[305] Actress/Playwright Heather Raffo Visiting Artist At MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 12, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

ACTRESS/PLAYWRIGHT HEATHER RAFFO VISITING ARTIST AT MTSU
Public Invited to Free & Open Reading Feb. 23 and Student Presentations on Feb. 26

(MURFREESBORO)—Heather Raffo, actress and playwright, will spend a week in residence at MTSU this month to present a staged reading of selections from her award-winning play, “9 Parts of Desire,” and to teach a Visiting Artist’s Seminar titled “Writing Identity (UH 3200).”
Raffo’s staged reading will take place 9:40-11:05 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, at MTSU’s Tucker Theatre. The reading is free and open to the public.
“9 Parts of Desire,” a one-woman show told through the lives of nine Iraqi women, is Raffo’s first work as a playwright, and through it, she has found a unique voice, bridging Iraqi and American culture, remarked Dr. Claudia Barnett, MTSU English professor.
The recipient of a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation and the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Fellowship, Raffo received a 2005 Lucille Lortel honor for Best Solo Show as well as several nominations for outstanding performance.
During Raffo’s campus visit, her students will present their work from the class at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, in the University Honors College’s amphitheater, with a reception honoring Raffo to follow.
During both the Feb. 23 lecture and Feb. 26 student presentations, copies of
of “9 Parts of Desire” and a commemorative broadside created by MTSU art major Kaitlyn Robertson will be for sale.
Both events are sponsored by the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Middle East Center, the Virginia Peck Trust Fund, the University Honors College, Women’s Studies and the Departments of Art, English, and Speech and Theatre.
For more information, please contact Barnett, coordinator of the Visiting Artist’s Seminar, via e-mail at cbarnett@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-2887.


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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request a black-and-white jpeg of Raff, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at lrollins@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-2919.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.