditation on the ancient, the modern and the feminine in a country overshadowed by war.” Artistic Director Milt Zoth will direct this critically acclaimed show that The New Yorker calls “an example of how art can remake the world.”

CAST - 9 Parts of Desire

	Mary Schnitzler Mary was most recently seen in An American Daughter, an Orange Girls production. Past credits include Women’s Minyan at The New Jewish Theater, the Orange Girls' Medea and Echo Theatre's The Sugar Syndrome. In addition, she has performed with such companies as Spotlight Theater, (mostly) harmless theater, Shattermask Theater, The New Theater, The St. Louis Black Repertory Theater, and St. Louis Shakespeare Company.
	Brooke Edwards Brooke Edwards is co-founder and co-artistic director of Orange Girls Theatre Company. She was last seen in the St. Louis Actors’ Studio production of The Late Henry Moss.  With the Orange Girls, she has appeared in The Road to Mecca, Playhouse Creatures, Medea, and receieved the Kevin Kline Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her role as Etta in Going to See the Elephant.  Brooke has also appeared locally with Hot House, City Players, The Midnight Company, St. Louis Shakespeare, and Muddy Waters Theatre.  She has also worked as an actor in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. She has appeared on the television shows Pacific Blue and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Her last film role was that of Fiora Abruzzo in The Game of Their Lives.
	Sara Renschen Sara is happy to return to the Actors’ Studio for its second season. Last season, Sara played Randi Stein in Greetings!, costume designed and helped create the original production, Snapshots. She is a graduate of the theatre program at The University of Iowa where she was able to work on other original productions through their Playwright’s Workshop. Some favorite roles include Cordelia in King Lear, Ophelia in Hamlet, Yelena in Uncle Vanya and Emma in Pterodactyls. She is thankful to be able to offer a different perspective and keep people thinking but mostly to have freedom and peace in her life.
	Heather Raffo (Playwright) Heather is the recipient of a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation and the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Fellowship for 9 Parts of Desire. Most recently she has received a 2005 Lucille Lortel award for Best Solo show as well as an Outer Critics Circle Nomination and a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Performance.  Heather first performed 9 Parts of Desire in August 2003 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.  It later moved to the Bush Theatre in London's Off-West End, where critics hailed it as one of the five best plays in London in late 2003.  9 Parts of Desire was then developed and performed as a reading at The Public Theatre as part of their New Work Now festival in Spring 2004.  Its New York premiere took place in the fall of 2004 at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, where the show ran for nine sold-out months.  In 2005 the play began touring the U.S. at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Following were new productions at Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, The Wilma Theatre and Arena Stage in D.C. as well as international productions. Heather's other recent acting credits include: Sarah Woodruff in the world premiere of The French Lieutenant's Woman, Fulton Opera House. Off-Broadway: Over The River and Through the Woods, the Off Broadway/National Tour of Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Page) and The Rivals all with The Acting Company. Regionally: Othello (dir. Jack O'Brien), Romeo and Juliet (dir. Daniel Sullivan), As You Like It (dir. Stephen Wadsworth), Macbeth (dir. Nicholas Martin), and Comedy of Errors (dir. John Rando) all with The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Heather received her BA from the University of Michigan, her MFA from the University of San Diego and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Originally from Michigan, Heather divides her time between New York and Los Angeles. Her father is from Iraq and her mother is American.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Nov. 13, 2008: 9 Parts of Desire review

The Riverfront Times – Nov. 11, 2008: "Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire applies a modern-day twist to Scheherazade"

KDHX – Nov. 2008: 9 Parts of Desire Review

GALLERY - 9 Parts of Desire
Photography by John Lamb